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Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image,
人類，一切生物的花朵，一切可以目見的生物中的最崇高者，人類曾經以他們的形象創造了神，
and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven.
而且曾把他們自己的力量反映到那些星座上，俊美的裸體人類正瀕于死亡，窒息在他們自己織成的衣服里。
Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward.
人類一個世紀又一個世紀地艱辛勞動著，而這里就是他們的報酬。
Truly the garment had seemed heavenly at first, shot with colours of culture, sewn with the threads of self-denial.
確實，在最初時那看上去盡善盡美、放射著文明異彩的衣服，乃是以自我否定的紗線織成的。
And heavenly it had been so long as man could shed it at will and live by the essence that is his soul,
而且只要它是一件衣服而不是什么別的，只要人類能夠任意脫掉它，
and the essence, equally divine, that is his body.
靠著那本質即他的心靈，并靠著那同等重要的本質即他的肉體而活著，
The sin against the body – it was for that they wept in chief;
那衣服就是盡美盡善的。后來罪惡克服了肉體——他們主要是為了這而哭泣，
the centuries of wrong against the muscles and the nerves, and those five portals by which we can alone apprehend –
多少世紀錯誤地反對肌肉和神經，反對我們藉以能夠獨自理解的五官，
glozing it over with talk of evolution, until the body was white pap, the home of ideas as colourless,
而用進化的說法給它涂上一層釉光，直到身體成為白色的糊狀，家的觀念黯然無色，
last sloshy stirrings of a spirit that had grasped the stars.
一個曾經掌握過諸星的人最后像泥漿那樣蠕動。
“Where are you?” she sobbed.
“你在那里？”她嗚咽地問。
His voice in the darkness said, “Here.”
他的聲音在黑暗里說道：“在這里。”
Is there any hope, Kuno?”
“有沒有什么希望呢，基諾？”
“None for us.”
“對我們說來是沒有的。”
“Where are you?”
“你在哪里呢？”
She crawled over the bodies of the dead. His blood spurted over her hands.
她從死者的尸體上朝著他爬去。他的血噴滿她的雙手。
“Quicker,” he gasped, “I am dying – but we touch, we talk, not through the Machine.”
“快一點，”他喘息著說，“我就要死了，不過，我們接觸、我們談話不是通過那大機器了。”
He kissed her.
他親吻了她。
“We have come back to our own. We die, but we have recaptured life, as it was in Wessex, when Alfrid overthrew the Danes.
“我們已經恢復到我們的常態了。我們死，但是我們已經重新獲得了生命，正像過去在威賽克斯，阿爾弗里德趕走丹麥人的時候那樣。
We know what they know outside, they who dwelt in the cloud that is the colour of a pearl.”
我們知道了他們在外邊所知道的一切，他們就是住在珍珠色的云端里的人。”
“But Kuno, is it true ? Are there still men on the surface of the earth ?
“基諾，但這是不是真的呢？在地球表面上仍然還有人？
Is this – tunnel, this poisoned darkness – really not the end?”
是不是這——這隧道，這種有毒的黑暗，真的還不是終局？”
He replied: “I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them.
他回答說： “我曾看到了他們，同他們說過話，我熱愛他們。
They are hiding in the midst and the ferns until our civilization stops. Today they are the Homeless – tomorrow —”
他們隱藏在霧色里和蕨類植物里，直到我們的文明停止。今天他們是無家可歸的人——明天——”
“Oh, tomorrow – some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow.”
“哦，明天——有什么大傻瓜會又開動大機器，明天。”
“Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.”
“永遠不會的，”基諾說，“永遠不會的。人類已經領受了它的教訓。”
As he spoke, the whole city was broken like a honeycomb.
在他說話的時候，全城像一個蜜蜂窩那樣垮了。
An air-ship had sailed in through the vomitory into a ruined wharf.
一架飛艇從入口處飛進，飛到已成廢墟的碼頭。
It crashed downwards, exploding as it went, rending gallery after gallery with its wings of steel.
它向下墜毀時爆炸了，它的鋼翼摧毀一條接一條的地下通道。
For a moment they saw the nations of the dead, and, before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky.
有一會兒，他們看見了那些死者的國家，在他們還沒有加入到死者行列中去之前，他們曾看見一片片纖塵不染的青天。
