14 Recovering the Time Machine

CHAPTER 14 Recovering the Time Machine It wasn't long before I came to the yellow metal bench where I had sat on my first day in the future. Everything looked the same—the beautiful plants, the buildings, and the Eloi strolling quietly. Some of the little people were bathing in the river where I had saved Weena. Back then, I thought the Eloi lived a carefree life.

第十四章恢复时间机器没过多久，我就来到了我在未来的第一天坐过的那张黄色金属板凳上。 一切看起来都是一样的——美丽的植物，建筑物，还有安静地散步的埃洛伊人。 一些小人儿正在我救过韦娜的那条河里洗澡。 那时候，我以为爱洛伊人过着无忧无虑的生活。

The world had looked like a peaceful garden, free of fear or danger. But from the bench I could also see the wells. They reminded me of the Morlocks. I may have thought the world was a paradise, but I had been very wrong. It made me sad to think that this was our future. For all of history, we have tried to make life better. We have tried to make the world a safer, more carefree place. And at some point in our future, we must have succeeded. I could see from the Eloi that we had conquered disease, war, and hunger. We had reached the goal we'd been working toward for thousands of years. But this peaceful world only came about because half of humanity went underground to work. They said good-bye to the surface and the sun. They spent their lives in the dark, taking care of the people who stayed aboveground. And the half who stayed on the surface? They had everything they needed. Everything was

世界看起来像一个宁静的花园，没有恐惧和危险。 但从长凳上我也能看到水井。 他们让我想起了莫洛克家族。 我可能认为世界是天堂，但我错了。 想到这就是我们的未来，我就很难过。 纵观历史，我们一直在努力使生活更美好。 我们努力让世界变得更安全，更无忧无虑。 在未来的某个时刻，我们一定成功了。 我可以从埃洛伊人身上看到，我们已经战胜了疾病、战争和饥饿。 我们已经达到了我们努力了几千年的目标。 但是这个和平世界的出现是因为有一半的人类去地下工作。 他们告别了地面和太阳。 他们一生都在黑暗中度过，照顾那些留在地面上的人。 那留在水面上的那一半呢？ 他们有他们需要的一切。 一切都是

taken care of. So they grew weak and stopped using their brains. They had no more goals. And so by the year eight hundred and two thousand, seven hundred and one, the Morlocks had turned into animals who did nothing but work, and the Eloi lived in fear of the dark. I was exhausted, so I lay down on the grass and had a long sleep. When I woke up, I saw that I had slept for most of the day. The sun was setting, and the air was getting cool. I grabbed my metal lever and walked down the hill toward the White Sphinx. I reached into my pocket and made sure I still had some matches. When I reached the Sphinx, I saw the most unexpected thing. The doors on the base of the statue were open. I carefully approached the doorway and looked in. There, sitting in the darkness, was my Time Machine. I wondered why the Morlocks were giving my machine back. Were they giving up? Was I too strong for them? I dropped my metal lever and took another

搞定了。所以他们变得虚弱，不再使用他们的大脑。 他们没有更多的目标。因此，到了公元82,771年，莫洛克人变成了只会干活的动物，而埃洛伊人则生活在对黑暗的恐惧中。 我累坏了，所以我躺在草地上睡了很久。 当我醒来时，我发现我已经睡了大半天了。 太阳落山了，空气变凉了。 我抓起我的金属杠杆，向山下的白色狮身人面像走去。 我把手伸进口袋，确认我还有火柴。 当我到达狮身人面像时，我看到了最意想不到的事情。 雕像底部的门是开着的。 我小心翼翼地走到门口往里看。 我的时间机器就在那里，坐在黑暗中。 我想知道为什么莫洛克夫妇要把我的机器还给我。 他们放弃了吗？我对他们来说是不是太强大了？ 我放下我的金属杠杆，拿起另一个

step toward the doorway.

向门口走去。

Then another thought crossed my mind. Perhaps this was a trap. I laughed quietly to myself. If these creatures thought they were smarter than me, they were in for a surprise. I stepped through the doorway and into the base of the statue. I walked up to my machine. It was good to see it again. I was thankful that it wasn't damaged. But then, just as I had expected, the bronze doors quickly closed behind me. There was a loud clang, and I was suddenly in the dark. When the echoes of the slamming doors faded, I heard the murmur of the creatures coming toward me. I wasn't afraid. This is what I had thought the Morlocks would do. All I had to do now was put the control lever in the machine and escape through time. I would disappear, and the Underworld creatures wouldn't know what had happened. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a

然后另一个想法闪过我的脑海。 也许这是个陷阱。我暗自发笑。 如果这些生物认为它们比我聪明，它们会大吃一惊的。 我穿过门口，走进雕像的底座。 我走向我的机器。 很高兴再次看到它。 我很庆幸它没有损坏。 但就在这时，正如我所预料的那样，铜门在我身后迅速关上了。 砰的一声巨响，我突然陷入一片黑暗。 当关上门的回声消失后，我听到了生物向我走来的低语声。 我不害怕。我以为莫洛克人会这么做。 我现在所要做的就是把控制杆放在机器里，然后穿越时空。 我会消失，冥界的生物就不会知道发生了什么。 我把手伸进口袋，掏出一张

match. I struck it against a metal rail of the machine, but it did not light. I had made a terrible mistake. The match was the kind that would only light if you struck it on the matchbox, and I had left the box in the forest when I fled from the fire. You can imagine how quickly my calm turned to panic. The Morlocks were all around me. I could feel them touching me. They grabbed at me and I pushed them away as best I could. I climbed into my machine and pulled the control lever from my pocket. Hairy hands grasped at me as I tried to pull myself into the seat. In the struggle, I dropped the lever to the ground. I reached down with one hand and found it in the dark. While the Morlocks tried to pull me from the machine, I put the lever in place. As I lay sideways across the seat, I pushed the lever forward. The clutching hands slipped from me. A soft gray light appeared, and I felt myself traveling through time once more.

匹配。我把它撞在机器的金属栏杆上，但它没有点着。 我犯了一个严重的错误。 火柴是那种只有在火柴盒上擦着才会点燃的火柴，我从火堆里逃出来的时候，把火柴盒留在了森林里。 你可以想象我的平静很快就变成了恐慌。 莫洛克人围着我。 我能感觉到他们在抚摸我。 他们抓住我，我尽我所能把他们推开。 我爬进我的机器，从口袋里拿出控制杆。 当我试图把自己拉到座位上时，毛茸茸的手抓住了我。 在搏斗中，我把杠杆掉在了地上。 我伸手在黑暗中找到了它。 当莫洛克人试图把我从机器上拉下来时，我把杠杆放好了。 我侧身躺在座位上，把控制杆往前推了推。 紧握的手从我身上滑了下来。 一道柔和的灰光出现了，我觉得自己又一次穿越了时间。