第十六章（第3/14页）

"What do you think of this, by the way?" He said, reaching for his book. "You'd have no need to cool your ardent body by running out in the rain, if only we have a few more aeons of evolution behind us.” Ah, here it is!—— "The universe shows us two aspects: on one side it is physically wasting, on the other it is spiritually ascending.” Connie listened, expecting more. But Clifford was waiting. She looked at him in surprise.

“我说，你觉得这种说法如何？”他说着，伸手拿过书。“如果人类再经过更多个纪元的进化，你就不需要去雨中奔跑，以求冷却自己炽热的身躯。呵，就是这句话！——‘宇宙向我们展现出两种趋势，物质被损耗，精神在上升。’”康妮听着，期待着他继续说下去。但克利福德却在等待。她诧异地看着他。

"And if it spiritually ascends," she said, "what does it leave down below, in the place where its tail used to be?" "Ah!" He said. "Take the man for what he means. ASCENDING is the opposite of his WASTING, I presume." "Spiritually blown out, so to speak!" "No, but seriously, without joking: do you think there is anything in it?” She looked at him again.

“如果说精神在上升，”她反驳道，“从前尾巴存在的位置，又剩下什么东西呢？”“啊！”他说。“细细领会作者的意思。我猜，对他而言，上升恰好与损耗相对立。”“也就是说，精神完全崩溃！”“不，说正经的，不开玩笑，你觉得这种观点如何？”她再度将目光转向他。

"Physically wasting?" She said. "I see you getting fatter, and I'm not wasting myself. Do you think the sun is smaller than he used to be? He's not to me. And I suppose the apple Adam offered Eve wasn't really much bigger, if any, than one of our orange pippins. Do you think it was?” Well, hear how he goes on: "It is thus slowly passing, with a slowness inconceivable in our measures of time, to new creative conditions, amid which the physical world, as we at present know it, will he represented by a ripple barely to be distinguished from nonentity." She listened with a glisten of amusement. All sorts of improper things suggested themselves. But she only said: "What silly hocus-pocus! As if his little conceited consciousness could know what was happening as slowly as all that! It only means he's a physical failure on the earth, so he wants to make the whole universe a physical failure. Priggish little impertinence!” "Oh, but listen! Don't interrupt the great man's solemn words!— The present type of order in the world has risen from an unimaginable past, and will find its grave in an unimaginable future. There remains the inexhaustive realm of abstract forms, and creativity with its shifting character ever determined afresh by its own creatures, and God, upon whose wisdom all forms of order depend.— There, that's how he winds up!” Connie sat listening contemptuously.

“物质被消耗？”她质疑着。“我只发现你变得膘肥体壮，而我也没消耗些什么。你认为太阳变得比以前小些了吗？我觉得没有。依我看，即使是亚当献给夏娃的苹果，与现在的橘苹相比，也大不到哪里去。你认为呢？”好吧，听听他接下来这么说：“宇宙就这样缓慢地进化，速度慢到根据我们的方式，无法计算其时间，最终达到全新的境界。而到那时候，我们现在所知的物质世界将会用某种波纹来代表，而这种波纹跟虚无并没什么分别。”她听着，不禁暗觉可笑。心里涌动着不便说出的种种言语。但她只是说：“多么愚蠢的鬼话！似乎他那自以为是的小小思维，就能预见漫长久远的时间里能够发生的一切！这只能说明他在身体层面是个地道的失败者，因此，他希望整个宇宙也重蹈自己的覆辙。简直是胡说八道！”“噢，接着听下去！别打断这位伟大作家的庄严论调！——世界现行的秩序来源自难以想象的过去，并将在难以想象的未来中被埋进坟墓。只剩下无穷无尽的抽象王国，自新不息变幻无穷的创造力，以及主宰大千世界的睿智上帝。——这就是他最终的结论！”康妮坐在那里听着，面露鄙夷之色。

"He's spiritually blown out," she said. "What a lot of stuff! Unnimaginables, and types of order in graves, and realms of abstract forms, and creativity with a shifty character, and God mixed up with forms of order! Why, it's idiotic!” "I must say, it is a little vaguely conglomerate, a mixture of gases, so to speak," said Clifford. "Still, I think there is something in the idea that the universe is physically wasting and spiritually ascending." "Do you? Then let it ascend, so long as it leaves me safely and solidly physically here below." "Do you like your physique?" He asked.

“他准是精神失常了。”她说。“简直废话连篇。什么‘难以想象’，什么‘秩序的坟墓’，还有‘变化无穷的创造力’，甚至连上帝都跟秩序扯在一起！呵，简直是痴人说梦！”“我必须承认，其结论的确有些模糊，也就是所谓的云山雾罩。”克利福德说。“不过，宇宙在物质层面被损耗，而精神层面却在上升，这一观点确实有些道理。”“是吗？那就任它上升去吧，只要它把我的肉身安全完整地留在下面就好。”“你满意自己的体形吗？”他问。

"I love it!" And through her mind went the words: It's the nicest, nicest woman's arse as is!

“当然！”她的脑海中再度浮现出那句话：这是世间最美丽的女人的屁股！

"But that is really rather extraordinary, because there's no denying it's an encumbrance. But then I suppose a woman doesn't take a supreme pleasure in the life of the mind.” "Supreme pleasure?" she said, looking up at him. "Is that sort of idiocy the supreme pleasure of the life of the mind? No thank you! Give me the body. I believe the life of the body is a greater reality than the life of the mind: when the body is really wakened to life. But so many people, like your famous wind-machine, have only got minds tacked on to their physical corpses.” He looked at her in wonder.

“可这样的回答确实出乎我的意料，因为肉体不过是种累赘，这点毫无疑问。但我想女人根本体验不到精神生活的极致快乐。”“极致快乐？”她说着，抬起头看着他。“那种白痴的理论就代表着精神生活的极致快乐吗？不，谢谢！我还是选择肉体好了。我相信肉体的生活比精神的生活更真实，特别是当肉体被彻底唤醒时。但有太多人，只是将精神寄托在行尸走肉般的躯壳上，跟你那些卷扬机没什么两样。”他惊讶地看着她。