美麗新世界Brave New World 第7章(4)

At the further end of the room was anotherdoorway, through which came a shaft of surdightand the noise, very loud and close, of the drums.

房間的那頭又是一道門。陽光與鼓聲便是從那道門傳送來的。鼓聲很響亮，很近。

They stepped across the threshold and foundthemselves on a wide terrace.

他們跨過門檻發(fā)現(xiàn)自己來到了一片廣闊的臺地上，下面就是印第安人的廣場。

Below them, shut in by the tall houses, was thevillage square, crowded with Indians.

在他們下面，關(guān)中的高腳屋，是村里的廣場，擠滿了印度人。

Bright blankets, and feathers in black hair, and the glint of turquoise, and dark skins shiningwith heat.

明亮的毛毯，黑頭發(fā)里的羽毛，綠松石的閃光，暗皮膚熱的閃閃發(fā)光。

Lenina put her handkerchief to her nose again.

列寧娜又拿手絹捂住了鼻子。

In the open space at the centre of the square were two circular platforms of masonry andtrampled clay–the roofs,

廣場正中的空地上有兩個圓形的臺子，是石頭和夯實(shí)的土筑成的，顯然是地下室的房頂。

it was evident, of underground chambers; for in the centre of each platform was an openhatchway, with a ladder emerging from the lower darkness.

因?yàn)樵诿總€臺子正中都開有一個樓梯口，一架樓梯還架在下面，伸向黑暗。

A sound of subterranean flute playing came up and was almost lost in the steady remorselesspersistence of the drums.

地下有笛聲傳來，卻消失在持續(xù)不斷的殘忍的嘖嘖鼓點(diǎn)里。

Lenina liked the drums.

列寧娜喜歡那鼓聲。

Shutting her eyes she abandoned herself to their soft repeated thunder, allowed it to invadeher consciousness more and more completely, till at last there was nothing left in the worldbut that one deep pulse of sound.

她閉上眼睛聽任自已被那輕柔反復(fù)的雷鳴所左右，聽任它越來越完全地侵入她的意識，最后，除了那唯一的深沉的脈動聲，世界上便一無所有了。

It reminded her reassuringly of the synthetic noises made at Solidarity Services and Ford's Daycelebrations.

那聲音令她安慰地想起團(tuán)結(jié)祈禱和福帝日慶?；顒拥暮铣梢魳?。

"Orgy-porgy," she whispered to herself. These drums beat out just the same rhythms.

“歡快呀淋漓。”她悄悄地說道。這鼓點(diǎn)敲出的是同樣的節(jié)奏。

There was a sudden startling burst of singing–hundreds of male voices crying out fiercely inharsh metallic unison. A few long notes and silence, the thunderous silence of the drums;then shrill, in a neighing treble, the women's answer.

驚人的歌聲突然爆發(fā)——幾百條男性的喉嚨激烈地尖叫著，眾口一聲發(fā)出了刺耳的金屬般的合唱;幾個長音符，安靜了——雷鳴般的鼓點(diǎn)之后的安靜。然后便是女人的回答，唱的是最高音，尖利得像馬嘶。

Then again the drums; and once more the men's deep savage affirmation of their manhood.

接著又是鼓點(diǎn)。男人們再一次用深沉的聲音野蠻地證實(shí)了他們的男子漢氣概。

Queer–yes. The place was queer, so was the music, so were the clothes and the goitres and theskin diseases and the old people.

怪，是的。地點(diǎn)怪，音樂怪，衣服、瘤子、皮膚病和老年人都怪。

But the performance itself–there seemed to be nothing specially queer about that.

但是那表演卻似乎并不特別怪。

"It reminds me of a lower-caste Community Sing," she told Bernard.

“叫我想起低種姓的社區(qū)合唱。”她對伯納說。

But a little later it was reminding her a good deal less of that innocuous function.

可是不久以后那合唱令她想起的卻不是那種無害的效果了。

For suddenly there had swarmed up from those round chambers unterground a ghastly troop ofmonsters.

因?yàn)橛幸蝗邯b獰的魔鬼突然從那圓形的地下室里冒了出來。

Hideously masked or painted out of all semblance of humanity, they had tramped out astrange limping dance round the square;

他們帶著恐怖的面具，畫出非人的臉像，繞著廣場跳著一種奇怪的瘸腿舞。

round and again round, singing as they went, round and round–each time a little faster; andthe drums had changed and quickened their rhythm, so that it became like the pulsing offever in the ears; and the crowd had begun to sing with the dancers, louder and louder; andfirst one woman had shrieked, and then another and another, as though they were being killed;and then suddenly the leader of the dancers broke out of the line, ran to a big wooden chestwhich was standing at one end of the square, raised the lid and pulled out a pair of blacksnakes.

他們載歌載舞，一圈又一圈地跳著，唱著，一圈又一圈，一圈比一圈快。鼓聲變了，節(jié)奏加快了，聽上去好像發(fā)燒時的脈搏跳動。周圍的人也跟著唱了起來，聲音越來越大。一個女人開始尖叫，接著便一個又一個都尖叫起來，好像有人要?dú)⑺齻?。然后領(lǐng)舞的人離開了隊(duì)伍，跑到廣場盡頭一個大水柜子旁邊，打開蓋子，抓出了兩條黑蛇。