第九章（第11/12页）

But let that be. Let man slide down to general idiocy in the emotional and 'human' mind, Clifford did not care. Let all that go hang. He was interested in the technicalities of modern coal-mining, and in pulling Tevershall out of the hole.

但随它去好了。任人类在情感及人性的领域滑进低能的深渊好了，克利福德毫不在乎。让这一切都见鬼去吧。他感兴趣的是现代采煤技术，还有如何重振特弗沙尔。

He went down to the pit day after day, he studied, he put the general manager, and the overhead manager, and the underground manager, and the engineers through a mill they had never dreamed of. Power! He felt a new sense of power flowing through him: power over all these men, over the hundreds and hundreds of colliers. He was finding out: and he was getting things into his grip.

他每天都亲下矿坑，不知疲倦地钻研着，对井上、井下和一般事务的经理和工程师们严加约束，其程度远远超出他们的想象。权力！他觉得新鲜的权力感流遍全身，所有管理阶层都须听命于他，成百上千的矿工都唯他马首是瞻。他慢慢发现，一切尽在自己的掌握之中。

And he seemed verily to be re-born. NOW life came into him! He had been gradually dying, with Connie, in the isolated private life of the artist and the conscious being. Now let all that go. Let it sleep. He simply felt life rush into him out of the coal, out of the pit. The very stale air of the colliery was better than oxygen to him. It gave him a sense of power, power. He was doing something: and he was going to do something. He was going to win, to win: not as he had won with his stories, mere publicity, amid a whole sapping of energy and malice. But a man's victory.

他似乎真的重获新生。如今，他又充满活力！以往，虽有康妮相伴，但艺术家和精神活动者所过的与世隔绝的生活，将他推向濒死的境地。现在，大可将这一切尽数抛开。跟那种生活诀别。他觉得生命力从煤炭、从矿坑中喷涌而出，注入自己的身体。对他而言，矿场陈腐的空气比氧气还要带劲儿。让他充分体验到大权在握的感觉。他此刻已经起步，将来势必有番大作为。他追求成功，渴望胜利。以小说在文学领域取得的成功，不过是哗众取宠，是对精神和意志的双重消耗。他需要的是男子汉般辉煌的胜利。

At first he thought the solution lay in electricity: convert the coal into electric power. Then a new idea came. The Germans invented a new locomotive engine with a self feeder, that did not need a fireman. And it was to be fed with a new fuel, that burnt in small quantities at a great heat, under peculiar conditions.

刚开始，解决之道在于发电，他认为可以将煤炭转化为电能。后来，他又萌发出新点子。德国人研制出某种新型机车，能够自供燃料，无需配备司炉工。它使用的新燃料，在特定的条件下，只需微量便可产生极大的热能。

The idea of a new concentrated fuel that burnt with a hard slowness at a fierce heat was what first attracted Clifford. There must be some sort of external stimulus of the burning of such fuel, not merely air supply. He began to experiment, and got a clever young fellow, who had proved brilliant in chemistry, to help him.

一种新型浓缩燃料，能够产生巨大的热能，且能持久使用，这个想法立刻吸引住克利福德。但此种燃料仅在空气中无法燃烧，必须借助某种外部催化剂。他开始投入实验，并得到某位聪颖青年的帮助，那人在化学领域颇有建树。

And he felt triumphant. He had at last got out of himself. He had fulfilled his life-long secret yearning to get out of himself. Art had not done it for him. Art had only made it worse. But now, now he had done it.

他嗅到成功的味道。他终于跳脱出过去的自我。实现了深藏心底的毕生愿望。艺术没能帮他实现这一愿望。反而将情况变得更糟。而现在，他总算完成夙愿。

He was not aware how much Mrs. Bolton was behind him. He did not know how much he depended on her. But for all that, it was evident that when he was with her his voice dropped to an easy rhythm of intimacy, almost a trifle vulgar.

他并未意识到博尔顿太太是多么强有力的后盾。他并不清楚自己是多么依赖她。但尽管如此，每当与她共处，他的语调会变得轻松而亲切，甚至有点粗俗，这一点显而易见。

With Connie, he was a little stiff. He felt he owed her everything, and he showed her the utmost respect and consideration, so long as she gave him mere outward respect. But it was obvious he had a secret dread of her. The new Achilles in hint had a heel, and in this heel the woman, the woman like Connie, his wife, could lame him fatally. He went in a certain half-subservient dread of her, and was extremely nice to her. But his voice was a little tense when he spoke to her, and he began to be silent whenever she was present.