二伯纳在主任办公室门口站了一会儿，吸了一口气，挺起了胸脯，

　　bracing himself to meet the dislike and disapproval which he was certain of finding within.

　　准备面对抵触和反对——他知道进了屋是一定会遇见的。

　　He knocked and entered.

　　他敲了敲门，进去了。

　　"A permit for you to initial, Director," he said as airily as possible, and laid the paper on the writing-table.

　　“请你签个字批准，主任。”他尽可能堆出笑容说，把证件放到写字台上。

　　The Director glanced at him sourly.

　　主任不高兴地望了他一眼。

　　美丽新世界.jpg

　　But the stamp of the World Controller's Office was at the head of the paper and the signature of Mustapha Mond, bold and black, across the bottom.Everything was perfectly in order. The director had no choice.

　　但是证件顶上是世界总统官邸的大印，底下是穆斯塔法·蒙德的签名，字体粗黑，横贯全页，手续完备，清清楚楚。主任没有别的选择。

　　He pencilled his initials–two small pale letters abject at the feet of Mustapha Mond–and was about to return the paper without a word of comment or genial Ford-speed,

　　他用铅笔签上了他的姓名的第一个字母——签在穆斯塔法·蒙德下面，两个寒碜的灰溜溜的小字母。

　　when his eye was caught by something written in the body of the permit.

　　他正打算不说话，也不说“福帝保佑”就把证件还给他，却看见了证件正文里的几句话。

　　"For the New Mexican Reservation?" he said, and his tone, the face he lifted to Bernard, expressed a kind of agitated astonishment.

　　“到新墨西哥的保留地去？”他说，说话的口气和对伯纳抬起的面孔都表现出带着激动的惊讶。

　　Surprised by his surprise, Bernard nodded. There was a silence.

　　他的惊讶使伯纳吃了一惊。伯纳点了点头。沉默了片刻。

　　The Director leaned back in his chair, frowning.

　　主任皱起眉头，身子往后一靠。

　　"How long ago was it?" he said, speaking more to himself than to Bernard.

　　“那是多久以前的事了？”他与其说是在对伯纳说，毋宁说是对自己说。

　　"Twenty years, I suppose. Nearer twenty-five. I must have been your age …" He sighed and shook his head.

　　“二十年了吧，我看。差不多二十五年了。我那时准是在你的年龄……”他叹了口气，摇了摇头。

　　Bernard felt extremely uncomfortable.

　　伯纳觉得非常别扭。

　　A man so conventional, so scrupulously correct as the Director–and to commit so gross a solecism!

　　像主任那样遵循传统，那样规行矩步的人——竟然会这样严重地失态！

　　lt made him want to hide his face, to run out of the room.

　　他不禁想捂住自己的脸，跑出屋去。

　　Not that he himself saw anything intrinsically objectionable in people talking about the remote past;

　　倒不是亲眼看见别人谈起辽远的过去有什么本质上令人厌恶的东西—

　　that was one of those hypnop.dic prejudices he had (so he imagined) completely got rid of.

　　—那是睡眠教育的偏见，那是他自以为已经完全摆脱了的。

　　What made him feel shy was the knowledge that the Director disapproved–disapproved and yet had been betrayed into doing the forbidden thing.

　　叫他感到不好意思的是他知道主任不赞成这一套——既然不赞成，为什么又失于检点，去干禁止的事呢？

　　Under what inward compulsion?

　　是受到了什么内在压力了呢？

　　Through his discomfort Bernard eagerly listened.

　　伯纳尽管别扭，却迫切地听着。

　　"I had the same idea as you," the Director was saying.

　　“那时我跟你的想法一样，”主任说，

　　"Wanted to have a look at the savages. Got a permit for New Mexico and went there for my summer holiday.

　　“想去看看野蛮人。我弄到了去新墨西哥的批准书，打算到那儿去过暑假，

　　With the girl I was having at the moment. She was a Beta-Minus, and I think"

　　跟我那时的女朋友一起。那是一个比塔减，我觉得，”

　　(he shut his eyes), "I think she had yellow hair. Anyhow she was pneumatic, particularly pneumatic; I remember that.

　　（他闭上了眼睛）“我觉得她的头发是黄色的，总之很有灵气，特别有灵气，这我记得。

　　Well, we went there, and we looked at the savages, and we rode about on horses and all that.

　　喏，我们到了那儿，看见了野蛮人，骑了马到处跑，做了些诸如此类的事。

　　And then–it was almost the last day of my leave–then … well, she got lost.

　　然后，几乎就在我假期的最后一天，你瞧，她失踪了。