She resumed her life.
她又振作起精神来了。
But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there,
但是,她想起了婴儿时的基诺,他的出生,他的转移到公立保育所,她到那里对他的一次探视,
his visits to her-visits which stopped when the Machine had assigned him a room on the other side of the earth.
他对她的几次探视——当大机器指定给他在地球那一面的一个房间的时候,探视就此停止了。
"Parents, duties of," said the book of the Machine," cease at the moment of birth. P.422327483."
“父母的职责,”大机器的那本书上说,“婴儿一出生即行停止,第422327483页。”
True, but there was something special about Kuno – indeed there had been something special about all her children – and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it.
对的,不过基诺有点什么很特殊——的确,她所有的孩子都有点特殊之处——毕竟她必须勇于这次旅行,若是他迫切希望她走一趟的话。
And "something tremendous might happen".
不过,“可能有什么重大的事情发生。”
What did that mean? The nonsense of a youthful man, no doubt, but she must go.
那可是什么意思呢?毫无疑问,那是青年人的胡言乱语,不过她一定得去。
Again she pressed the unfamiliar button, again the wall swung back, and she saw the tunnel that curves out of sight.
她又一次按那不常用的电钮,墙壁又一次向后摆动着打开了,她看见那隧道弯弯曲曲望不到尽头。
Clasping the Book, she rose, tottered on to the platform, and summoned the car.
她抱着那本大书站起来,摇摇晃晃往前走到站台,叫了一部汽车。
Her room closed behind her: the journey to the northern hemisphere had begun.
她的房门在她走出后就闸上了。到北半球去的旅途就此开始。
Of course it was perfectly easy.
当然这是十分容易的。
The car approached and in it she found armchairs exactly like her own.
汽车来到了,她发觉里面的那些扶手椅和她自己的一模一样。
When she signaled, it stopped, and she tottered into the lift.
她一发出信号,汽车便停了下来,随后她摇摇晃晃走进升降机,
One other passenger was in the lift, the first fellow creature she had seen face to face for months.
有另一个旅客在升降机里,这是多少个月以来她面面相对看到的第一个人。
Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over.
在近来的日子里,很少有人旅行,全靠科学的进步,因为全世界到处是一模一样。
Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself.
迅速的通讯,以往的文明曾希望从中得到多少好处,已经因其自行取胜而达到极点。
What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury?
既然北京同施鲁斯伯里完全一模一样,去北京又有什么好处呢?
Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking?
既然施鲁斯伯里同北京完全一模一样,干什么要回施鲁斯伯里呢?
Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.
人们极少动弹动弹他们的身体,所有的动荡集中在心灵。
The air-ship service was a relic form the former age.
飞艇服务业是以往时代的一个遗物。
It was kept up, because it was easier to keep it up than to stop it or to diminish it, but it now far exceeded the wants of the population.
它被保存下来,是因为保存它比停止它或者消灭它更容易,不过这时它远远超过人口的需要。
Vessel after vessel would rise form the vomitories of Rye or of Christchurch, I use the antique names, would sail into the crowded sky, and would draw up at the wharves of the south – empty.
飞艇一架接一架地从日耶或克里斯特齐尔支(我用的是古名)的山口处升起,飞入熙熙攘攘的天空,然后会停在南方的那些港口——空空的。
so nicely adjusted was the system, so independent of meteorology, that the sky, whether calm or cloudy, resembled a vast kaleidoscope whereon the same patterns periodically recurred.
这个系统调节得非常好,完全不依靠气象学,以致不论是天气晴朗还是阴云密布,它总是像个巨大的万花筒,几种花样循环复现。
The ship on which Vashti sailed started now at sunset, now at dawn.
瓦西蒂乘坐的那架飞艇一会儿处在日落时分,一会儿又在黎明中前进。
But always, as it passed above Rheas, it would neighbour the ship that served between Helsingfors and the Brazils,
在它飞过莱姆斯上空时,它会接近飞在赫尔辛佛斯和巴西斯之间的飞艇,
and, every third time it surmounted the Alps, the fleet of Palermo would cross its track behind.
而且每逢第三次越过阿尔卑斯山时,巴拉莫的飞船会在后边横越它的航线。
Night and day, wind and storm, tide and earthquake, impeded man no longer.
黑夜和白昼,风和雷雨,潮汐和地震,都不再阻碍人类了。
He had harnessed Leviathan.
人已经驾御了海怪。
All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, rang false as the prattle of a child.
所有的古代文学,以及它对大自然的歌颂和对大自然的恐惧,听来都是错误的,就像小孩子的胡说乱道一样。