第十一章（第6/17页）

接下来是循道会新盖的大教堂，毫无装饰的砖墙，还有红绿相间的大玻璃窗格，实在是足够粗陋。卫斯理公会的礼拜堂稍微高些，用发黑的方砖砌成，被铁栏杆和发黑的树篱围绕着。公理教会的教堂自以为出类拔萃，用料是粗面砂岩，还配有不是太高的尖塔。后面是崭新的校舍，选取价格高昂的粉砖，操场用石子铺成，围着铁栅栏，气势非凡，像是教堂和监狱的混合体。五年级女生正上歌唱课，刚刚做完发声练习，开始唱名为“甜蜜童谣”的歌曲。再也找不出这么不着边际的歌曲，因为歌唱本应是情感的自然流露，实在无法想象，它更像是闻所未闻的喊叫，和着简单的曲调。这表演连野蛮人都不如，野蛮人也懂得微妙的韵律。这表演连野兽都赶不上，野兽的吼叫也传达着某些含义。世间再也听不到这样的怪腔怪调，但竟然被称作歌唱。菲尔德忙着加油的时候，康妮坐在车里，侧耳倾听，情绪随之跌入谷底。这样的民族将会何去何从？他们曾经敏锐的直觉力已经僵化，只剩下呆板异常的呼号，以及离奇怪诞的意志力。一辆运煤车正在下坡，在雨中发出金属撞击的叮当声。菲尔德迎面向坡上开去，连续经过布店、服装店以及邮局，这些铺面虽然宽敞，但却平淡无奇。然后驶进空场上的袖珍商业区，萨姆·布莱克正从太阳旅栈里向外张望，向着查泰莱夫人的座驾鞠躬致意。那家小店以旅店自居，而非酒馆，住的都是来往客商。

The church was away to the left among black trees. The car slid on downhill, past the Miners' Arms. It had already passed the Wellington, the Nelson, the Three Tuns, and the Sun, now it passed the Miners' Arms, then the Mechanics'Hall, then the new and almost gaudy Miners"Welfare and so, past a few new "villas", out into the blackened road between dark hedges and dark green fields, towards Stacks Gate.

大教堂位于左侧稍远的地方，为黑压压的树木所环抱。汽车开始下坡，将“矿工港湾”甩在背后。驶过韦林顿、尼尔森、三桶以及太阳这几家旅栈酒馆，现在正经过“矿工港湾”，接下来便是“技工中心”，新开张但华而不实的“矿工之家”，还有几家新“公馆”，开上通往斯塔克斯门的漆黑大道，两侧是阴暗的树篱和墨绿的旷野。

Tevershall! That was Tevershall! Merrie England! Shakespeare's England! No, but the England of today, as Connie had realized since she had come to live in it. It was producing a new race of mankind, over-conscious in the money and social and political side, on the spontaneous, intuitive side dead, but dead. Half-corpses, all of them: but with a terrible insistent consciousness in the other half. There was something uncanny and underground about it all. It was an under-world. And quite incalculable. How shall we understand the reactions in half-corpses? When Connie saw the great lorries full of steel-workers from Sheffield, weird, distorted smallish beings like men, off for an excursion to Matlock, her bowels fainted and she thought: Ah God, what has man done to man? What have the leaders of men been doing to their fellow men? They have reduced them to less than humanness; and now there can be no fellowship any more! It is just a nightmare.

特弗沙尔！这就是特弗沙尔！快乐的英格兰！莎翁的英格兰！不，这就是当今英格兰的缩影，自从康妮来此地定居，对这一点已经心知肚明。这里孕育出全新的人种，内心在乎的只有金钱、社会与政治，而那些自然流露、与生俱来的部分却已经泯灭，踪影不见。他们无一不是行尸走肉，但仅存的一半意识却异常执着。这实在是稀奇古怪，神秘莫测。这里与冥界无异。无法揣度和预估。我们怎能理解行尸的反应呢？一队大卡车从康妮眼前开过，满载着谢菲尔德的炼钢工人。他们个个表情怪异，身形扭曲萎缩，不成人样，正往马特洛克进发。她内心一阵抽搐，暗暗想道：啊，上帝，人类究竟对自己做了些什么？人间的卓越领袖们到底对同胞们做了些什么？他们把自己弄得人性丧尽，情谊无存。如同置身痛苦的梦魇。

She felt again in a wave of terror the grey, gritty hopelessness of it all. With such creatures for the industrial masses, and the upper classes as she knew them, there was no hope, no hope any more. Yet she was wanting a baby, and an heir to Wragby! An heir to Wragby! She shuddered with dread.

恐惧的浪潮再度袭来，她被挥之不去的阴霾绝望所笼罩。只为工业生产而活的生灵，与她所熟知的上层阶级联手，将希望全部击碎，让理想荡然无存。但她还是盼着能有个孩子，为拉格比留下子嗣！拉格比的子嗣！她心有余悸地颤抖起来。

Yet Mellors had come out of all this!— Yes, but he was as apart from it all as she was. Even in him there was no fellowship left. It was dead. The fellowship was dead. There was only apartness and hopelessness, as far as all this was concerned. And this was England, the vast bulk of England: as Connie knew, since she had motored from the centre of it.