評論
打印
Halting for a moment outside the door of the Director's room, Bernard drew a deep breath and squared his shoulders,
二伯納在主任辦公室門口站了一會兒，吸了一口氣，挺起了胸脯，
bracing himself to meet the dislike and disapproval which he was certain of finding within.
準備面對抵觸和反對——他知道進了屋是一定會遇見的。
He knocked and entered.
他敲了敲門，進去了。
"A permit for you to initial, Director," he said as airily as possible, and laid the paper on the writing-table.
“請你簽個字批準，主任。”他盡可能堆出笑容說，把證件放到寫字臺上。
The Director glanced at him sourly.
主任不高興地望了他一眼。
But the stamp of the World Controller's Office was at the head of the paper and the signature of Mustapha Mond, bold and black, across the bottom.Everything was perfectly in order. The director had no choice.
但是證件頂上是世界總統官邸的大印，底下是穆斯塔法·蒙德的簽名，字體粗黑，橫貫全頁，手續完備，清清楚楚。主任沒有別的選擇。
He pencilled his initials–two small pale letters abject at the feet of Mustapha Mond–and was about to return the paper without a word of comment or genial Ford-speed,
他用鉛筆簽上了他的姓名的第一個字母——簽在穆斯塔法·蒙德下面，兩個寒磣的灰溜溜的小字母。
when his eye was caught by something written in the body of the permit.
他正打算不說話，也不說“福帝保佑”就把證件還給他，卻看見了證件正文里的幾句話。
"For the New Mexican Reservation?" he said, and his tone, the face he lifted to Bernard, expressed a kind of agitated astonishment.
“到新墨西哥的保留地去？”他說，說話的口氣和對伯納抬起的面孔都表現出帶著激動的驚訝。
Surprised by his surprise, Bernard nodded. There was a silence.
他的驚訝使伯納吃了一驚。伯納點了點頭。沉默了片刻。
The Director leaned back in his chair, frowning.
主任皺起眉頭，身子往后一靠。
"How long ago was it?" he said, speaking more to himself than to Bernard.
“那是多久以前的事了？”他與其說是在對伯納說，毋寧說是對自己說。
"Twenty years, I suppose. Nearer twenty-five. I must have been your age …" He sighed and shook his head.
“二十年了吧，我看。差不多二十五年了。我那時準是在你的年齡……”他嘆了口氣，搖了搖頭。
Bernard felt extremely uncomfortable.
伯納覺得非常別扭。
A man so conventional, so scrupulously correct as the Director–and to commit so gross a solecism!
像主任那樣遵循傳統，那樣規行矩步的人——竟然會這樣嚴重地失態！
lt made him want to hide his face, to run out of the room.
他不禁想捂住自己的臉，跑出屋去。
Not that he himself saw anything intrinsically objectionable in people talking about the remote past;
倒不是親眼看見別人談起遼遠的過去有什么本質上令人厭惡的東西—
that was one of those hypnop.dic prejudices he had (so he imagined) completely got rid of.
—那是睡眠教育的偏見，那是他自以為已經完全擺脫了的。
What made him feel shy was the knowledge that the Director disapproved–disapproved and yet had been betrayed into doing the forbidden thing.
叫他感到不好意思的是他知道主任不贊成這一套——既然不贊成，為什么又失于檢點，去干禁止的事呢？
Under what inward compulsion?
是受到了什么內在壓力了呢？
Through his discomfort Bernard eagerly listened.
伯納盡管別扭，卻迫切地聽著。
"I had the same idea as you," the Director was saying.
“那時我跟你的想法一樣，”主任說，
"Wanted to have a look at the savages. Got a permit for New Mexico and went there for my summer holiday.
“想去看看野蠻人。我弄到了去新墨西哥的批準書，打算到那兒去過暑假，
With the girl I was having at the moment. She was a Beta-Minus, and I think"
跟我那時的女朋友一起。那是一個比塔減，我覺得，”
(he shut his eyes), "I think she had yellow hair. Anyhow she was pneumatic, particularly pneumatic; I remember that.
（他閉上了眼睛）“我覺得她的頭發是黃色的，總之很有靈氣，特別有靈氣，這我記得。
Well, we went there, and we looked at the savages, and we rode about on horses and all that.
喏，我們到了那兒，看見了野蠻人，騎了馬到處跑，做了些諸如此類的事。
And then–it was almost the last day of my leave–then … well, she got lost.
然后，幾乎就在我假期的最后一天，你瞧，她失蹤了。
