美丽新世界 Brave New World 第1章(2)

"I shall begin at the beginning," said the D.H.C. and the more zealous students recorded his intention in their notebooks: Begin at the beginning.

“我从头说一说”主任说，积极的学生把他的意思记进了笔记本：从头说一说。

"These," he waved his hand, "are the incubators." And opening an insulated door he showed them explained,

“这些”他一挥手，“就是孵化器”他打开一道绝缘门，向学生们展示出一架架编了号的试管。

"at blood heat; whereas the male gametes," and here he opened another door, "they have to be kept at thirty-five instead of thirty-seven.

“这都是本周才供应的卵子，保持在血液的温度，”他解释道，“而男性配偶子的温度，”说时他开了另一道门，“必须保持在三十五度而不是三十七度。

Full blood heat sterilizes." Rams wrapped in theremogene beget no lambs.

十足的血液温度能够使配偶子失效。”窝在发热器里的公羊是配不出崽的。

Still leaning against the incubators he gave them, while the pencils scurried illegibly across the pages, a brief description of the modern fertilizing process;

他仍然靠在孵化器上，向他们简要地讲述现代的授精过程，铅笔在本子上匆匆地涂抹着。

spoke first, of course, of its surgical introduction–"the operation undergone voluntarily for the good of Society,

当然，先从外科手术介绍起——“接受手术是为了社会的利益，

not to mention the fact that it carries a bonus amounting to six months' salary";

同时也可以带来一笔报酬，相当于六个月的工资。”

continued with some account of the technique for preserving the excised ovary alive and actively developing;

然后他讲到保持剥离卵存活、使之活跃发展的技术，

passed on to a consideration of optimum temperature, salinity, viscosity;

对最佳温度、最佳盐度和最佳部调度的考虑;

referred to the liquor in which the detached and ripened eggs were kept;

讲到用什么液体存放剥离的成熟卵。

and, leading his charges to the work tables, actually showed them how this liquor was drawn off from the test-tubes;

然后他把学生领到了工作台前，向他们实际展示了这种液体是怎样从试管里抽取的，

how it was let out drop by drop onto the specially warmed slides of the microscopes;

是怎样一滴一滴注入特别加温的显微镜玻片上的;

how the eggs which it contained were inspected for abnormalities, counted and transferred to a porous receptacle;

展示了液体中的卵子如有异常如何检查，卵子如何记数，如何转入一个有孔的容器里，

how (and he now took them to watch the operation) this receptacle was immersed in a warm bouillon containing free-swimming spermatozoa

那容器是如何浸入一种有精子自由游动的温暖的肉汤里的

–at a minimum concentration of one hundred thousand per cubic centimetre, he insisted;

——他强调肉汤里的精子浓度至少是每立方厘米十万(同时他领着他们观看操作)，

and how, after ten minutes, the container was lifted out of the liquor and its contents re-examined;

如何在十分钟后从液体里取出容器，再次检验其中的东西。

how, if any of the eggs remained unfertilized, it was again immersed, and, if necessary, yet again;

如果有的卵子还没有受精，又再浸泡一次，必要时还要再浸泡一次;

how the fertilized ova went back to the incubators; where the Alphas and Betas remained until definitely bottled;

然后受精卵便回到孵化器里，留下阿尔法们和比塔们，直到终于人瓶。

while the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons were brought out again, after only thirty-six hours, to undergo Bokanovsky's Process.

而伽马们、德尔塔们和爱扑塞隆们则要到三十六小时之后才重新取出，再进入波坎诺夫斯基程序。

"Bokanovsky's Process," repeated the Director, and the students underlined the words in their little notebooks.

“波坎诺夫斯基程序。”主任重复道，学生们在各自的小笔记本里的这个字下面画一道杠子。

One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide.

一个卵子形成一个胚胎，一个成人，这是常规。但是一个经过波坎诺夫斯基程序处理的卵子会萌蘖、增生、分裂，

From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult.

形成八至九十六个胚芽，每个胚芽可以成长为一个完整的胚胎，每一个胚胎成长为一个完整的成人。

Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.

以前一个受精卵只能生成一个人，现在能生成九十六个人。这就叫进步。