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Vashti watched his face in the blue plate.
瓦西蒂觀察著他在藍盤中的臉。
"But I can see you!" she exclaimed. "What more do you want?"
“可是現在我看得見你啊！”她嘆息地說，“你還想再要求什么呢？”
"I want to see you not through the Machine," said Kuno. "I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine."
“我想要不通過這個大機器看看您。”基諾說，“我想要不通過這個討厭的大機器跟您說說話。”
"Oh, hush!" said his mother, vaguely shocked. "You mustn't say anything against the Machine."
“噓！”他的母親不知不覺一驚地說，“你一定不要說什么反對大機器的話。”
"Why not?" "One mustn't." "You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other.
“為什么不可以呢？”“誰都不能說這種話。”“您這樣說，好像大機器是某個神創造的一樣。”對方大聲說道。
"I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men.
“我相信在您郁郁不樂的時候，您準會向它祈禱。是人創造的機器啊，千萬不要忘記這一點。是偉大的人，但畢竟還是人呀。
The Machine is much, but it is not everything.
大機器是重要的，不過它并不是一切。
I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you.
我在這個圓盤里是看到點什么像您的東西，可我并不是看見了您。
I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come.
我通過這個電話機聽到點什么像您的聲音，不過我并不是聽到您說話。這就是我為什么要您來的緣故了。
Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind."
您來我這兒吧。來看看我，這樣，我們就可以面對面地相見，談談我頭腦里的希望。”
She replied that she could scarcely spare the time for a visit.
她回答說，她簡直沒有余暇來探望一次。
"The air-ship barely takes two days to fly between me and you." "I dislike air-ships." "Why?"
“您來我這里，乘飛艇只需兩天就到了。”“我不喜歡坐飛艇。”“為什么？”
"I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship."
“我不喜歡看那怪嚇人的棕色大地，還有那大海，還有天黑時的星星。坐在飛艇里，我們什么思想意念都得不到。”
"I do not get them anywhere else." "What kind of ideas can the air give you?" He paused for an instant.
“在任何別的地方我也得不到啊。”“天空能給你哪樣的思想意念呢？”他停頓了一下。
"Do you not know four big stars that form an oblong, and three stars close together in the middle of the oblong, and hanging from these stars, three other stars?"
“難道您不知道有四顆大星構成一個長方形，眠在這個長方形當中，三顆星緊緊挨在—起，還有另外三順星懸在這些星的下面？”
"No, I do not. I dislike the stars. But did they give you an idea? How interesting; tell me."
“不，我不知道。我不喜歡星星。不過，星星給過你什么思想意念嗎？告訴我，它是不是挺有趣的。”
"I had an idea that they were like a man." "I do not understand."
“我有個這樣的想法，它們像是一個人。”“我不明白。”
"The four big stars are the man's shoulders and his knees.
“那四顆大星是人的兩肩和雙膝，
The three stars in the middle are like the belts that men wore once, and the three stars hanging are like a sword." "A sword?"
當中的那三顆星像人們從前系過的腰帶，懸在下面的那三顆星像一把利劍。”“一把利劍？”
"Men carried swords about with them, to kill animals and other men."
“人們過去總是隨身帶著利劍，以便殺死動物和別的人的。”
"It does not strike me as a very good idea, but it is certainly original. When did it come to you first?"
“這并不是能打動我的一個很好的思想意念，不過它倒是別開生面的。你最初是什么時候想到這個的？”
"In the air-ship—" He broke off, and she fancied that he looked sad.
“在飛艇里——”他突然停住了，她看出他似乎滿面愁容，
She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression.
可她也把握不定，因為機器傳達不出表情的細致入微之處。
It only gave a general idea of people – an idea that was good enough for all practical purposes, Vashti thought.
它只能傳達人們的一般意念——一種對所有實際目的說來已是足夠好的意念，瓦西蒂尋思著。
The imponderable bloom, declared by a discredited philosophy to be the actual essence of intercourse, was rightly ignored by the Machine, just as the imponderable bloom of the grape was ignored by the manufacturers of artificial fruit.
正像葡萄上那層難以衡量的白霜被人造水果生產者所忽略一樣，被一種沒人相信的哲學認為是思想交流的真正實質的那層難以衡量的白霜，當然也被那大機器所忽略掉了。
Something "good enough" had long since been accepted by our race.
長期以來，我們這個種族一面認為某種事物只要“足夠好”就行了。
"The truth is," he continued, "that I want to see these stars again. They are curious stars.
“事實是，”他繼續說，“我想再看看這些星。它們且些奇妙的星。
I want to see them not from the air-ship, but from the surface of the earth, as our ancestors did, thousands of years ago. I want to visit the surface of the earth."
我不想從飛艇里去看它們，我想要像多少萬年以前我們的遠祖那樣，從地球的表面上去看看它們。我想要觀光地球的表面。”
