美丽新世界Brave New World 第7章(4)

 　　At the further end of the room was another doorway¹, through which came a shaft² of surdight and the noise, very loud and close, of the drums.

　　房间的那头又是一道门。阳光与鼓声便是从那道门传送来的。鼓声很响亮，很近。

　　They stepped across the threshold and found themselves on a wide terrace.

　　他们跨过门槛发现自己来到了一片广阔的台地上，下面就是印第安人的广场。

　　Below them, shut in by the tall houses, was the village square, crowded with Indians.

　　在他们下面，关中的高脚屋，是村里的广场，挤满了印度人。

　　Bright blankets, and feathers in black hair, and the glint of turquoise³, and dark skins shining with heat.

　　明亮的毛毯，黑头发里的羽毛，绿松石的闪光，暗皮肤热的闪闪发光。

　　Lenina put her handkerchief to her nose again.

　　列宁娜又拿手绢捂住了鼻子。

　　In the open space at the centre of the square were two circular platforms of masonry⁴ and trampled⁵ clay–the roofs,

　　广场正中的空地上有两个圆形的台子，是石头和夯实的土筑成的，显然是地下室的房顶。

　　it was evident, of underground chambers⁶; for in the centre of each platform was an open hatchway, with a ladder emerging from the lower darkness.

　　因为在每个台子正中都开有一个楼梯口，一架楼梯还架在下面，伸向黑暗。

　　A sound of subterranean⁷ flute⁸ playing came up and was almost lost in the steady remorseless persistence⁹ of the drums.

　　地下有笛声传来，却消失在持续不断的残忍的啧啧鼓点里。

　　Lenina liked the drums.

　　列宁娜喜欢那鼓声。

　　Shutting her eyes she abandoned herself to their soft repeated thunder, allowed it to invade her consciousness more and more completely, till at last there was nothing left in the world but that one deep pulse of sound.

　　她闭上眼睛听任自已被那轻柔反复的雷鸣所左右，听任它越来越完全地侵入她的意识，最后，除了那唯一的深沉的脉动声，世界上便一无所有了。

　　It reminded her reassuringly¹⁰ of the synthetic¹¹ noises made at Solidarity¹² Services and Ford's Day celebrations.

　　那声音令她安慰地想起团结祈祷和福帝日庆祝活动的合成音乐。

　　"Orgy-porgy," she whispered to herself. These drums beat out just the same rhythms.

　　“欢快呀淋漓。”她悄悄地说道。这鼓点敲出的是同样的节奏。

　　There was a sudden startling burst of singing–hundreds of male voices crying out fiercely in harsh metallic¹³ unison¹⁴. A few long notes and silence, the thunderous silence of the drums; then shrill¹⁵, in a neighing treble, the women's answer.

　　惊人的歌声突然爆发——几百条男性的喉咙激烈地尖叫着，众口一声发出了刺耳的金属般的合唱；几个长音符，安静了——雷鸣般的鼓点之后的安静。然后便是女人的回答，唱的是最高音，尖利得像马嘶。

　　Then again the drums; and once more the men's deep savage¹⁶ affirmation of their manhood.

　　接着又是鼓点。男人们再一次用深沉的声音野蛮地证实了他们的男子汉气概。

　　Queer–yes. The place was queer, so was the music, so were the clothes and the goitres and the skin diseases and the old people.

　　怪，是的。地点怪，音乐怪，衣服、瘤子、皮肤病和老年人都怪。

　　But the performance itself–there seemed to be nothing specially¹⁷ queer about that.

　　但是那表演却似乎并不特别怪。

　　"It reminds me of a lower-caste Community Sing," she told Bernard.

　　“叫我想起低种姓的社区合唱。”她对伯纳说。

　　But a little later it was reminding her a good deal less of that innocuous function.

　　可是不久以后那合唱令她想起的却不是那种无害的效果了。

　　For suddenly there had swarmed¹⁸ up from those round chambers unterground a ghastly troop of monsters.

　　因为有一群狰狞的魔鬼突然从那圆形的地下室里冒了出来。

　　Hideously¹⁹ masked or painted out of all semblance²⁰ of humanity, they had tramped out a strange limping dance round the square;

　　他们带着恐怖的面具，画出非人的脸像，绕着广场跳着一种奇怪的瘸腿舞。

　　round and again round, singing as they went, round and round–each time a little faster; and the drums had changed and quickened their rhythm, so that it became like the pulsing of fever in the ears; and the crowd had begun to sing with the dancers, louder and louder; and first one woman had shrieked²¹, and then another and another, as though they were being killed; and then suddenly the leader of the dancers broke out of the line, ran to a big wooden chest which was standing²² at one end of the square, raised the lid and pulled out a pair of black snakes.

　　他们载歌载舞，一圈又一圈地跳着，唱着，一圈又一圈，一圈比一圈快。鼓声变了，节奏加快了，听上去好像发烧时的脉搏跳动。周围的人也跟着唱了起来，声音越来越大。一个女人开始尖叫，接着便一个又一个都尖叫起来，好像有人要杀她们。然后领舞的人离开了队伍，跑到广场尽头一个大水柜子旁边，打开盖子，抓出了两条黑蛇。

1 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。

2 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

3 turquoise   

n.绿宝石；adj.蓝绿色的

参考例句：

• She wore a string of turquoise round her neck.她脖子上戴着一串绿宝石。
• The women have elaborate necklaces of turquoise.那些女人戴着由绿松石制成的精美项链。

4 masonry   

n.砖土建筑；砖石

参考例句：

• Masonry is a careful skill.砖石工艺是一种精心的技艺。
• The masonry of the old building began to crumble.旧楼房的砖石结构开始崩落。

5 trampled   

踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• He gripped his brother's arm lest he be trampled by the mob. 他紧抓着他兄弟的胳膊，怕他让暴民踩着。
• People were trampled underfoot in the rush for the exit. 有人在拼命涌向出口时被踩在脚下。

6 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

7 subterranean   

adj.地下的，地表下的

参考例句：

• London has 9 miles of such subterranean passages.伦敦像这样的地下通道有9英里长。
• We wandered through subterranean passages.我们漫游地下通道。

8 flute   

n.长笛；v.吹笛

参考例句：

• He took out his flute, and blew at it.他拿出笛子吹了起来。
• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。

9 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

10 reassuringly   

ad.安心，可靠

参考例句：

• He patted her knee reassuringly. 他轻拍她的膝盖让她放心。
• The doctor smiled reassuringly. 医生笑了笑，让人心里很踏实。

11 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

12 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

13 metallic   

adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的

参考例句：

• A sharp metallic note coming from the outside frightened me.外面传来尖锐铿锵的声音吓了我一跳。
• He picked up a metallic ring last night.昨夜他捡了一个金属戒指。

14 unison   

n.步调一致，行动一致

参考例句：

• The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
• My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。

15 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

16 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

17 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

18 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

19 hideously   

adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地

参考例句：

• The witch was hideously ugly. 那个女巫丑得吓人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pitt's smile returned, and it was hideously diabolic. 皮特的脸上重新浮现出笑容，但却狰狞可怕。 来自辞典例句

20 semblance   

n.外貌，外表

参考例句：

• Her semblance of anger frightened the children.她生气的样子使孩子们感到害怕。
• Those clouds have the semblance of a large head.那些云的形状像一个巨大的人头。

21 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

22 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。