第九章（第10/12页）

他终于恍然大悟，成功这位堕落女神有两大嗜好：甜言蜜语，阿谀奉承，溜须拍马，这些由作家和艺术家来提供；而更为恐怖的是她对肉和骨头的渴望。负责为堕落女神供给肉和骨头的，是在工业领域淘金的人们。

Yes, there were two great groups of dogs wrangling for the bitch-goddess: the group of the flatterers, those who offered her amusement, stories, films, plays: and the other, much less showy, much more savage breed, those who gave her meat, the real substance of money. The well-groomed showy dogs of amusement wrangled and snarled among themselves for the favours of the bitch-goddess. But it was nothing to the silent fight-to-the-death that went on among the indispensables, the bone-bringers.

没错，两大群狗为赢得堕落女神的青睐，斗得不可开交。一群是谄媚者，他们献上小说、电影、戏剧等消遣元素。而另一群虽然低调许多，但更加野蛮粗暴，他们奉上的则是肉食——真正的金钱与财富。那群贡献娱乐元素的狗总是衣着光鲜，好出风头，他们彼此咆哮着，吼叫着，希望得到堕落女神的垂青。但他们跟那群提供肉和骨头的狗相比，简直不值一提，后者更加举足轻重，而他们暗中的较量更是生死攸关。

But under Mrs. Bolton's influence, Clifford was tempted to enter this other fight, to capture the bitch-goddess by brute means of industrial production. Somehow, he got his pecker up.

由于博尔顿太太的影响，克利福德渴望投身更为激烈的争斗中去，用工业生产的原始手段，来俘虏堕落女神的芳心。不知是何原因，他此番鼓足了勇气。

In one way, Mrs. Bolton made a man of him, as Connie never did. Connie kept him apart, and made him sensitive and conscious of himself and his own states. Mrs. Bolton made hint aware only of outside things. Inwardly he began to go soft as pulp. But outwardly he began to be effective.

从某种程度来讲，博尔顿将让克利福德塑造成真正的男子汉，而这是康妮从未企及的。康妮对他若即若离，让他变得极为敏感，对自己和自己的状态有清醒的认识。博尔顿太太则让他只管放眼外界。在内心深处，他变得软弱不堪。而从表面看来，他却显得斗志昂扬。

He even roused himself to go to the mines once more: and when he was there, he went down in a tub, and in a tub he was hauled out into the workings. Things he had learned before the war, and seemed utterly to have forgotten, now came back to him. He sat there, crippled, in a tub, with the underground manager showing him the seam with a powerful torch. And he said little. But his mind began to work.

他甚至振奋精神，重返矿场。他乘着矿车下到井底，被拖拽着审查过各个矿坑。大战爆发前，他熟知矿场的一切，而这些曾彻底被抛诸脑后，此刻却又再度回到原位。下肢瘫痪的他坐在矿车里，井下主管则用强力矿灯照亮矿层，便于他审视。他很少做声。但心里却开始盘算起什么。

He began to read again his technical works on the coal-mining industry, he studied the government reports, and he read with care the latest things on mining and the chemistry of coal and of shale which were written in German. Of course the most valuable discoveries were kept secret as far as possible. But once you started a sort of research in the field of coal-mining, a study of methods and means, a study of by-products and the chemical possibilities of coal, it was astounding the ingenuity and the almost uncanny cleverness of the modern technical mind, as if really the devil himself had lent fiend's wits to the technical scientists of industry. It was far more interesting than art, than literature, poor emotional half-witted stuff, was this technical science of industry. In this field, men were like gods, or demons, inspired to discoveries, and fighting to carry them out. In this activity, men were beyond any mental age calculable. But Clifford knew that when it did come to the emotional and human life, these self-made men were of a mental age of about thirteen, feeble boys. The discrepancy was enormous and appalling.

他重新开始阅读有关采煤业的技术著作，研究政府公报，留意着有关采矿、煤炭化学以及岩层化学的最新资料，这些资料均用德文写成。当然，科学家们会竭尽所能，保证其最具价值的成果不被泄露。一旦涉足采煤领域的研究，探索各种方式方法，钻研煤矿的副产品和其他可能出现的化学产品，准会因现代技术的精巧和绝妙而感到惊异，仿佛是魔鬼将自己的才智赋予了那些科学家们。与艺术、文学之类这些可怜兮兮、愚蠢透顶的情感伎俩相比，工业技术科学要有趣得多。在这一领域，人们像被神魔附体，一心追求新成果，并努力将其付诸实践。在科学活动中，人类的精神年龄无法估量。但克利福德深知，若论及情感和人类生活，这些天赋异禀的家伙们大概只有13岁左右，只是些尚未成熟的孩童。这样巨大的不协调确实令人震惊。