第四章（第2/7页）

“我当然介意。性爱本是我们夫妻的私事，别人妄想横插一杠，我怎么会无动于衷？”“说实话，”汤米·杜克斯接过话茬，他身材干瘦，满脸雀斑，若论长相，比白皙肥硕的梅更像爱尔兰人，“说实话，哈蒙德，你欲壑难填，骄横自负，对成功充满渴望。因为我身在行伍，便少涉世事，如今却发现世人争名逐利的欲求已经强烈到无可附加的地步。这种趋势如火如荼，不可抑制。几乎人人都沉迷此道。当然，你这样的男人认为有贤内助的支持，会更接近成功。因此才会妒火中烧。性爱对你而言……是台不可或缺的小发动机，用来维系你与茱莉亚的感情，以便获得最终的成功。如果遭遇挫折，就会投身情场，失意的查理便是如此。你和茱莉亚这样的已婚夫妇都贴有标签，好像旅行者拖的行李箱。茱莉亚的标签上面写着‘阿诺德·B·哈蒙德太太’——如同火车上某人托运的皮箱。而你的上面则有如此的字样‘阿诺德·B·哈蒙德，由其夫人转交。’噢，你做得很对，毫无差错！舒适的住处，美味的饭菜都是精神生活的必需品。你的想法无可指摘。繁衍后代更是必不可少的。但对成功的渴望是绝对的轴心。一切都围绕着它运转。”哈蒙德显得异常恼火。他自诩清正高洁，从不屑于趋炎附势，因此也颇为得意。尽管如此，他确实对成功充满渴求。

"It's quite true, you can't live without cash," said May. "You've got to have a certain amount of it to be able to live and get along...even to be free to think you must have a certain amount of money, or your stomach stops you. But it seems to me you might leave the labels off sex. We're free to talk to anybody; so why shouldn't we be free to make love to any woman who inclines us that way?” "There speaks the lascivious Celt," said Clifford.

“说得太对了，没钱确实无法过活。”梅说。“要生存，要度日，可得有不小的一笔钱……甚至自由思考都是如此，否则肚子可不会答应。但依我看，在性爱的领域，你大可把标签揭去。既然可以跟任何人畅所欲言，为何不能跟属意自己的女子尽情欢好呢？”“淫荡无耻的凯尔特人才会这么说。”克利福德说。

"Lascivious! well, why not—? I can't see I do a woman any more harm by sleeping with her than by dancing with her...or even talking to her about the weather. It's just an interchange of sensations instead of ideas, so why not?” "Be as promiscuous as the rabbits!" said Hammond.

“淫荡无耻！哟，为什么不呢——？跟女人同寝也好，共舞……或者谈论天气也罢，我不觉得前者会对她带来更大的伤害。只不过是感觉的交流代替了思想的交换，那么何乐而不为呢？”“像兔子那样肆意苟合！”哈蒙德说。

"Why not? What's wrong with rabbits? Are they any worse than a neurotic, revolutionary humanity, full of nervous hate?” "But we're not rabbits, even so," said Hammond.

“有什么不妥么？兔子招谁惹谁了？比起神经兮兮、叫嚣着革命、满脑袋仇恨的人类，它们难道还要恶劣几分么？”“但我们终归不是兔子。”哈蒙德说。

"Precisely! I have my mind: I have certain calculations to make in certain astronomical matters that concern me almost more than life or death. Sometimes indigestion interferes with me. Hunger would interfere with me disastrously. In the same way starved sex interferes with me. What then?” "I should have thought sexual indigestion from surfeit would have interfered with you more seriously," said Hammond satirically.

“确实如此！我们拥有思想意识，对我而言，计算一些天文学问题甚至比生死来得更重要。有时消化不良会妨碍我的工作。饥饿带来的影响会更加严重。性饥渴也会起到同样的效果。该怎么来应对这些问题呢？”“如果我猜得没错，纵欲过度引起的性消化不良，恐怕对你的影响尤甚。”哈蒙德挖苦道。

"Not it! I don't over-eat myself and I don't over-fuck myself. One has a choice about eating too much. But you would absolutely starve me.” "Not at all! You can marry." "How do you know I can? It may not suit the process of my mind. Marriage might...and would...stultify my mental processes. I'm not properly pivoted that way...and so must I be chained in a kennel like a monk? All rot and funk, my boy. I must live and do my calculations. I need women sometimes. I refuse to make a mountain of it, and I refuse anybody's moral condemnation or prohibition. I'd be ashamed to see a woman walking around with my name-label on her, address and railway station, like a wardrobe trunk.” These two men had not forgiven each other about the Julia flirtation.

“一派胡言！我从不暴饮暴食，也绝不会纵欲过度。人完全可以控制自己的食量。但如果没得吃，就不得不接受成为饿殍的命运。”“才不会呢！你可以娶妻呀。”“你怎么知道我愿意结婚？婚姻或许不太符合我的思想观念。婚姻也许……会让我变得反应迟钝。我还没打定主意要结婚……难道我就该像僧侣一样，把自己锁在狗笼里么？这实在是陈腐不堪的愚蠢念头，我的朋友。我必须存活下去，为的是继续自己的天文学事业。偶尔我也会需要女人。这没什么值得小题大做的，任何人都无权以道德为由，来指责或者阻止我。如果看到哪个女人贴着写有我名字的标牌四处招摇，就像写明地址和火车班次的行李箱，我准会羞愧难当。”这两个男人显然还在为茱莉亚调情的事情耿耿于怀。

"It's an amusing idea, Charlie," said Dukes, "that sex is just another form of talk, where you act the words instead of saying them. I suppose it's quite true. I suppose we might exchange as many sensations and emotions with women as we do ideas about the weather, and so on. Sex might be a sort of normal physical conversation between a man and a woman. You don't talk to a woman unless you have ideas in common: that is you don't talk with any interest. And in the same way, unless you had some emotion or sympathy in common with a woman you wouldn't sleep with her. But if you had...” "If you have the proper sort of emotion or sympathy with a woman, you ought to sleep with her," said May. "It's the only decent thing, to go to bed with her. Just as, when you are interested talking to someone, the only decent thing is to have the talk out. You don't prudishly put your tongue between your teeth and bite it. You just say out your say. And the same the other way.” "No," said Hammond. "It's wrong. You, for example, May, you squander half your force with women. You'll never really do what you should do, with a fine mind such as yours. Too much of it goes the other way.” "Maybe it does...and too little of you goes that way, Hammond, my boy, married or not. You can keep the purity and integrity of your mind, but it's going damned dry. Your pure mind is going as dry as fiddlesticks, from what I see of it. You're simply talking it down.” Tommy Dukes burst into a laugh.