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Vashti watched his face in the blue plate.
瓦西蒂观察着他在蓝盘中的脸。
"But I can see you!" she exclaimed. "What more do you want?"
“可是现在我看得见你啊！”她叹息地说，“你还想再要求什么呢？”
"I want to see you not through the Machine," said Kuno. "I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine."
“我想要不通过这个大机器看看您。”基诺说，“我想要不通过这个讨厌的大机器跟您说说话。”
"Oh, hush!" said his mother, vaguely shocked. "You mustn't say anything against the Machine."
“嘘！”他的母亲不知不觉一惊地说，“你一定不要说什么反对大机器的话。”
"Why not?" "One mustn't." "You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other.
“为什么不可以呢？”“谁都不能说这种话。”“您这样说，好像大机器是某个神创造的一样。”对方大声说道。
"I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men.
“我相信在您郁郁不乐的时候，您准会向它祈祷。是人创造的机器啊，千万不要忘记这一点。是伟大的人，但毕竟还是人呀。
The Machine is much, but it is not everything.
大机器是重要的，不过它并不是一切。
I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you.
我在这个圆盘里是看到点什么像您的东西，可我并不是看见了您。
I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come.
我通过这个电话机听到点什么像您的声音，不过我并不是听到您说话。这就是我为什么要您来的缘故了。
Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind."
您来我这儿吧。来看看我，这样，我们就可以面对面地相见，谈谈我头脑里的希望。”
She replied that she could scarcely spare the time for a visit.
她回答说，她简直没有余暇来探望一次。
"The air-ship barely takes two days to fly between me and you." "I dislike air-ships." "Why?"
“您来我这里，乘飞艇只需两天就到了。”“我不喜欢坐飞艇。”“为什么？”
"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."
“我不喜欢看那怪吓人的棕色大地，还有那大海，还有天黑时的星星。坐在飞艇里，我们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.
“在任何别的地方我也得不到啊。”“天空能给你哪样的思想意念呢？”他停顿了一下。
"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?"
“难道您不知道有四颗大星构成一个长方形，眠在这个长方形当中，三颗星紧紧挨在—起，还有另外三顺星悬在这些星的下面？”
"No, I do not. I dislike the stars. But did they give you an idea? How interesting; tell me."
“不，我不知道。我不喜欢星星。不过，星星给过你什么思想意念吗？告诉我，它是不是挺有趣的。”
"I had an idea that they were like a man." "I do not understand."
“我有个这样的想法，它们像是一个人。”“我不明白。”
"The four big stars are the man's shoulders and his knees.
“那四颗大星是人的两肩和双膝，
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?"
当中的那三颗星像人们从前系过的腰带，悬在下面的那三颗星像一把利剑。”“一把利剑？”
"Men carried swords about with them, to kill animals and other men."
“人们过去总是随身带着利剑，以便杀死动物和别的人的。”
"It does not strike me as a very good idea, but it is certainly original. When did it come to you first?"
“这并不是能打动我的一个很好的思想意念，不过它倒是别开生面的。你最初是什么时候想到这个的？”
"In the air-ship—" He broke off, and she fancied that he looked sad.
“在飞艇里——”他突然停住了，她看出他似乎满面愁容，
She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression.
可她也把握不定，因为机器传达不出表情的细致入微之处。
It only gave a general idea of people – an idea that was good enough for all practical purposes, Vashti thought.
它只能传达人们的一般意念——一种对所有实际目的说来已是足够好的意念，瓦西蒂寻思着。
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.
正像葡萄上那层难以衡量的白霜被人造水果生产者所忽略一样，被一种没人相信的哲学认为是思想交流的真正实质的那层难以衡量的白霜，当然也被那大机器所忽略掉了。
Something "good enough" had long since been accepted by our race.
长期以来，我们这个种族一面认为某种事物只要“足够好”就行了。
"The truth is," he continued, "that I want to see these stars again. They are curious stars.
“事实是，”他继续说，“我想再看看这些星。它们且些奇妙的星。
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."
我不想从飞艇里去看它们，我想要像多少万年以前我们的远祖那样，从地球的表面上去看看它们。我想要观光地球的表面。”
