美丽新世界Brave New World 第7章(3)

 　　"Old?" she repeated. "But the Director's old; lots of people are old; they're not like that."

　　“老了？”她重复道，“可是主任也老了，许多人都老了，却都不像那样。”

　　"That's because we don't allow them to be like that. We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions¹ artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium².

　　“那是因为我们不让他们像那样。我们给他们保健，不让他们生病，人工维持他们的内分泌，使内分泌平衡，像年轻人一样。

　　We don't permit their magnesium-calcium ratio to fall below what it was at thirty.

　　我们不让他们的镁钙比值降低到三十岁时以下。

　　We give them transfusion³ of young blood. We keep their metabolism⁴ permanently⁵ stimulated⁶.

　　我们给他们输进年轻人的血液，保证他们的新陈代谢永远活跃。

　　So, of course, they don't look like that. Partly," he added, "because most of them die long before they reach this old creature's age.

　　因此他们就不会老。还有，”他又说，“这儿大部分人还没有活到这位老人的年龄就死了。

　　Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end."

　　很年轻，几乎毫发无损，然后，突然就完了。”

　　But Lenina was not listening. She was watching the old man.

　　可是列宁娜已经不再听他的。她在看着那老头。

　　Slowly, slowly he came down. His feet touched the ground. He turned.

　　老头非常缓慢地往下爬着，脚踩到了地上，转过了身子。

　　In their deep-sunken orbits his eyes were still extraordinarily⁷ bright. They looked at her for a long moment expressionlessly, without surprise, as though she had not been there at all. Then slowly, with bent⁸ back the old man hobbled past them and was gone.

　　他那深陷在眼窝里的眼睛异常明亮，没有表情地望了她许久，并不惊讶，好像她根本不在那儿，然后才慢慢躬着身子从他们身边擦过，趔趔趄趄走掉了。

　　"But it's terrible," Lenina whispered. "It's awful. We ought not to have come here."

　　“可这很可怕，”列宁娜低声说，“很可怕。我们不该来的。”

　　She felt in her pocket for her soma–only to discover that, by some unprecedented⁹ oversight¹⁰, she had left the bottle down at the rest-house.

　　她到口袋里去摸唆麻，却发现由于从来没有过的粗心把唆麻瓶忘在宾馆里了。

　　Bernard's pockets were also empty.

　　伯纳的口袋里也是空的。

　　Lenina was left to face the horrors of Malpais unaided. They came crowding in on her thick and fast.

　　列宁娜只好孤苦无靠地面对马尔佩斯的种种恐怖，而恐怖也确实接踵而至。

　　The spectacle of two young women giving breast to their babies made her blush and turn away her face.

　　两个年轻的妇女给孩子喂奶臊得她转过了脸。

　　She had never seen anything so indecent in her life.

　　她一辈子也没有见过这么猥亵的事。

　　And what made it worse was that, instead of tactfully ignoring it, Bernard proceeded to make open comments on this revoltingly viviparous scene.

　　更糟糕的是，伯纳对这令人作呕的胎生场面不但不是巧妙地置之不理，反倒公开发表起了意见。

　　Ashamed, now that the effects of the soma had worn off, of the weakness he had displayed that morning in the hotel, he went out of his way to show himself strong and unorthodox.

　　唆麻效力已经过去，他已为早上在宾馆的软弱表现感到羞耻，便一反常态，表现起自己的坚强与非正统来。

　　"What a wonderfully intimate relationship," he said, deliberately¹¹ outrageous¹².

　　“这种亲密关系多么美妙呀，”他故意叫人难堪地说，

　　"And what an intensity¹³ of feeling it must generate!

　　“它会激发出多么深厚的感情呀！

　　I often think one may have missed something in not having had a mother.

　　我常常在想，我们因为没有母亲可能失去了什么，

　　And perhaps you've missed something in not being a mother, Lenina.

　　而你因为没有做过母亲也可能失去了一些东西，列宁娜。

　　Imagine yourself sitting there with a little baby of your own. …"

　　想象你自己坐在那儿喂着自己的婴儿吧……。”

　　"Bernard! How can you?" The passage of an old woman with ophthalmia and a disease of the skin distracted her from her indignation.

　　“伯纳！你怎么能这样？”一个患结膜炎和皮肤病的老年妇女吸引了她的注意，岔开了她的义愤。

　　"Let's go away," she begged. "I don't like it."

　　“咱们走吧，”她求他，“我不喜欢这儿。”

　　But at this moment their guide came back and, beckoning¹⁴ them to follow, led the way down the narrow street between the houses.

　　但是这时他们的向导已经回来。他招呼他们跟在身后，带着他们沿着房屋之间的狭窄街道走去，

　　They rounded a corner. A dead dog was lying on a rubbish heap; a woman with a goitre was looking for lice in the hair of a small girl.

　　绕过了一个街角。一条死狗躺在垃圾堆上；一个长着瘤子的妇女正在一个小姑娘的头发里捉虱子。

　　Their guide halted at the foot of a ladder, raised his hand perpendicularly¹⁵, then darted¹⁶ it horizontally forward.

　　向导在一架梯子旁边停住了，用手垂直一举，然后向水平方向一挥。

　　They did what he mutely commanded–climbed the ladder and walked through the doorway¹⁷, to which it gave access, into a long narrow room, rather dark and smelling of smoke and cooked grease and long-worn, long-unwashed clothes.

　　他们按照他的无言指示做——爬上了梯子，穿过了梯子通向的门，进了一个狭长的房间。房间相当暗，发出烟味、煮过的油腻味、穿了很久没洗的衣服味。

1 secretions   

n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lysozyme is an enzyme found in egg white, tears, and other secretions. 溶菌酶是存在于卵白、泪和其他分泌物中的一种酶。 来自辞典例句
• Chest percussion and vibration are used with postural drainage to help dislodge secretions. 在做体位引流时要敲击和振动胸部帮助分泌物松动排出。 来自辞典例句

2 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

3 transfusion   

n.输血，输液

参考例句：

• She soon came to her senses after a blood transfusion.输血后不久她就苏醒了。
• The doctor kept him alive by a blood transfusion.医生靠输血使他仍然活着。

4 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。

5 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

6 stimulated   

a.刺激的

参考例句：

• The exhibition has stimulated interest in her work. 展览增进了人们对她作品的兴趣。
• The award has stimulated her into working still harder. 奖金促使她更加努力地工作。

7 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

8 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

9 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

10 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

11 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

12 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

13 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

14 beckoning   

adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• An even more beautiful future is beckoning us on. 一个更加美好的未来在召唤我们继续前进。 来自辞典例句
• He saw a youth of great radiance beckoning to him. 他看见一个丰神飘逸的少年向他招手。 来自辞典例句

15 perpendicularly   

adv. 垂直地, 笔直地, 纵向地

参考例句：

• Fray's forehead was wrinkled both perpendicularly and crosswise. 弗雷的前额上纹路纵横。
• Automatic resquaring feature insures nozzle is perpendicularly to the part being cut. 自动垂直功能，可以确保刀头回到与工件完全垂直的位置去切割。

16 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。