評(píng)論
打印
We sat silent for a long time. I looked about me at the crumbling buildings, the unchanging sky, and the dreary, empty street. Here, then, was the fruit of the Conquest, the elimination of work, the end of hunger and cold, the cessation of the hard struggle, the downfall of change and death—nay, the very millennium of happiness. And yet, somehow, there seemed something wrong with it all. I pondered, then I put two or three rapid questions, hardly waiting to reflect upon the answers.
我們默默地坐著，久久沒有說話。我望著四周隨時(shí)可能倒塌的建筑，頭上永遠(yuǎn)不變的天空， 和那陰沉空蕩的街道。這么說，原來這就是人類征服自然的結(jié)果，消滅了工作，結(jié)束了饑餓和寒冷，停止了一切艱苦的奮斗，消除了一切變化和死亡——不，這就是幸福的千年盛世。可是，不知為什么，總感覺這一切有點(diǎn)問題。我想了想，然后連著向那個(gè)穿石棉衣服的人問了幾個(gè)問題，幾乎都沒有停下來想想他的回答。
"Is there any war now?"
“現(xiàn)在還有戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)嗎？”
"Done away with centuries ago."
“幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以前就消除了。”
"Do you still have newspapers?"
“你們還有報(bào)紙嗎？”
"Newspapers! What on earth would we want them for? What is in them, anyway? Only things that happen, wars and accidents and work and death. When these went, newspapers went too. Listen," continued the Man in Asbestos, "you still don't seem to understand the new life at all. How used your people to spend all the early part of their lives?"
“報(bào)紙！我們要它干什么？報(bào)上有什么可登的呢？無非是發(fā)生的一些事情，什么戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)啦，事故啦，工作啦，死亡啦。那些東西沒有了，報(bào)紙也就沒有了。你聽我說，”那個(gè)穿石棉衣服的人接著說，“您好像還是根本沒懂我們的新生活。你們那個(gè)時(shí)候，在人生的前期，人們做些什么？”
"Why," I said, "our first fifteen years or so were spent in getting education."
“前15年左右，”我說，“我們一般用來上學(xué)受教育。”
"Exactly," he answered, "now notice how we've improved on all that. Education in our day is done by surgery. Strange that in your time nobody realized that education was simply a surgical operation of opening the skull and engrafting into it a piece of prepared brain. Well, then, to continue, what used to occupy your time and effort after your education?"
“不錯(cuò)，”他回答道，“現(xiàn)在請(qǐng)你注意我們是如何對(duì)此加以改進(jìn)的。我們現(xiàn)在的教育是用外科 手術(shù)來完成的。奇怪的是，你們那時(shí)候，竟無人意識(shí)到，教育只需要一個(gè)外科手術(shù)，把頭蓋骨打開’植入一片事先準(zhǔn)備好的腦子就行了。下面，接著說，那受完教育以后的時(shí)間又忙什么呢？”
