There was a letter from Hilda on the breakfast-tray. "Father is going to London this week, and I shall call for you on Thursday week, June 17th. You must be ready so that we can go at once. I don't want to waste time at Wragby, it's an awful place. I shall probably stay the night at Retford with the Colemans, so I should be with you for lunch, Thursday. Then we could start at teatime, and sleep perhaps in Grantham. It is no use our spending an evening with Clifford. If he hates your going, it would be no pleasure to him.” So! She was being pushed round on the chess-board again.
早餐盘上搁着希尔达的来信。“爸爸这个礼拜要去伦敦，六月十七日周四那天，我会去你家。你要提前准备好，我们就可以即刻启程。我不想在拉格比多做停留，那里实在太糟糕。我周三可能在雷特福德的科尔曼家过夜，周四应该可以与你共进午餐。下午茶的时候，我们便可动身，晚上或许留宿在格兰瑟姆。跟克利福德共度夜晚，对我们毫无益处。要是他不愿放你走，那只会让他更加难受。”看吧！她再度置身棋盘之上，任人摆布。
Clifford hated her going, but it was only because he didn't feel safe in her absence. Her presence, for some reason, made him feel safe, and free to do the things he was occupied with. He was a great deal at the pits, and wrestling in spirit with the almost hopeless problems of getting out his coal in the most economical fashion and then selling it when he'd got it out. He knew he ought to find some way of using it, or converting it, so that he needn't sell it, or needn't have the chagrin of failing to sell it. But if he made electric power, could he sell that or use it? And to convert into oil was as yet too costly and too elaborate. To keep industry alive there must be more industry, like a madness.
克利福德不愿她离开，但那只是因为她不在时，他会失去安全感。不知为什么，有她陪在身边，他会感到心安，可以放手去忙自己的事情。他多数时间呆在矿坑，绞尽脑汁地钻研着那些几乎无解的难题，怎样的采煤方式更省钱，如何才能将采出来的煤卖掉。他知道自己要找到利用煤的方式，或者将它转化成其他能源，这样就不必非得卖掉，自然也就无需担心销路。但如果将其转化为电能，出售好呢，还是自己使用好呢？如果将其转化成石油，代价过于高昂，且工艺过于繁复。要让产业存活下去，就必须创造出更多与之相关的产业，这确实是疯狂之举。
It was a madness, and it required a madman to succeed in it. Well, he was a little mad. Connie thought so. His very intensity and acumen in the affairs of the pits seemed like a manifestation of madness to her, his very inspirations were the inspirations of insanity.
既然是癫狂的举动，那么自然只有疯子才能取得成功。哦，他已经有些疯狂的味道。康妮就这样认为。对她而言，他对矿务的执着和敏感本身就是疯狂的表现，而他极端的灵感同样因癫狂而激发。
He talked to her of all his serious schemes, and she listened in a kind of wonder, and let him talk. Then the flow ceased, and he turned on the loudspeaker, and became a blank, while apparently his schemes coiled on inside him like a kind of dream.
他总将自己的宏伟计划讲给妻子听，而她只会故作惊讶，任他自说自话。口若悬河地讲完，他便会拧开收音机，变得死气沉沉，那些雄图大略则沦为某种梦境，深埋进他的内心世界。
And every night now he played pontoon, that game of the Tommies, with Mrs. Bolton, gambling with sixpences. And again, in the gambling he was gone in a kind of unconsciousness, or blank intoxication, or intoxication of blankness, whatever it was. Connie could not bear to see him. But when she had gone to bed, he and Mrs. Bolton would gamble on till two and three in the morning, safely, and with strange lust. Mrs. Bolton was caught in the lust as much as Clifford: the more so, as she nearly always lost.
如今，他每晚都会与博尔顿太太玩21点，这是英国行伍间喜闻乐见的纸牌游戏，以六便士作为赌注。赌牌的时候，他便会变得神志不清，陷入茫然的沉醉或者沉醉的茫然状态，鬼才分得清。康妮实在不忍见他变成这样。可她就寝之后，他和博尔顿太太仍不会罢手，奋战直至凌晨两三点，平平静静地，并带着一种奇怪的欲望。博尔顿太太沉溺的程度丝毫不逊克利福德，因为她几乎没有胜绩，可越是输，就越是着迷。
She told Connie one day: "I lost twenty-three shillings to Sir Clifford last night.” "And did he take the money from you?" asked Connie aghast.
有一天，她对康妮说：“我昨晚输给克利福德爵士23先令。”“他收下你的钱了吗？”康妮颇感惊讶地问。
"Why of course, my Lady! Debt of honour!"
“当然，夫人！这可是赌债！”
Connie expostulated roundly, and was angry with both of them. The upshot was, Sir Clifford raised Mrs. Bolton's wages a hundred a year, and she could gamble on that. Meanwhile, it seemed to Connie, Clifford was really going deader.
康妮狠狠申斥了两人，甚至大发雷霆。结果是，克利福德将博尔顿太太的年薪提高了100镑，她总算有了赌资。而在康妮心目中，克利福德的形象变得更加不可救药。
She told him at length she was leaving on the seventeenth.
她终于将行程告诉他，言明自己17日将会离开格拉比。
"Seventeenth!" He said. "And when will you be back?" "By the twentieth of July at the latest." "Yes! The twentieth of July." Strangely and blankly he looked at her, with the vagueness of a child, but with the queer blank cunning of an old man.
“17日！”他说。“那你什么时候回来？”“最迟7月20日。”“是吗？7月20号。”他失神落魄地怪怪地望着他，茫然的样子活像个孩子，但狡黠的神态又好似老朽。
"You won't let me down, now, will you?" he said.
“你不会让我失望，对吗？”他说。
"How?" "While you're away, I mean, you're sure to come back?” "I'm as sure as I can be of anything, that I shall come back.” "Yes! Well! Twentieth of July!"
“让你失望？”“我是说，你走之后，确定还会回来是吗？”“我肯定会回来，绝不食言。”“好吧！很好！7月20号！”
He looked at her so strangely.
他表情怪异地望着她。
Yet he really wanted her to go. That was so curious. He wanted her to go, positively, to have her little adventures and perhaps come home pregnant, and all that. At the same time, he was afraid of her going.
但在心里，他其实希望她走。这确实有些奇怪。他盼着她离开，盼着她遇到露水情缘，或许还能够怀胎而返。但与此同时，他又害怕她弃他而去。
She was quivering, watching her real opportunity for leaving him altogether, waiting till the time, herself himself should be ripe.
她激动得全身震颤，等待着真正机会的到来，可以完全脱离他的束缚，等待着她和他都成熟的一天。
She sat and talked to the keeper of her going abroad.
她坐在守林人家中，说起自己要出国旅行的事情。
"And then when I come back," she said, "I can tell Clifford I must leave him. And you and I can go away. They never need even know it is you. We can go to another country, shall we? To Africa or Australia. Shall we?" She was quite thrilled by her plan.
“等我回来，”她说，“就会跟克利福德摊牌，告诉他我要离开。你我便可以远走高飞。他们甚至都不会知道我的情郎是你。我们可以离开英国，不是吗？去非洲或者澳大利亚。没错吧？”讲到自己对未来的计划，康妮激动不已。
"You've never been to the Colonies, have you?" he asked her.
“你从未去过殖民地，对吧？”他问她。
"No! Have you?" "I've been in India, and South Africa, and Egypt.” "Why shouldn't we go to South Africa?” "We might!" He said slowly.
“没有！你呢？”“我去过印度、南非还有埃及。”“咱俩干嘛不去南非呢？”“或许可以去！”他慢吞吞地说。
"Or don't you want to?" she asked.
“或许你并不想去？”她问。
"I don't care. I don't much care what I do.” "Doesn't it make you happy? why not? we shan't be poor. I have about six hundred a year, I wrote and asked. It's not much, but it's enough, isn't it?” "It's riches to me.” "Oh, how lovely it will be!"
“我不在乎。去哪里我都无所谓。”“你不高兴吗？为什么？我们不会受穷的。我每年能得到600英镑，我之前写信问过。虽然不多，但也足够咱俩过活，不是吗？”“对我而言，已经算一大笔钱。”“噢，那时的生活该是多么美妙！”
"But I ought to get divorced, and so ought you, unless we're going to have complications.” There was plenty to think about.
“可我应该先办好离婚手续，你也一样，否则准会麻烦不断。”方方面面的事情，都要考虑周详。
Another day she asked him about himself. They were in the hut, and there was a thunderstorm.
还有一天，她问起他的过往。他俩呆在林间小屋里，外面雷雨交加。
"And weren't you happy, when you were a lieutenant and an officer and a gentleman?” "Happy? all right. I liked my Colonel." "Did you love him?" "Yes! I loved him." "And did he love you?" "Yes! In a way, he loved me." "Tell me about him." "What is there to tell? he had risen from the ranks. He loved the army. And he had never married. He was twenty years older than me. He was a very intelligent man: and alone in the army, as such a man is: a passionate man in his way: and a very clever officer. I lived under his spell while I was with him. I sort of let him run my life. And I never regret it.” "And did you mind very much when he died?" "I was as near death myself. But when I came to, I knew another part of me was finished. But then I had always known it would finish in death. All things do, as far as that goes." She sat and ruminated. The thunder crashed outside. It was like being in a little ark in the Flood.
“你以前做过中尉，身为军官和上等人，你觉得开心吗？”“开心？还好。我喜欢自己的上校。”“你爱他吗？”“是的！我爱他。”“他也爱你？”“没错！从某方面来讲，他的确爱我。”“跟我讲讲他的事情。”“从何说起呢？他出身行伍。他热爱军队。他终身未娶。比我年长20岁。他聪明睿智，独来独往，但却待人热诚，是个极有才能的军官。我在他麾下的时候，完全被他倾倒。我自始至终听命于他。并且心甘情愿。”“他撒手人寰，你肯定非常伤心？”“跟我自己死掉差不多。当我恢复健康，深知失去的情感永远无法再挽回。但我早知道结果会是如此。其实，这道理可以推及任何事情。”她坐在那里，反复思索着他的话。屋外雷声阵阵。这小屋就像大洪水中的一叶方舟。
"You seem to have such a lot behind you," she said.
“你的人生似乎有太多故事。”她说。
"Do I? It seems to me I've died once or twice already. Yet here I am, pegging on, and in for more trouble.” She was thinking hard, yet listening to the storm.
“是吗？我感觉自己已经死过一两次。但我依然活着，苟且偷生，准备迎接更多的烦忧。”她冥思苦想着，耳边暴风雨的怒号始终不绝。
"And weren't you happy as an officer and a gentleman, when your Colonel was dead?” "No! They were a mingy lot." he laughed suddenly. "The Colonel used to say: Lad, the English middle classes have to chew every mouthful thirty times because their guts are so narrow, a bit as big as a pea would give them a stoppage. They're the mingiest set of ladylike snipe ever invented: full of conceit of themselves, frightened even if their boot-laces aren't correct, rotten as high game, and always in the right. That's what finishes me up. Kow-tow, kow-tow, arse-licking till their tongues are tough: yet they're always in the right. Prigs on top of everything. Prigs! A generation of ladylike prigs with half a ball each—” Connie laughed. The rain was rushing down.
“上校死后，你依然享受作为军官和上层人士的生活吗？”“不！他们都太过卑劣。”他突然笑出声来。“上校曾经说过：孩子，英国的中产阶级们每吃一口饭，必须咀嚼30下，因为他们的肠道太窄，即使是颗豌豆，也会将其阻塞。他们卑鄙下流，世间罕有，跟娘们无异。他们自视甚高，鞋带系错，都会大惊小怪。他们如腐肉般糜烂，且总自以为是。我就毁在他们手里。卑躬屈膝，溜须拍马，舔屁股舔得舌头都生茧，但依然自以为是。自命不凡到了极点。假道学！这代人都是自鸣得意的道学先生，其实不过是只有半个睾丸的娘娘腔……”康妮笑了起来。雨如倾盆。
"He hated them!"
“他恨他们！”
"No," said he. "He didn't bother. He just disliked them. There's a difference. Because, as he said, the Tommies are getting just as priggish and half-balled and narrow-gutted. It's the fate of mankind, to go that way.” "The common people too, the working people?" "All the lot. Their spunk is gone dead. Motor-cars and cinemas and aeroplanes suck that last bit out of them. I tell you, every generation breeds a more rabbity generation, with india rubber tubing for guts and tin legs and tin faces. Tin people! It's all a steady sort of bolshevism just killing off the human thing, and worshipping the mechanical thing. Money, money, money! All the modern lot get their real kick out of killing the old human feeling out of man, making mincemeat of the old Adam and the old Eve. They're all alike. The world is all alike: kill off the human reality, a quid for every foreskin, two quid for each pair of balls. What is cunt but machine—fucking! It's all alike. Pay 'em money to cut off the world's cock. Pay money, money, money to them that will take spunk out of mankind, and leave 'em all little twiddling machines.” He sat there in the hut, his face pulled to mocking irony. Yet even then, he had one ear set backwards, listening to the storm over the wood. It made him feel so alone.
“不。”他说。“他才不会自寻烦恼。他只是厌恶他们。这两者存在着本质区别。正如他所说，因为英国大兵变得道貌岸然，不男不女，且心胸狭窄。人类的命运本该如此。”“平民百姓，工人阶级也一样吗？”“半斤八两。他们变得毫无勇气。仅存的斗志都被汽车、电影乃至飞机蚕食干净。听我说，一代不如一代，弹性橡胶做成内脏，金钱搭成双腿和脸。拜金的人类！某种布尔什维克主义思想将人性消灭殆尽，却对机械顶礼膜拜。金钱，金钱，还是金钱！所有现代人都将乐此不疲，将人类古老的情感毁灭，让自然质朴的人性彻底消亡。他们没什么两样。世界都是如此，扼杀人类的本性，每块包皮20先令，每对睾丸40先令。阴道算什么，只不过是性交的——工具！大同小异。只要付钱，他们就会将整个世界阉割。只要付钱，他们便会将人类的血性攫取，只留下些微不足道的运转的机器。”他坐在小屋里，脸上挂着鄙夷讥讽的神色。但甚至此时此刻，他仍保持着警觉，用一只耳朵倾听着林中暴风雨的肆虐。这样的狂风暴雨，让他感到异常孤寂。
"But won't it ever come to an end?" she said.
“可这种状况不会走向终结吗？”她问。
"Ay, it will. It'll achieve its own salvation. When the last real man is killed, and they're all tame: white, black, yellow, all colours of tame ones: then they'll all be insane. Because the root of sanity is in the balls. Then they'll all be insane, and they'll make their grand ~auto da fe. You know auto da fe means act of faith? Ay, well, they'll make their own grand little act of faith. They'll offer one another up.” "You mean kill one another?" "I do, duckie! If we go on at our present rate then in a hundred years'time there won't be ten thousand people in this island: there may not be ten. They'll have lovingly wiped each other out. The thunder was rolling further away.
“是呀，会的。世界将会完成自我救赎。当最后一个有血性的人类被消灭，当世人都变得驯服，白种人、黑种人、黄种人，各色人种都难逃宿命，变得驯服继而疯癫。因为健全的心智根植于睾丸之中。当世人尽数疯癫，他们便会召开盛大的判决仪式。判决仪式是种宗教行为，你知道吧？是呀，他们将举行自己的宗教仪式。他们会将彼此献为祭品。”“你是说，他们会彼此杀戮？”“没错，甜心！如果按照现在的情形发展下去，100年后，大不列颠岛的人口将不足一万，甚至可能都不会有十个人。他们会痛快地将彼此赶尽杀绝。”轰鸣的雷声渐渐远去。
"How nice!" She said.
“太棒了！”她说。
"Quite nice! To contemplate the extermination of the human species and the long pause that follows before some other species crops up, it calms you more than anything else. And if we go on in this way, with everybody, intellectuals, artists, government, industrialists and workers all frantically killing off the last human feeling, the last bit of their intuition, the last healthy instinct; if it goes on in algebraical progression, as it is going on: then ta-tah! To the human species! Goodbye! Darling! The serpent swallows itself and leaves a void, considerably messed up, but not hopeless. Very nice! When savage wild dogs bark in Wragby, and savage wild pit-ponies stamp on Tevershall pit-bank! TE DEUM LAUDAMUS!” Connie laughed, but not very happily.
“棒极了！试想一下，人类最终灭绝后，其他物种出现前，地球将经历漫长的空白阶段，这比任何事都能令你感到平静。如果现在的状况继续下去，所有人，知识分子、艺术家、政府官员、实业家以及工人阶级，都陷入疯狂的境地，将人类仅存的情感、直觉，以及残余的健康本能彻底消灭。如果这种情况如代数式般蔓延开来，正如当下这样，那么就拜拜吧！跟人类说拜拜吧！再见！亲爱的！蛇将自己吞掉，只留虚空，虽说情况好似乱麻，但并非全无希望。太棒了！凶神恶煞的野狗在拉格比狂吠，野马践踏着特弗沙尔的矿坑！赞美你，主啊！”康妮露出笑容，但却有几分苦涩。
"Then you ought to be pleased that they are all bolshevists," she said. "You ought to be pleased that they hurry on towards the end." "So I am. I don't stop 'em. Because I couldn't if I would.” "Then why are you so bitter?" "I'm not! If my cock gives its last crow, I don't mind.” "But if you have a child?" she said.
“人人都变成布尔什维克，你应该感到开心才对。”她说。“大家争先恐后地赴死，你应该感到快乐。”“是的。我不会劝阻他们。因为我爱莫能助。”“那你为什么这样痛苦？”“我没有！即使我的雄鸡发出最后的悲啼，我也无所谓。”“可要是你有个孩子呢？”她问。
He dropped his head.
他垂下头。
"Why," he said at last. "It seems to me a wrong and bitter thing to do, to bring a child into this world." "No! Don't say it! Don't say it!” She pleaded. "I think I'm going to have one. Say you'll he pleased." she laid her hand on his.
“唉，”他终于说。“对我而言，将无辜的孩子带到这个腐朽的世界，简直就是造孽。”“不！别这么说！别这么说！”她央求着。“我想我就快有个宝宝了。告诉我你会很开心。”她握住他的手。
"I'm pleased for you to be pleased," he said. "But for me it seems a ghastly treachery to the unborn creature.
“你开心我就会开心。”他说。“但我觉得那实在太对不起未出世的孩子。”
"Ah no!" She said, shocked. "Then you can't ever really want me! You can't want me, if you feel that!”
“噢，不！”她说，情绪异常激动。“那就是说，你从未真正想过拥有我！如果你那样想，便从未真正想要我！”
Again he was silent, his face sullen. Outside there was only the threshing of the rain.
他再度陷入沉默，板起面孔。外面只剩噼啪的雨声。
"It's not quite true!” She whispered. "It's not quite true! There's another truth." she felt he was bitter now partly because she was leaving him, deliberately going away to Venice. And this half pleased her.
“这不是真的！”她低声说。“这不是真的！肯定还有别的原因。”她觉得他之所以如此痛苦，部分也是因为舍不得自己远赴威尼斯。这不禁让她暗自得意。
She pulled open his clothing and uncovered his belly, and kissed his navel. Then she laid her cheek on his belly and pressed her arm round his warm, silent loins. They were alone in the flood.
她拉开他的上衣，露出小腹，在他的肚脐上亲吻着。接着，她把脸颊贴在他的小腹上，紧紧搂住他温热娴静的腰身。滚滚洪流中，只剩他二人相依为命。
"Tell me you want a child, in hope!" She murmured, pressing her face against his belly. "Tell me you do!" "Why!" He said at last: and she felt the curious quiver of changing consciousness and relaxation going through his body. "Why I've thought sometimes if one but tried, here among th'colliers even! They're workin' bad now, an' not earnin' much. If a man could say to 'em: Dunna think o' nowt but th' money. When it comes ter WANTS, we want but little. Let's not live for money—” She softly rubbed her cheek on his belly, and gathered his balls in her hand. The penis stirred softly, with strange life, but did not rise up. The rain beat bruisingly outside.
“告诉我你想要个孩子，期盼有个孩子！”她咕哝着，脸部挤压着他的小腹。“告诉我你这么想！”“唉！”他总算做出回应，她感觉到他的身体奇异地颤抖着，似乎是因为想法正发生变化，情绪慢慢放松下来。“有时候我会想，总要有人敢于尝试，甚至是在矿工们中间！他们几乎无活可干，也挣不到什么钱。如果有人对他们说：别光想着钱。若说到需要，我们需要的其实并不多。只是别再为钱而活……”她的脸颊在他的小腹上温柔地磨蹭，将他的睾丸握在手中。柔软的阴茎微微颤动着，但却并未变得坚挺。雨水肆意敲打着外面的世界。
"Let's live for summat else. Let's not live ter make money, neither for us-selves nor for anybody else. Now we're forced to. We're forced to make a bit for us-selves, an'a fair lot for th'bosses. Let's stop it! Bit by bit, let's stop it. We needn't rant an'rave. Bit by bit, let's drop the whole industrial life an'go back. The least little bit o'money'll do. For everybody, me an'you, bosses an'masters, even th'king. The least little bit o'money'll really do. Just make up your mind to it, an'you've got out o'th'mess." he paused, then went on: "An' I'd tell 'em: Look! Look at Joe! He moves lovely! Look how he moves, alive and aware. He's beautiful! An'look at Jonah! He's clumsy, he's ugly, because he's niver willin'to rouse himself I'd tell 'em: look! Look at yourselves! One shoulder higher than t' other, legs twisted, feet all lumps! What have yer done ter yerselves, wI'the blasted work? Spoilt yerselves. No need to work that much. Take yer clothes off an' look at yourselves. Yer ought ter be alive an' beautiful, an' yer ugly an'half dead. So I'd tell 'em. An' I'd get my men to wear different clothes: appen close red trousers, bright red, an'little short white jackets. Why, if men had red, fine legs, that alone would change them in a month. They'd begin to be men again, to be men! An'the women could dress as they liked. Because if once the men walked with legs close bright scarlet, and buttocks nice and showing scarlet under a little white jacket: then the women 'ud begin to be women. It's because th'men aren't men, that th'women have to be.—An'in time pull down Tevershall and build a few beautiful buildings, that would hold us all. An' clean the country up again. An' not have many children, because the world is overcrowded.
“让我们为别的东西而活。别再为挣钱而活，不管是为自己挣钱还是为别人挣钱。现在，我们都是不得已而为之。挣到的钱少部分归自己，绝大多数进入老板的腰包，我们迫不得已接受这种现状。不能再继续下去！让我们逐渐做出改变。我们无需咆哮，无需怒吼。让我们一步步抛弃工业化的生活，返朴归真。说到钱，其实仅需一点，便可维持生计。对所有人而言都是如此，无论你我，王孙贵胄，甚至是高高在上的君主。只需最微薄的金钱便可过活。只要下定决心，就能跳脱出这泥沼。”他稍作停顿，又接着说：“我会这样对他们说：瞅瞅！瞅瞅乔吧！他走路的样子真美！活力四射，灵活敏捷。他多么潇洒！再瞧瞧约拿！他笨拙丑陋，因为从不愿高昂起头。我会对他们说：看吧！看看你们自己！肩膀高低不齐，走路伸不直腿，迈不开步！这天杀的工作究竟将你们折腾成啥样子？你们自取灭亡。根本无需如此拼命地劳作。脱掉衣裳，看看你们的身躯。你们本该充满活力与美感，但却丑陋无比，半死不活。我会这样对他们说。我会让乡亲们穿上与众不同的衣衫：鲜红色的紧身裤，配小巧的白色短夹克。穿上红色紧身裤，只消一个月，男人们便能改头换面。他们将重新成为男人，成为男子汉！女人穿什么则随意。因为如果男人穿着鲜红色紧身裤，走起路来，白夹克下面那诱人的屁股蛋儿若隐若现，女人也就会变回女人。因为男人不是男人，女人自然也非女人。——最后，将特弗沙尔夷为平地，盖几栋美轮美奂的大厦，大家在里面安居乐业。将乡野涤荡一清。别生太多孩子，因为世界已经过于拥挤。”
"But I wouldn't preach to the men: only strip 'em an' say: look at yourselves! That's workin'for money! Hark at yourselves! That's working for money. You've been working for money! Look at Tevershall! It's horrible. That's because it was built while you was working for money. Look at your girls! They don't care about you, you don't care about them. It's because you've spent your time working an'caring for money. You can't talk nor move nor live, you can't properly be with a woman. You're not alive. Look at yourselves!” There fell a complete silence. Connie was half listening, and threading in the hair at the root of his belly a few forget-me-nots that she had gathered on the way to the hut. Outside, the world had gone still, and a little icy.
“我没有说教的意思，只是想剥去他们的旧皮囊，告诉大家：瞧瞧你们的可怜相！这就是为金钱卖命的结果！听听你们的蠢话！这就是为金钱奔忙的下场。你们始终为金钱卖命！看看特弗沙尔！已经成为如此可怖的地方！那是因为你们只顾为钱奔忙，根本无暇建设自己的家园。看看你们的女人！她们不关心你们，你们也不在意她们。因为你们将时间都用来赚钱，心里只在乎金钱。你们说不好话，走不好路，过不好日子，甚至连自己的女人都满足不了。你们全无活力。看看你们的窝囊样！”两人都不再做声。康妮听他说话时有些心不在焉，手拿来时路上采撷的几朵勿忘我，穿过他小腹根部的毛丛。外面的世界已经陷入寂静，微露寒意。
"You've got four kinds of hair," she said to him. "On your chest it's nearly black, and your hair isn't dark on your head: but your moustache is hard and dark red, and your hair here, your love-hair, is like a little brush of bright red-gold mistletoe. It's the loveliest of all!”
“你的毛发有四种颜色。”她对他说。“黑色的胸毛，褐色的头发，暗红色的硬胡茬，而这儿的毛发，你的阴毛，则好像一小丛金红色的槲寄生。而它也是所有毛发中最美丽的！”
He looked down and saw the milky bits of forget-me-nots in the hair on his groin.
他低头看着自己的腹股沟，阴毛丛中绽放着几朵乳白色的勿忘我。
"Ay! That's where to put forget-me-nots, in the man-hair, or the maiden-hair. But don't you care about the future?” She looked up at him.
“唉！这儿真是摆放勿忘我的佳处，不管男女。可难道你丝毫不关心未来吗？”她抬头望着他。
"Oh, I do, terribly!" She said.
“噢，当然，我非常关心将来！”她说。
"Because when I feel the human world is doomed, has doomed itself by its own mingy beastliness, then I feel the Colonies aren't far enough. The moon wouldn't be far enough, because even there you could look back and see the earth, dirty, beastly, unsavoury among all the stars: made foul by men. Then I feel I've swallowed gall, and it's eating my inside out, and nowhere's far enough away to get away. But when I get a turn, I forget it all again. Though it's a shame, what's been done to people these last hundred years: men turned into nothing but labour-insects, and all their manhood taken away, and all their real life. I'd wipe the machines off the face of the earth again, and end the industrial epoch absolutely, like a black mistake. But since I can't, an' nobody can, I'd better hold my peace, an' try an'live my own life: if I've got one to live, which I rather doubt.” The thunder had ceased outside, but the rain which had abated, suddenly came striking down, with a last blench of lightning and mutter of departing storm. Connie was uneasy. He had talked so long now, and he was really talking to himself not to her. Despair seemed to come down on him completely, and she was feeling happy, she hated despair. She knew her leaving him, which he had only just realized inside himself had plunged him back into this mood. And she triumphed a little.
“因为我深知，人类卑劣的兽性已经不可救药，世界注定难逃覆灭，我觉得自己距离殖民地并不遥远。月亮也并非遥不可及，因为甚至在那儿，你也可回望地球，审视繁星中的这颗行星，因为人类的罪孽，变得如此肮脏野蛮，令人生厌。那时，我感觉自己满心怨恨，灵魂彻底被吞噬，去哪里避难都不嫌远。但转念一想，又会将一切都抛诸脑后。虽然近百年来，统治阶层对劳苦大众的所作所为可耻到极点。人们变成只知劳作的昆虫，男子气概荡然无存，美好的生活全被剥夺。我希望将机器从地球表面清除干净，彻底终结工业时代，像修正荒谬的错误。但我做不到，没人做得到，我只好保持沉默，尝试过只属于自己的生活，当然，这种生活是否存在，我始终抱有怀疑。”外面的雷声已息，但先前渐弱的雨刹那间再度倾泻如注，伴随着最后的厉闪，以及渐渐远去的闷雷。康妮不安起来。他刚才的滔滔不绝，只是在自说自话，而并非对她倾诉。绝望的情绪似乎完全将他攫住，但她却暗自开心，她憎恶绝望。她知道自己将要离开他，而他的内心也已品尝到离别的苦楚，这让他再度陷入痛苦绝望的情绪里。而她则觉得有几分得意。
She opened the door and looked at the straight heavy rain, like a steel curtain, and had a sudden desire to rush out into it, to rush away. She got up, and began swiftly pulling off her stockings, then her dress and underclothing, and he held his breath. Her pointed keen animal breasts tipped and stirred as she moved. She was ivory-coloured in the greenish light. She slipped on her rubber shoes again and ran out with a wild little laugh, holding up her breasts to the heavy rain and spreading her arms, and running blurred in the rain with the eurhythmic dance movements she had learned so long ago in Dresden. It was a strange pallid figure lifting and falling, bending so the rain beat and glistened on the full haunches, swaying up again and coming belly-forward through the rain, then stooping again so that only the full loins and buttocks were offered in a kind of homage towards him, repeating a wild obeisance.
她敞开门，望着屋外滂沱的大雨，心里突然蹦出个念头，想冲出去，冲破这张铁幕。她站起身来，快速剥去长袜，脱掉裙子和内衣，身旁的他则屏住了呼吸。那壮实、高耸的乳房，随着她的动作而摇摆起伏。淡绿色的夜光中，她呈现出象牙般的色泽。她再度蹬上橡胶鞋，发出些狂野的笑声，挺着胸膛，张开臂膀，跑进朦胧的雨水里，跳起昔日在德累斯顿学到的韵律舞蹈。她变成个奇异的灰影，忽高忽低，时弯时直，雨水洒落在她饱满的臀部，闪烁着耀目的光芒。她猛地后仰起身躯，将小腹迎向暴雨，接着有向前弓起身体，将整个腰臀都暴露在他的眼前，向他表示敬意，重复着野性的礼仪。
He laughed wryly, and threw off his clothes. It was too much. He jumped out, naked and white, with a little shiver, into the hard slanting rain. Flossie sprang before him with a frantic little bark. Connie, her hair all wet and sticking to her head, turned her hot face and saw him. Her blue eyes blazed with excitement as she turned and ran fast, with a strange charging movement, out of the clearing and down the path, the wet boughs whipping her. She ran, and he saw nothing but the round wet head, the wet back leaning forward in flight, the rounded buttocks twinkling: a wonderful cowering female nakedness in flight.
他怪笑着，除去自己身上的负累。简直妙不可言。他白皙的裸体微微战栗着，跳出小屋，冲进斜注的暴雨里。弗洛西先他一步冲出屋门，发出短促的狂吠。康妮湿透的秀发贴在头上，她转过热气腾腾的面庞，看到紧随其后的他。她转过身，以冲刺的速度怪异地向前飞奔，冲出林间空地，跑上通幽小径，任潮湿的枝条抽打着她的身体，但那对蓝色的眸子闪着兴奋的光芒。她奔跑着，而在他眼中，只看到湿漉漉浑圆的后脑，前倾飞奔着的脊背，晶莹闪亮的饱满臀丘：一位受惊逃遁的裸体美妇。
She was nearly at the wide riding when he came up and flung his naked arm round her soft, naked-wet middle. She gave a shriek and straightened herself and the heap of her soft, chill flesh came up against his body. He pressed it all up against him, madly, the heap of soft, chilled female flesh that became quickly warm as flame, in contact. The rain streamed on them till they smoked. He gathered her lovely, heavy posteriors one in each hand and pressed them in towards him in a frenzy, quivering motionless in the rain. Then suddenly he tipped her up and fell with her on the path, in the roaring silence of the rain, and short and sharp, he took her, short and sharp and finished, like an animal.
没等她跑到宽阔的马道，他已经追上来，伸出赤裸的双臂，搂住那光溜溜的柔软腰肢。她发出尖叫，挺直身体，温柔但却冰冷的肉体紧紧抵住他的身躯。他发狂似的抱住这娇躯，两具肉体交缠在一起，立刻甩却寒意，变得如火焰般炽热。雨水浇注在两人身上，升腾起阵阵雾气。他紧紧抓住那沉甸甸的美妙臀丘，疯狂地将它们压向自己的身体，在雨中颤抖着，动也不动。接着，他突然将她抱起，双双倒在地上。咆哮的雨声将这方天地遮蔽得格外静谧。他如同野兽般，迅速而猛烈地将她占有，又迅速而猛烈地完结。
He got up in an instant, wiping the rain from his eyes.
完事后，他立即站起身来，擦去蒙住眼睛的雨水。
"Come in," he said, and they started running back to the hut. He ran straight and swift: he didn't like the rain. But she came slower, gathering forget-me-nots and campion and bluebells, running a few steps and watching him fleeing away from her.
“回屋去吧。”他说完，便与她一道往小屋跑去。他健步如飞，不做任何停留，因为并不喜欢雨水。但她却跑得慢些，采摘着勿忘我、剪秋萝和风铃草，没跑几步，就眼睁睁看着他消失在视线之外。
When she came with her flowers, panting to the hut, he had already started a fire, and the twigs were crackling. Her sharp breasts rose and fell, her hair was plastered down with rain, her face was flushed ruddy and her body glistened and trickled. Wide-eyed and breathless, with a small wet head and full, trickling, naïve haunches, she looked another creature.
当她捧着花，气喘吁吁地回到小屋，他已经燃起炉火，柴枝烧得噼啪直响。她坚挺的胸部高低起伏，湿透的秀发紧贴着身体，脸庞绯红，娇躯闪亮，淌着涓涓细流。她瞪大眼睛，呼吸急促，小圆脑袋湿漉漉的，纯洁丰盈的臀部滴着水，看上去像是天外来客。
He took the old sheet and rubbed her down, she standing like a child. Then he rubbed himself having shut the door of the hut. The fire was blazing up. She ducked her head in the other end of the sheet, and rubbed her wet hair.
他拿出条旧床单，为她拭去雨水，而她站立的姿势像个孩子。他关上屋门，接着将自己擦干。炉火熊熊燃烧着。她垂下头，用床单的另一端擦拭着发丝。
"We're drying ourselves together on the same towel, we shall quarrel!" he said.
“我们用同条毛巾擦拭身体，这可是争吵的前兆！”他说。
She looked up for a moment, her hair all odds and ends.
她抬头端详了一会儿，头发乱蓬蓬的。
"No!"
“不对！”
She said, her eyes wide. "It's not a towel, it's a sheet.” And she went on busily rubbing her head, while he busily rubbed his.
她睁大眼睛，说。“那不是毛巾，是床单。”两人都忙着擦干自己的头发。
Still panting with their exertions, each wrapped in an army blanket, but the front of the body open to the fire, they sat on a log side by side before the blaze, to get quiet. Connie hated the feel of the blanket against her skin. But now the sheet was all wet.
刚才的鏖战让他们仍旧不住地喘息，两人各裹着一条军毯，肩并肩坐在炉火前的一根圆木上，身体的前端朝向火焰，都不做声。康妮讨厌毯子裹住皮肤的感觉。但此时床单已经湿透。
She dropped her blanket and kneeled on the clay hearth, holding her head to the fire, and shaking her hair to dry it. He watched the beautiful curving drop of her haunches. That fascinated him today. How it sloped with a rich down-slope to the heavy roundness of her buttocks! And in between, folded in the secret warmth, the secret entrances!
她丢开军毯，跪在粘土夯成的炉边，将头前倾，拨弄着自己的秀发，想要烘干它们。他凝望着她美妙的臀部曲线。今天令他意乱情迷的正是这里。那曲线顺着两片沉重饱满的臀丘倾斜而下。而两股之间，则隐藏着神秘温热的入口！
He stroked her tail with his hand, long and subtly taking in the curves and the globe-fullness.
他爱抚着她的臀部，动作轻缓温柔，享受着那曼妙的曲线以及丰满的臀球。
"Tha's got such a nice tail on thee," he said, in the throaty caressive dialect. "Tha's got the nicest arse of anybody. It's the nicest, nicest woman's arse as is! An'ivery bit of it is woman, woman sure as nuts. Tha'rt not one o'them button-arsed lasses as should be lads, are ter! Tha's got a real soft sloping bottom on thee, as a man loves in 'is guts. It's a bottom as could hold the world up, it is!” All the while he spoke he exquisitely stroked the rounded tail, till it seemed as if a slippery sort of fire came from it into his hands. And his finger-tips touched the two secret openings to her body, time after time, with a soft little brush of fire.
“恁的屁股太棒了。”他说，喉音极重的方言饱含这柔情。“恁拥有人间最美丽的屁股。这是世上最妙不可言的屁股！每一寸肌肤都展现出女性的魅力，让人神魂颠倒。恁可不像那些屁股好似钮扣的女孩，她们跟男人没啥两样。恁的屁股柔如无骨，曲线玲珑，让男人心驰神往。若没有它，整个世界将失去平衡！”他边说，边热烈地抚摸着那浑圆的臀部，慢慢感觉到一股飘忽的火焰从其间升腾而起，烤炙着他的双手。他的指尖轻触那两个秘密洞穴，反复游移，温柔的欲火撩拨着彼此的心灵。
"An' if tha shits an'if tha pisses, I'm glad. I don't want a woman as couldna shit nor piss.” Connie could not help a sudden snort of astonished laughter, but he went on unmoved.
“要是恁能拉点屎，或者撒泡尿，我准会高兴的。我可不想要个不拉不尿的圣女。”康妮按耐不住心中的诧异，笑得前仰后合，但他却丝毫不为所动。
"Tha 'rt real, tha art! Tha 'art real, even a bit of a bitch. Here tha shits an'here tha pisses: an'I lay my hand on 'em both an'like thee for it. I like thee for it. Tha's got a proper, woman's arse, proud of itself. It's none ashamed of itself this isna.” He laid his hand close and firm over her secret places, in a kind of close greeting.
“恁毫不造作，无比真实！真实得甚至有些淫荡。这是恁拉屎的地儿，这是恁撒尿的地儿，俺用手盖住这两处，它们让俺更加爱恁。它们让俺对恁更加着迷。恁的屁股浑然天成，女人的性感十足，自傲啊。它倒是真没什么可羞愧的地方。”他的手按压着那两点秘处，像是致以亲切的问候。
"I like it," he said. "I like it! An'if I only lived ten minutes, an' stroked thy arse an' got to know it, I should reckon I'd lived one life, see ter! Industrial system or not! Here's one o'my lifetimes.” She turned round and climbed into his lap, clinging to him. "Kiss me! "she whispered.
“我爱它。”他说。“我爱它！要是俺只剩十分钟命，却能抚摸这美臀，与它变得熟稔，这辈子也算没白活了。恁晓得吗？管它工业制度，还是别的什么！今天是俺生命中足可铭记的日子。”她转过身，趴在他的大腿上，紧紧依偎着他。“吻我！”她柔声说。
And she knew the thought of their separation was latent in both their minds, and at last she was sad.
她明白彼此的心中充满离愁别绪，她也体味到悲伤的感觉。
She sat on his thighs, her head against his breast, and her ivory-gleaming legs loosely apart, the fire glowing unequally upon them. Sitting with his head dropped, he looked at the folds of her body in the fire-glow, and at the fleece of soft brown hair that hung down to a point between her open thighs. He reached to the table behind, and took up her bunch of flowers, still so wet that drops of rain fell on to her.
她坐在他的大腿上，头靠着他的胸膛，慵懒分开的双腿闪烁着淡黄色的光芒，炉火或明或暗地映红了两人的身躯。在火光的照耀下，他低头看着她曼妙的身姿，看着那簇柔软的褐色毛发，蔓延于敞开的双股间，直抵那幽深的洞穴。他把手伸到桌子后面，拿起她采撷的那束鲜花，花朵依然湿润，数滴雨水滴落在她身上。