美麗新世界Brave New World 第11章(8)

From behind a door in the corridor leading to theBeta-Minus geography room, a ringing soprano voicecalled, "One, two, three, four," and then, with aweary impatience, "As you were."

一個響亮的女高音在通向比塔減地理教室的走廊門后叫道，“一、二、三、四，”然后帶著疲倦的口氣說，“照做。”

"Malthusian Drill," explained the Head Mistress. "Most of our girls are freemartins, of course. I'm afreemartin myself."

“馬爾薩斯操，”校長解釋道，“當(dāng)然，我們的姑娘大部分都是不孕女，我自己就是。”

She smiled at Bernard.

她對伯納笑了笑。

But we have about eight hundred unsterilized ones who need constant drilling.

但是我們還有大約八百個沒有絕育的姑娘需要經(jīng)常操練。

In the Beta-Minus geography room John learnt that,a savage reservation is a placewhich,owing to unfavourable climatic or geological conditions, or poverty of natural resources,

約翰在比塔減教室的地理課學(xué)到了這樣的東西, 野蠻人保留地是由于氣候或地理條件不利，或天然資源缺乏，

has not been worth the expense of civilizing.

不值得花費功夫去文明化的地區(qū)。

A click; the room was darkened; and suddenly, on the screen above the Master's head, therewere the Penitentes of Acoma prostrating themselves before Our Lady, and wailing as John hadheard them wail,confessing their sins before Jesus on the Cross, before the eagle image ofPookong.

咔噠一聲，房間黑了。老師頭頂?shù)你y幕上,突然出現(xiàn)了阿科馬的悔罪人匍匐在圣母像面前的樣子。他們也匍匐在十字架上的耶穌面前和菩公的鷹像面前，哀號著悔罪(那是約翰以前聽見過的)。

The young Etonians fairly shouted with laughter.

年輕的伊頓學(xué)生喊叫起來，大笑起來。

Still wailing, the Penitentes rose to their feet, stripped off their upper garments and, withknotted whips, began to beat themselves, blow after blow.

悔罪人站起身子，仍然哀號著，脫下了上衣，開始一鞭一鞭地抽打自己。

Redoubled, the laughted drowned even the amplified record of their groans.

笑聲增加了四倍，悔罪人的呻吟聲雖被放大，卻仍被笑聲淹沒了。

"But why do they laugh?" asked the Savage in a pained bewilderment.

“可他們在笑什么?”野蠻人感到痛心的困惑，問道。

"Why?" The Provost turned towards him a still broadly grinning face.

“為什么?”院長向他轉(zhuǎn)過仍然滿是笑意的臉。

Why? But because it's so extraordinarily funny.

為什么?不就是因為好笑得太不平常了嘛。

In the cinematographic twilight, Bernard risked a gesture which, in the past, even totaldarkness would hardly have emboldened him to make.

在電影的昏暗里伯納冒險做出了他以前即使在漆黑之中也不敢做的動作。

Strong in his new importance, he put his arm around the Head Mistress's waist.

他仗恃新獲得的重要身份伸出胳臂，摟住了女校長的腰。

It yielded, willowily.

對方如楊柳輕搖般承受了。

He was just about to snatch a kiss or two and perhaps a gentle pinch, when the shuttersclicked open again.

他正打算偷吻她一兩次，或是輕輕捏她一把，百葉窗咔嗒一聲又打開了。