美丽新世界Brave New World 第7章(2)

Cloaks of turkey feathers fluttered from theirshoulders; huge feather diadems exploded gaudilyround their heads.

肩膀上扑扇着火鸡毛，巨大的翎冠在他们头顶鲜艳地撒开。

With every step they took came the clink and rattleof their silver bracelets, their heavy necklaces of boneand turquoise beads.

银手镯、骨项链和绿松石珠子随着每一步运动叮当作响。

They came on without a word, running quietly intheir deerskin moccasins.

两个人踏着鹿皮靴一声不响地跑上前来。

One of them was holding a feather brush; the other carried, in either hand, what looked at adistance like three or four pieces of thick rope. One of the ropes writhed uneasily, and suddenlyLenina saw that they were snakes.

有一个手上拿了一把羽毛掸子，另一个一只手各抓了三四条远看像是粗绳的东西，其中一条不舒服地扭动着。列宁娜突然发现那是蛇。

The men came nearer and nearer; their dark eyes looked at her, but without giving any sign ofrecognition, any smallest sign that they had seen her or were aware of her existence.

两人越走越近;他们的黑眼睛望见了她，却没有丝毫认识、看见、或意识到她的存在的表情。

The writhing snake hung limp again with the rest. The men passed.

那扭动的蛇懒懒地垂了下去，跟别的蛇一样了。两人走掉了。

"I don't like it," said Lenina. "I don't like it."

“我不喜欢，”列宁娜说，“不喜欢。”

She liked even less what awaited her at the entrance to the pueblo, where their guide had leftthem while he went inside for instructions.

向导把他们俩扔在那儿自己接受指示去了。更叫她不喜欢的东西正在石塘门口等待着她。

The dirt, to start with, the piles of rubbish, the dust, the dogs, the flies.

首先是垃圾堆、灰尘、狗和苍蝇。

Her face wrinkled up into a grimace of disgust. She held her handkerchief to her nose.

她的脸皱成了一团，表现了厌恶，用手绢捂住了嘴。

"But how can they live like this?" she broke out in a voice of indignant incredulity. (It wasn'tpossible.)

“他们这样怎么能够过日子?”她愤愤地叫出声来，难以相信。(太不像话了。)

Bernard shrugged his shoulders philosophically.

伯纳带哲学意味地耸了耸肩。

"Anyhow," he said, "they've been doing it for the last five or six thousand years.

“可毕竟，在已经过去的五六千年里他们就是这样过的。

So I suppose they must be used to it by now."

因此我估计他们现在早习惯了。”

"But cleanliness is next to fordliness," she insisted.

“但是‘清洁卫生与福帝为邻’。”她坚持说。

"Yes, and civilization is sterilization,"

“是的，‘文明卫生就是消毒杀菌’。”

Bernard went on, concluding on a tone of irony the second hypnop.dic lesson in elementaryhygiene.

伯纳接了下去，他用讽刺的口吻重复着睡眠教育里的卫生基础知识第二课。

"But these people have never heard of Our Ford, and they aren't civilized. So there's no point in…"

“可是这些人从来没有听说过我们的福帝，也不文明卫生。因此说这话毫无……。”

"Oh!" She gripped his arm. "Look."

“啊!她抓住他的胳臂，“看。”

An almost naked Indian was very slowly climbing down the ladder from the first-floor terraceof a neighboring house–rung after rung, with the tremulous caution of extreme old age.

一个几乎全裸的印第安人正从附近一幢房子二楼楼梯上非常缓慢地往下爬——一个非常衰老的人，谨慎地一级一级颤巍巍地往下挪。

His face was profoundly wrinkled and black, like a mask of obsidian.

脸很黑，有很深的皱纹，好像个黑曜石的面具。

The toothless mouth had fallen in. At the corners of the lips, and on each side of the chin, a fewlong bristles gleamed almost white against the dark skin.

没牙的嘴瘪了下去。嘴角与下巴两侧有几根长胡子，叫黑皮肤一衬，闪着几乎是白色的光。

The long unbraided hair hung down in grey wisps round his face.

没有编辫的头发披散下来，垂在脸上，呈一绝给的灰白。

His body was bent and emaciated to the bone, almost fleshless.

他全身佝偻，瘦骨嶙峋，几乎没有肉。

Very slowly he came down, pausing at each rung before he ventured another step.

他非常缓慢地下着楼梯，每冒险踏出一步都要在梯子横档上停一停。

"What's the matter with him?" whispered Lenina. Her eyes were wide with horror andamazement.

“他怎么了?”列宁娜低声地说，因为恐怖和惊讶瞪大了眼睛。

"He's old, that's all," Bernard answered as carelessly as he could.

“他只不过是老了而已。”帕纳尽可能满不在乎地回答。

He too was startled; but he made an effort to seem unmoved.

他也感到震惊，却竭力装出无动于衷的样子。