The Machine hums! Did you know that?

大机器嗡嗡响着！您过去知道那个吗？

Its hum penetrates our blood, and may even guide our thoughts.

它的嗡嗡响声穿进我们的血液甚至可能指导我们的思想。

Who knows! I was getting beyond its power.

谁知道呢？我当时正在超出它的威力。

Then I thought: "This silence means that I am doing wrong."

随后我这样想：“这种寂静意味着我是在做错事。”

But I heard voices in the silence, and again they strengthened me." He laughed.

可是在寂静中，我听到了说话的声音，这声音又一次给了我力量。”

"I had need of them. The next moment I cracked my head against something."

他大笑起来。“我当时需要这些说话声。没有一会儿，我一下子撞到什么东西上面了。”

She sighed. "I had reached one of those pneumatic stoppers that defend us from the outer air.

她叹了一口气。“我已经走到那些空气制动器当中的一个，那些空气制动器是预防我们接触外界空气的。

You may have noticed them no the air- ship.

您坐在飞艇里可能已经看见过那些制动器了。

Pitch dark, my feet on the rungs of an invisible ladder, my hands cut;

一片漆黑，我的两脚登上一个看不见的梯子的梯阶上，我的两手划破了；

I cannot explain how I lived through this part, but the voices till comforted me, and I felt for fastenings.

我无法解释我怎么活过了着一段，但那说话的声音还在安慰着我，我摸索着寻找支撑的东西。

The stopper, I suppose, was about eight feet across. I passed my hand over it as far as I could reach.

那个制动器，我估量着约有8英尺宽。我用手摸索它，我摸索到能够达到的地方。

It was perfectly smooth. I felt it almost to the centre.

它是十分光滑的。我觉得我差不多摸到了它的中心。

Not quite to the centre, for my arm was too short.

不是正中心，因为我的胳膊太短。

Then the voice said: "Jump. It is worth it.

这时有声音说；“跳一下，这是值得的。

There may be a handle in the centre, and you may catch hold of it and so come to us your own way.

在中心的地方可能有个把手，你可以抓住它，那样，你就走你自己的路来到我们这里了。

And if there is no handle, so that you may fall and are dashed to pieces –

要是没有把手的话，那你就会掉下去，摔得粉身碎骨——

it is till worth it: you will still come to us your own way."

那也还是值得的：你还是走你自己的路来我们这里吧，”

So I jumped. There was a handle, and —"

这样，我就跳了一下。那里有一个把手，接着——”

He paused. Tears gathered in his mother's eyes.

他停了下来。他的母亲热泪盈眶。

She knew that he was fated. If he did not die today he would die tomorrow.

她知道他的命运已经注定了。如果他今天不死，明天也会死的。

There was not room for such a person in the world. And with her pity disgust mingled.

在这个世界上，是没有这样一个人的容身之地的。

She was ashamed at having borne such a son, she who had always been so respectable and so full of ideas.

她怀着怜惜夹杂着厌恶的感情。她以生了这样一个儿子为耻，她总是那么值得受人尊重，思想意念总是那么丰富。

Was he really the little boy to whom she had taught the use of his stops and buttons,

难道他真的就是她教导过他使用他的止动器和电钮，

and to whom she had given his first lessons in the Book?

又教导过他那大书里最初几课的那个小男孩吗？

The very hair that disfigured his lip showed that he was reverting to some savage type.

正是使他嘴唇变形的那些毛毛显示出他恢复到有点野蛮的类型。

On atavism the Machine can have no mercy.

对于返祖现象，大机器绝不会有所怜悯的。

"There was a handle, and I did catch it.

“那里有个把手，我确实也抓住了它。

I hung tranced over the darkness and heard the hum of these workings as the last whisper in a dying dream.

我恍恍惚惚地悬浮在黑暗中，听到嗡嗡的操作声好像是行将逝去的一场梦中的最后低语。

All the things I had cared about and all the people I had spoken to through tubes appeared infinitely little.

我过去关心的一切事情和我曾通过管子说过话的那些人一时都显得无限渺小。

Meanwhile the handle revolved. My weight had set something in motion and I span slowly, and then—

正在这时，那个把手转动了。我的体重使得什么东西动了起来，接着我慢慢地跨了过去，于是——

"I cannot describe it. I was lying with my face to the sunshine.

“我不能详细叙述这个了。我把脸朝向太阳平躺着。

Blood poured from my nose and ears and I heard a tremendous roaring.

血从我的鼻孔和耳朵里流出来，我听到一种极大的轰鸣声。

The stopper, with me clinging to it, had simply been blown of the earth,

我紧紧抓住的那个制动器已经完全从地下爆了出来，

and the air that we make down here was escaping through the vent into the air above.

我们压到这里来的空气通过通气孔散到上方的空气里去了。

It burst up like a fountain. I crawled back to it – for the upper air hurts –

它像一个喷泉那样向四面八方喷着。我爬回通气孔，因为上方的空气是伤人的——

and, as it were, I took great sips from the edge.

其实我已从通气孔的边边上吸进好几大口了。

My respirator had flown goodness knows here, my clothes were torn.

我的呼吸保护器，天知道飞到什么地方去了。我的衣服撕破了。

I just lay with my lips close to the hole, and I sipped until the bleeding stopped.

我只是躺着，把嘴紧挨近孔口，我一口口地吸着气，直到血不流了为止。

You can imagine nothing so curious.

您不可能想像有什么事是这样稀奇古怪。

This hollow in the grass – I will speak of it in a minute,

在草丛里的这片洼地——我一会儿就要说说它

– the sun shining into it, not brilliantly but through marbled clouds,

——太阳照在里面，倒不是照得光辉耀眼，而是穿过云石般的片片浮云，

– the peace, the nonchalance, the sense of space, and, brushing my cheek, the roaring fountain of our artificial air!

那种宁静，那种万念俱寂的心情，那种空间感，还有我们的人工空气哗哗响着的喷泉拂着我的脸。

Soon I spied my respirator, bobbing up and down in the current high above my head, and higher still were many air-ships.

没有一会儿功夫，我便侦察到我的呼吸保护器在我头上高高的气流里上下颠动着，在更高一些的地方有许多飞艇。]