美丽新世界Brave New World 第16章(7)

 　　"The optimum population," said Mustapha Mond, "is modelled on the iceberg–eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."

　　“人口最佳比例是”，穆斯塔法.蒙德说，“按照冰山模式——九分之八在水下，九分之一在水上。”

　　And they're happy below the water line?

　　水下的人会幸福吗？

　　"Happier than above it. Happier than your friend here, for example." He pointed¹.

　　“比水上的人幸福。比你在这儿的两位朋友快乐，比如。”他指着他们俩。

　　In spite of that awful work?

　　尽管做着那种可怕的工作！

　　Awful? They don't find it so. On the contrary, they like it. It's light, it's childishly simple.

　　可怕？他们并不觉得可怕。相反倒喜欢。因为清闲呀，简单得像小孩的玩意。

　　No strain on the mind or the muscles. Seven and a half hours of mild, unexhausting labour,

　　不用训练头脑和肌肉。七个小时半不算繁重的劳动，

　　and then the soma ration² and games and unrestricted copulation and the feelies.

　　然后有定量的唆麻、游戏、不受限制的性交和感官电影。

　　What more can they ask for? True, he added, they might ask for shorter hours.

　　他们还会有什么要求？不错，他说下去，她们可能要求缩短工作日。

　　And of course we could give them shorter hours.

　　我们当然能够给他们缩短。

　　Technically³, it would be perfectly⁴ simple to reduce all lower-caste working hours to three or four a day.

　　从技术上讲，要把低种姓人的工作日缩短为三四个小时可以不费吹灰之力。

　　But would they be any the happier for that? No, they wouldn't.

　　但是他们会因此而多一些幸福吗？不，不会的。

　　The experiment was tried, more than a century and a half ago. The whole of Ireland was put on to the four-hour day.

　　一个半世纪多以前曾经做过一次实验。爱尔兰全部改成每天四小时。

　　What was the result? Unrest and a large increase in the consumption of soma; that was all.

　　结果如何？动荡不安和更高的唆麻消费，如此而已。

　　Those three and a half hours of extra leisure were so far from being a source of happiness,

　　那多出来的三个半小时空闲远远不足以成为幸福的根源，

　　that people felt constrained⁵ to take a holiday from them.

　　却使得他们不得不休唆麻假。

　　The Inventions Office is stuffed with plans for labour-saving processes. Thousands of them.

　　发明局里塞满了减少劳动的计划，有好几千。

　　Mustapha Mond made a lavish⁶ gesture. And why don't we put them into execution?

　　穆斯塔法.蒙德做了一个手势，表示很多。我们为什么不实行？

　　For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict⁷ them with excessive leisure.

　　是为了劳动者的利益。拿过多的余暇折磨他们简直就是残酷。

　　It's the same with agriculture. We could synthesize every morsel⁸ of food, if we wanted to.

　　农业也一样。只要我们愿意，每一口食物都可以合成。

　　But we don't. We prefer to keep a third of the population on the land.

　　但是我们不干。我们宁可把三分之一的人口保留在土地上，

　　For their own sakes–because it takes longer to get food out of the land than out of a factory.

　　那是为了他们好，因为从土地上取得食物比从工厂要慢。

　　Besides, we have our stability to think of. We don't want to change.

　　而且我们还得考虑到稳定，不想变。

　　Every change is a menace to stability. That's another reason why we're so chary⁹ of applying new inventions.

　　每一次变都威胁稳定。那是我们很不愿意应用新发明的又一个原因。

1 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

2 ration   

n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应

参考例句：

• The country cut the bread ration last year.那个国家去年削减面包配给量。
• We have to ration the water.我们必须限量用水。

3 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

6 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

7 afflict   

vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨

参考例句：

• I wish you wouldn't afflict me with your constant complains.我希望你不要总是抱怨而使我苦恼。
• There are many illnesses,which afflict old people.有许多疾病困扰着老年人。

8 morsel   

n.一口，一点点

参考例句：

• He refused to touch a morsel of the food they had brought.他们拿来的东西他一口也不吃。
• The patient has not had a morsel of food since the morning.从早上起病人一直没有进食。

9 chary   

adj.谨慎的，细心的

参考例句：

• She started a chary descent of the stairs.她开始小心翼翼地下楼梯。
• She is chary of strangers.她见到陌生人会害羞。