"There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol."
“那时有一个东西,叫做天;可是人们仍然喝非常大量的酒。”
"Like meat, like so much meat."
“只把她当做肉体,那种肉体。”
"There was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality."
“那时有个东西叫做灵魂,还有个东西叫做永恒。”
"Do ask Henry where he got it."
“你一定要问问亨利,他是在哪儿买的。”
"But they used to take morphia and cocaine."
“可是他们那时常使用吗啡和可卡因。”
"And what makes it worse, she tlainks of herself as meat."
“而更糟糕的是她也把自己看做是肉体。”
"Two thousand pharmacologists and bio-chemists were subsidized in A.P. 178."
“福帝纪元一七八年有两千个药剂师和生化学家得到了资助。”
"He does look glum," said the Assistant Predestinator, pointing at Bernard Marx.
“他的确是闷闷不乐的样子。’偷运预定局局长助理指着伯纳·马克思说。
"Six years later it was being produced commercially. The perfect drug."
“六年以后那十全十美的药品就投入了商业性生产。”
"Let's bait him."
“我们来逗他一下……”
"Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant."
“它能够产生飘飘欲仙,醉意朦胧的美妙幻觉。”
"Glum, Marx, glum." The clap on the shoulder made him start, look up.
“闷闷不乐,马克思,闷闷不乐。”肩膀上一拍,他吓了一跳,抬头看去。
It was that brute Henry Foster. "What you need is a gramme of soma."
就是那个粗汉亨利·福斯特,“你需要的是一克唆麻。”
"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."
“具有基督教和酒精的一切好处,却没有两者的坏处。”
"Ford, I should like to kill him!" But all he did was to say, "No, thank you," and fend off the proffered tube of tablets.
“我主福帝!我真恨不得杀了他!”可是他只说了一句,“谢谢,我不需要。”便推开了递给他的那一管药片。
"Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology."
“只要你喜欢就可以给自己放个假,摆脱现实,回来的时候头疼和神话便都消失了。”
"Take it," insisted Henry Foster, "take it."
“吞吧,”亨利·福斯特坚持说,“吞吧。”
"Stability was practically assured."
“实际上稳定就得到了保证。”
"One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments," said the Assistant Predestinator citing a piece of homely hypnop.dic wisdom.
“只需吞下一小片,十种烦恼都不见。”局长助理引用了一句睡眠教育的朴素格言。
"It only remained to conquer old age."
“然后就只剩下了一件事:征服衰老。”
"Damn you, damn you!" shouted Bernard Marx.
“去吧,去吧!”帕纳·马克思说。
"Hoity-toity."
“喔唷,喔唷。”
"Gonadal hormones, transfusion of young blood, magnesium salts …"
“把注荷尔蒙输入年轻的血液去,镁盐……”
"And do remember that a gramme is better than a damn." They went out, laughing.
“记住,唆麻吞一片,立即脱苦难。”他们俩笑着走了出去。
"All the physiological stigmata of old age have been abolished. And along with them, of course …"
“老年生理的衰迈迹象全都消除。当然,随之而消除的还有.回.。”
"Don't forget to ask him about that Malthusian belt," said Fanny.
“别忘记了问他那条马尔萨斯带的事。”范尼说。
"Along with them all the old man's mental peculiarities. Characters remain constant throughout a whole lifetime."
“还有老年的一切。心理特征,性格是终身不变的。”
"… two rounds of Obstacle Golf to get through before dark. I must fly."
“……然后打两局障碍高尔夫消磨掉黄昏前的时光。我一定要坐飞机。”
"Work, play–at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen.
“工作,游戏——我们的精力和口味到了六十岁还和那时的人十七岁时一样。
Old men in the bad old days used to renounce, retire, take to religion, spend their time reading, thinking–thinking!"
在苦难的日子里老年人总喜欢消极,退却,相信宗教,靠读书和思考混日子,思考!”
"Idiots, swine!" Bernard Marx was saying to himself, as he walked down the corridor to the lift.
“白痴,猪猡!”伯纳·马克思沿着走廊走去,自言自语道。
"Now–such is progress–the old men work, the old men copulate, the old men have no time, no leisure from pleasure,
“而现在——这就是进步了——老年人照样工作,照样性交,寻欢作乐,
not a moment to sit down and think–or if ever by some unlucky chance such a crevice of time shoud yawn in the solid substance of their distractions,
没有空闲,没有丝毫的时间坐下来思考。或者,即使由于某种不幸的偶然,在他们的娱乐消遣里出现了空当,
there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East,
也永远会有唆麻,美味的唆麻,半克就是半个假日,一克就是一个周末,两克就是一次辉煌的东方旅游。
three for a dark eternity on the moon; returning whence they find themselves on the other side of the crevice,
三克唆麻就是一次月球上昏昏沉沉的永恒。从那儿回来的时候他们会发现自己已经越过了空当,
safe on the solid ground of daily labour and distraction, scampering from feely to feely,
每天脚踏实地,安安稳稳地工作和娱乐,看完一部感官片又赶下一部感官片,
from girl to pneumatic girl, from Electromagnetic Golf course to …"
从一个有灵气的姑娘到另一个有灵气的姑娘,从电磁高尔夫球场到…·”
"Go away, little girl," shouted the D.H.C. angrily. "Go away, little boy!
“走开,小姑娘。”主任愤怒地叫道,“走开,小娃娃!
Can't you see that his fordship's busy? Go and do your erotic play somewhere else."
你们没有看见福下忙着吗?去,去,别的地方玩你们的性游戏去。”
"Suffer little children," said the Controller.
“让小家伙们玩吧。”总统说道。
Slowly, majestically, with a faint humming of machinery, the Conveyors moved forward, thirty-three centimters an hour.
机器轻微地嗡嗡响着,传送带缓慢庄严地前进,每小时三十三公分;
In the red darkness glinted innumerable rubies.
暗红里无数红宝石闪着微光。