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The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms.
公共集會的那種笨辦法早就不用了，不論是瓦西蒂還是她的聽眾都不離開他們的房間。
Seated in her armchair she spoke, while they in their armchairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well.
她坐在她的扶手椅里演講，同時聽眾也坐在他們的扶手椅里聽她講，聽得相當清楚，也看得見她，并且也相當清楚。
She opened with a humorous account of music in the pre Mongolian epoch, and went on to describe the great outburst of song that followed the Chinese conquest.
她以幽默地敘述蒙古人統治以前的音樂開場，接著詳細說明繼中國人的遠征之后歌曲的驟然盛行，
Remote and primval as were the methods of I-San-So and the Brisbane school, she yet felt she said that study of them might repay the musicians of today: they had freshness; they had, above all, ideas.
雖然義山蘇和布里斯貝恩派的方法是遠古的、早期的，她還是感到（她說）研究它們可能使今天的音樂家有所收獲，它們具有新鮮的氣息；尤其是它們具有一些思想意念。
Her lecture, which lasted ten minutes, was well received, and at its conclusion she and many of her audience listened to a lecture on the sea; there were ideas to be got from the sea; the speaker had donned a respirator and visited it lately.
她這篇持續十分鐘的演講，是頗受歡迎的，在演講結束時，她和她的許多聽眾又聽了一篇關于海的演講，從海可以得到一些思想意念；這位演講人最近曾戴著呼吸保護器去觀光過大海。
Then she fed, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and summoned her bed.
隨后，她吃飯，同許多朋友談話，洗了個澡，又聊聊天，便叫來了她的床。
The bed was not to her liking.
那張床并不稱她的心意。
It was too large, and she had a feeling for a small bed.
它太大了，她有心要個小床。
Complaint was useless, for beds were of the same dimension all over the world, and to have had an alternative size would have involved vast alterations in the Machine.
申訴是沒有用的，因為床在全世界上都是同樣的尺碼。要造另一種尺碼的床，那就會涉及到大機器內部一些很大的變動。
Vashti isolated herself-it was necessary, for neither day nor night existed under the ground-and reviewed all that had happened since she had summoned the bed last.
瓦西蒂隔絕了自己——這是必要的，因為在地下既不存在著白晝，也不存在著黑夜——從最后叫來了床起，她重溫了這一天所發生的一切事情。
Ideas? Scarcely any.
思想意念嗎？幾乎沒有什么。
Events-was Kuno's invitation an event?
大事情嘛——基諾的邀請算不算是件大事呢？
By her side, on the little reading-desk, was a survival from the ages of litter-one book.
她身邊，在那張小書桌上，是多少世代中所僅存留下來的一件東西——一本書。
This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible contingency.
這是有關大機器的大書，其中有解決每個可能發生的偶然事件的說明。
If she was hot or cold or dyspeptic or at a loss for a word, she went to the book, and it told her which button to press.
如果她覺得熱或者冷，或者心悸不寧，或者忘了哪個詞，她就去查問那本大書，這本大書還告訴她該按哪個電鈕。
The Central Committee published it.
它是中央委員會出版的。
In accordance with a growing habit, it was richly bound.
根據逐漸養成的習慣，它裝訂得富麗堂皇。
Sitting up in the bed, she took it reverently in her hands.
她坐在床上，崇敬地把那本大書捧住手里。
She glanced round the glowing room as if some one might be watching her.
她環顧一下那亮堂堂的房間，好像有什么人可能在注視著她那樣。
Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she murmured "O Machine!" and raised the volume to her lips.
隨后她半羞半喜的，喃喃地說：“哦，大機器啊！哦，大機器啊！”接著把那卷書舉到唇邊。
Thrice she kissed it, thrice inclined her head, thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence.
她三次親吻它，三次俯下頭去，三次感到那種默然的興奮。
Her ritual performed, she turned to page 1367, which gave the times of the departure of the air-ships from the island in the southern hemisphere, under whose soil she lived, to the island in the northern hemisphere, whereunder lived her son.
崇拜儀式舉行完畢，她翻到第1367頁，這一頁給出飛艇從她所住的南半球那個島起飛的時間和抵達北半球她兒子所住的那個島的時間，她們就住在這兩個島的地下。
She thought, "I have not the time." She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light;
她思索著：“我沒有這個時間啊。”她使房間黑下來，睡覺了。她醒來，使房間滿室生輝，
she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she make the room dark and slept.
她吃過后，便同她的朋友們交換思想意念，聽音樂，參加演講會。她又使房間黑下來，睡覺。
Above her, beneath her, and around her, the Machine hummed eternally; she did not notice the noise, for she had been born with it in her ears.
在她的上方，在她的下方，在她的周圍，大機器永遠嗡嗡響著；她理會不到這種聲音，因為她生來在耳朵里就有這種聲音。
The earth, carrying her, hummed as it sped through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars.
載著她的大地，當它打破沉寂迅速運轉著的時候，嗡嗡地響著，一會兒又使她轉向看不見的太陽，一會兒又使她轉向看不見的諸星。
She awoke and made the room light.
她一醒來，便使房間亮起來。
