美丽新世界Brave New World 第8章(6)

 　　One day (John calculated later that it must have been soon after his twelfth birthday) he came home and found a book that he had never seen before Iying on the floor in the bedroom.

　　有一天（约翰后来算出那难是他十二岁生日后不久），他回家发现寝室地上有一本他从来没有见过的书。

　　It was a thick book and looked very old. The binding¹ had been eaten by mice; some of its pages were loose and crumpled².

　　那书很厚，样子很古老；书脊叫耗子咬坏了；有些书页散了，皱了。

　　He picked it up, looked at the title-page: the book was called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

　　他拣了起来，看了看书名页，那书叫做《威廉·莎士比亚全集》。

　　Linda was lying on the bed, sipping⁴ that horrible stinking⁵ mescal out of a cup.

　　琳妲躺在床上，从一个杯子里暖着一种非常难闻的美似可。

　　"Popé brought it," she said. Her voice was thick and hoarse⁶ like somebody else's voice.

　　“哪书是波培拿来的。”她说。她的嗓子又粗又吸，仿佛是别人的声音。

　　It was lying in one of the chests of the Antelope⁷ Kiva.

　　原放在羚羊圣窟的一个箱子里。

　　It's supposed to have been there for hundreds of years.

　　据说已经放了好几百年。

　　I expect it's true, because I looked at it, and it seemed to be full of nonsense.

　　我觉得说得对，因为我看了看，认为满是废话。

　　Uncivilized. Still, it'll be good enough for you to practice your reading on.

　　木文明，可是用来训练你读书还是可以的。

　　She took a last sip³, set the cup down on the floor beside the bed,

　　她喝完最后一口，把杯子放在床边地面上，

　　turned over on her side, hiccoughed once or twice and went to sleep.

　　转过身子，打了一两个嗝，睡着了。

　　He opened the book at random⁸.

　　他随意翻开了书。

　　Nay⁹, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stew'd in corruption¹⁰, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty …

　　不，而是生活在油渍斑斑汗臭薰人的床上。浸渍在腐败、调情和做爱里，下面是恶心的猪圈……

　　The strange words rolled through his mind; rumbled¹¹, like talking thunder;

　　那些奇怪的话在他心里翻腾，有如滚滚雷霆说的话；

　　like the drums at the summer dances, if the drums could have spoken; like the men singing the Corn Song, beautiful, beautiful, so that you cried;

　　有如夏令的舞会上的大鼓——若是鼓声也能表达意思的话；有如唱玉米之歌的男声，很美，很美，美得叫你想哭；

　　like old Mitsima saying magic over his feathers and his carved sticks and his bits of bone and stone–kiathla tsilu silokwe silokwe silokwe.Kiai silu silu, tsithl–but better than Mitsima's magic, because it meant more, because it talked to him, talked wonderfully and only half-understandably, a terrible beautiful magic, about Linda; about Linda lying there snoring, with the empty cup on the floor beside the bed; about Linda and Popé, Linda and Popé.

　　有如老米季马摇晃着羽翎。雕花手杖和石头和骨头物件时所念的咒语——佳特拉、其录、喜洛亏、喜洛亏、凄哀、喜卢、喜卢、其托——但比那咒语好，因为它有更多的意思，因为那是说给他听的；说得好极了，而且叫人听得似懂非懂，那是一种美丽得慑人的咒语，是关于琳妲，关于琳妲躺在那儿打呼喀，床前地上摆着空杯子的。是关于琳妲与波培，琳妲与波培的。

1 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

2 crumpled   

adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire. 她把那封信揉成一团扔进了火里。
• She flattened out the crumpled letter on the desk. 她在写字台上把皱巴巴的信展平。

3 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。

4 sipping   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She sat in the sun, idly sipping a cool drink. 她坐在阳光下懒洋洋地抿着冷饮。
• She sat there, sipping at her tea. 她坐在那儿抿着茶。

5 stinking   

adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透

参考例句：

• I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
• Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的！就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船！是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

6 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

7 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

8 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

9 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。

10 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

11 rumbled   

发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋）

参考例句：

• The machine rumbled as it started up. 机器轰鸣着发动起来。
• Things rapidly became calm, though beneath the surface the argument rumbled on. 事情迅速平静下来了，然而，在这种平静的表面背后争论如隆隆雷声，持续不断。