第十五章（第4/18页）

“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.