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The animals were hard at work building yet another windmill.
如今，動物們又為建造另一座風車而辛勤勞作。
When that one was finished, so it was said, the dynamos would be installed.
據說，等這一座建成了，就要安裝上發電機。
But the luxuries of which Snowball had once taught the animals to dream,
但是，當年談論風車時，斯諾鮑引導動物們所想像的那種享受不盡的舒適，
the stalls with electric light and hot and cold water, and the three-day week, were no longer talked about.
那種帶電燈和冷熱水的窩棚，那種每周三天工作制，如今不再談論了。
Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism.
拿破侖早就斥責說，這些想法是與動物主義的精神背道而馳的。
The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.
他說，最純粹的幸福在于工作勤奮和生活儉樸。
Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.
不知道為什么，反正看上去，莊園似乎已經變得富裕了，但動物們自己一點沒有變富，當然豬和狗要排除在外。
Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs.
也許，其中的部分原因是由于豬和狗都多吧。
It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion.
處在他們這一等級的動物，都是用他們自己的方式從事勞動。
There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm.
正像斯奎拉樂于解釋的那樣，在莊園的監督和組織工作中，有很多沒完沒了的事。
Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand.
在這類事情中，有大量工作是其它動物由于無知而無法理解的。
For example, Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labors every day upon mysterious things called "files," "reports," "minutes," and "memoranda".
例如，斯奎拉告訴他們說，豬每天要耗費大量的精力，用來處理所謂“文件”、“報告”、“會議記錄”和“備忘錄”等等神秘的事宜。
These were large sheets of paper which had to be closely covered with writing, and as soon as they were so covered, they were burnt in the furnace.
這類文件數量很大，還必須仔細填寫，而且一旦填寫完畢，又得把它們在爐子里燒掉。
This was of the highest importance for the welfare of the farm, Squealer said.
斯奎拉說，這是為了莊園的幸福所做的最重要的工作。
But still, neither pigs nor dogs produced any food by their own labor;
但是至今為止，無論是豬還是狗，都還沒有親自生產過一粒糧食，
and there were very many of them, and their appetites were always good.
而他們仍然為數眾多，他們的食欲還總是十分旺盛。
As for the others, their life, so far as they knew, was as it had always been.
至于其它動物，迄今就他們所知，他們的生活還是一如既往。
They were generally hungry, they slept on straw, they drank from the pool, they labored in the fields.
他們普遍都在挨餓，睡的是草墊，喝的是池塘里的水，干的是田間里的活。
In winter they were troubled by the cold, and in summer by the flies.
冬天被寒冷所困，夏天又換成了蒼蠅。
Sometimes the older ones among them racked their dim memories and tried to determine whether in the early days of the Rebellion,
有時，他們中間的年長者絞盡腦汁，竭盡全力從那些淡漠的印象中搜索著回憶的線索，他們試圖以此來推定起義后的早期，
when Jones's expulsion was still recent, things had been better or worse than now.
剛趕走瓊斯那會，情況是比現在好呢還是糟。
They could not remember.
但他們都記不得了。
There was nothing with which they could compare their present lives:
沒有一件事情可以用來和現在的生活做比較，除了斯奎拉的一系列數字以外，
they had nothing to go upon except Squealer's lists of figures, which invariably demonstrated that everything was getting better and better.
他們沒有任何憑據用來比較，而斯奎拉的數字總是千篇一律地表明，所有的事正變得越來越好。
The animals found the problem insoluble.
動物們發現這個問題解釋不清。
In any case, they had little time for speculating on such things now.
不管怎么說，他們現在很少有時間去思索這類事情。
Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been,
唯有老本杰明與眾不同，他自稱對自己那漫長的一生中的每個細節都記憶猶新，還說他認識到事物過去沒有，
nor ever could be much better or much worse--hunger, hardship, and disappointment being,
將來也不會有什么更好或更糟之分。
so he said, the unalterable law of life.
因此他說，饑餓、艱難、失望的現實，是生活不可改變的規律。
