美麗新世界 Brave New World 第2章(4)

"Human beings used to be …" he hesitated; theblood rushed to his cheeks. "Well, they used to beviviparous."

“人類以前就是……”他猶豫了，血往面頰上涌，“胎生的。”

"Quite right." The Director nodded approvingly.

“很對。”主任贊許地點點頭。

"And when the babies were decanted …"

“那時在嬰兒換瓶的時候……”

"'Born,'" came the correction.

“出生’的時候。”他受到糾正。

"Well, then they were the parents–I mean, not the babies, of course; the other ones."

“晤……他們是父母生出來的——我的意思是，不是現(xiàn)在的嬰兒，當(dāng)然，而是那時的。”

The poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion.

可憐的孩子語無倫次了。

"In brief," the Director summed up, "the parents were the father and the mother."

“簡而言之，”主任總結(jié)道，“那時生孩子的就是爸爸和媽媽。”

The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys' eye-avoiding silence.

這話實際上是把真正科學(xué)的污物猛然向孩子們羞得不敢抬頭的沉默砸過去。

"Mother," he repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, "These," hesaid gravely, "are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant."

“媽媽，”他往椅子后面一靠，大聲重復(fù)著，把科學(xué)硬揉進(jìn)他們的腦子，“這些都是不愉快的事實，我明白。不過大部分的歷史事實都是不愉快的。”

He returned to Little Reuben–to Little Reuben, in whose room, one evening, by an oversight,

主任回頭又說起了小魯本——小魯本。有天晚上

his father and mother (crash, crash!) happened to leave the radio turned on.

小魯本的爸爸(一砸!)和媽媽(二砸!)不小心忘了關(guān)掉小魯本房里的收音機。

("For you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children werealways brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Centres.")

(因為，你必須記住，在那野蠻的胎生繁殖時代，孩子們都是在爸爸(又砸!)和媽媽(再砸!)身邊長大，而不是在國家的條件設(shè)置中心長大的。)

While the child was asleep, a broadcast programme from London suddenly started to comethrough;

在那孩子睡著的時候，倫敦的廣播節(jié)目突然開始了。

and the next morning, to the astonishment of his crash and crash (the more daring of theboys ventured to grin at one another), Little Reuben woke up repeating word for word a longlecture by that curious old writer.

第二天早上令他的砸和砸(較為膽大的孩子競偷偷彼此望著傻笑起來)大為吃驚的是，小魯本醒過來時竟能一字不差地背誦一個奇怪的老作家的長篇說教。

("one of the very few whose works have been permitted to come down to us"), GeorgeBernard Shaw,

那是少數(shù)幾個被允許把作品留給我們的老作家之一，名叫喬治悄伯納。

who was speaking, according to a well-authenticated tradition, about his own genius.

他正按照一種經(jīng)過考證確實存在過的傳統(tǒng)講述著自己的天才。

To Little Reuben's wink and snigger, this lecture was, of course, perfectly incomprehensibleand,

那些話當(dāng)然是完全聽不懂的，小魯本背誦時者擠眉弄眼，格格地笑著。

imagining that their child had suddenly gone mad, they sent for a doctor.

他們以為孩子發(fā)了瘋，急忙請來了醫(yī)生。

He, fortunately, understood English, recognized the discourse as that which Shaw hadbroadcasted the previous evening,

幸好醫(yī)生懂得英語，聽出了那就是肖伯納頭天晚上廣播的那段話。

realized the significance of what had happened, and sent a letter to the medical press about it.

醫(yī)生明白此事的意義，便寫信給醫(yī)學(xué)刊物報告了。

"The principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnop.dia, had been discovered." The D.H.C. made animpressive pause.

“于是發(fā)現(xiàn)了睡眠教育法，或稱‘眠教’的原則。”主任故意停頓了一下，引人注意。

The principle had been discovered; but many, many years were to elapse before that principlewas usefully applied.

原則倒是發(fā)現(xiàn)了，但把它運用于有利的實踐卻是許多許多年以后的事。

"The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model wasput on the market." (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all thestudents reverently followed suit.) "And yet …"

“小魯本的病例早在我主福帝的T型車推上市場以后不過二十三年就發(fā)生了，”(說到這里主任在肚子上畫了個T字。所有的學(xué)生也虔誠地照畫。)可是……”

Furiously the students scribbled. "Hypnop.dia, first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before?Two reasons. (a) …"

學(xué)生們拼命地記著。“睡眠教育，福帝二一四年正式使用。為什么不在以前使用?理由有二。……”

"These early experimenters," the D.H.C. was saying, "were on the wrong track. They thoughtthat hypnop.dia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …"

“這些早期的實驗者，”主任說道，“走錯了路，把睡眠教育當(dāng)做了智力培養(yǎng)的手段……”