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The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms.
公共集会的那种笨办法早就不用了，不论是瓦西蒂还是她的听众都不离开他们的房间。
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讲，同时听众也坐在他们的扶手椅里听她讲，听得相当清楚，也看得见她，并且也相当清楚。
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.
她以幽默地叙述蒙古人统治以前的音乐开场，接着详细说明继中国人的远征之后歌曲的骤然盛行，
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.
虽然义山苏和布里斯贝恩派的方法是远古的、早期的，她还是感到（她说）研究它们可能使今天的音乐家有所收获，它们具有新鲜的气息；尤其是它们具有一些思想意念。
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.
她这篇持续十分钟的演讲，是颇受欢迎的，在演讲结束时，她和她的许多听众又听了一篇关于海的演讲，从海可以得到一些思想意念；这位演讲人最近曾戴着呼吸保护器去观光过大海。
Then she fed, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and summoned her bed.
随后，她吃饭，同许多朋友谈话，洗了个澡，又聊聊天，便叫来了她的床。
The bed was not to her liking.
那张床并不称她的心意。
It was too large, and she had a feeling for a small bed.
它太大了，她有心要个小床。
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.
申诉是没有用的，因为床在全世界上都是同样的尺码。要造另一种尺码的床，那就会涉及到大机器内部一些很大的变动。
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.
瓦西蒂隔绝了自己——这是必要的，因为在地下既不存在着白昼，也不存在着黑夜——从最后叫来了床起，她重温了这一天所发生的一切事情。
Ideas? Scarcely any.
思想意念吗？几乎没有什么。
Events-was Kuno's invitation an event?
大事情嘛——基诺的邀请算不算是件大事呢？
By her side, on the little reading-desk, was a survival from the ages of litter-one book.
她身边，在那张小书桌上，是多少世代中所仅存留下来的一件东西——一本书。
This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible contingency.
这是有关大机器的大书，其中有解决每个可能发生的偶然事件的说明。
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.
如果她觉得热或者冷，或者心悸不宁，或者忘了哪个词，她就去查问那本大书，这本大书还告诉她该按哪个电钮。
The Central Committee published it.
它是中央委员会出版的。
In accordance with a growing habit, it was richly bound.
根据逐渐养成的习惯，它装订得富丽堂皇。
Sitting up in the bed, she took it reverently in her hands.
她坐在床上，崇敬地把那本大书捧住手里。
She glanced round the glowing room as if some one might be watching her.
她环顾一下那亮堂堂的房间，好像有什么人可能在注视着她那样。
Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she murmured "O Machine!" and raised the volume to her lips.
随后她半羞半喜的，喃喃地说：“哦，大机器啊！哦，大机器啊！”接着把那卷书举到唇边。
Thrice she kissed it, thrice inclined her head, thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence.
她三次亲吻它，三次俯下头去，三次感到那种默然的兴奋。
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.
崇拜仪式举行完毕，她翻到第1367页，这一页给出飞艇从她所住的南半球那个岛起飞的时间和抵达北半球她儿子所住的那个岛的时间，她们就住在这两个岛的地下。
She thought, "I have not the time." She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light;
她思索着：“我没有这个时间啊。”她使房间黑下来，睡觉了。她醒来，使房间满室生辉，
she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she make the room dark and slept.
她吃过后，便同她的朋友们交换思想意念，听音乐，参加演讲会。她又使房间黑下来，睡觉。
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，在她的周围，大机器永远嗡嗡响着；她理会不到这种声音，因为她生来在耳朵里就有这种声音。
The earth, carrying her, hummed as it sped through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars.
载着她的大地，当它打破沉寂迅速运转着的时候，嗡嗡地响着，一会儿又使她转向看不见的太阳，一会儿又使她转向看不见的诸星。
She awoke and made the room light.
她一醒来，便使房间亮起来。
