5 Paradise

CHAPTER 5 Paradise It was evening, and the sun gave everything a warm glow. As I stood on the stairs of the white building and looked out over the countryside, I could see that everything had changed from the world I knew. The Eloi, the buildings, the flowers, and the fruit were all different. Even the River Thames had changed.

第五章天堂夜幕降临，太阳把一切都照得暖洋洋的。 我站在那座白色建筑的楼梯上，眺望乡村，我能看到一切都与我所认识的世界不同了。 埃洛伊人、建筑、花朵和果实都是不同的。 就连泰晤士河也变了。

After hundreds of thousands of years, the great river had altered its course and now took a different route to the ocean. I decided to walk to a hill about a mile away to get a better view of the surrounding area. Along the way, I came across a huge pile of metal and stone, overgrown with plants. It was the remains of a large building that had fallen down long ago. It reminded me of the broken glass and stone in the white building I had just come from. I wondered how long before that building turned into a pile of rubble, too. As I walked, I noticed a number of wells with small roofs over them. But I didn't see any small houses. It looked as if people lived together in the large buildings. Far in the future, there seemed to be no more families and no more homes. I looked back and saw that a small group of Eloi had followed me on my walk. It was then that I noticed how much they all looked alike.

数十万年后，这条大河改变了航道，现在走了一条不同的路线流入海洋。 我决定走到大约一英里外的一座山上，以便更好地观察周围地区。 一路上，我遇到了一大堆金属和石头，上面长满了植物。 这是一座很久以前倒塌的大楼的残骸。 这让我想起了我刚出来的那座白色建筑里破碎的玻璃和石头。 我想知道那座建筑多久之后也变成了一堆瓦砾。 当我走着的时候，我注意到一些井上面有小屋顶。 但是我没有看到任何小房子。 看起来好像人们一起住在大建筑物里。 在遥远的未来，似乎没有更多的家庭，没有更多的家园。 我回头一看，发现有一小群埃洛伊人跟在我后面。 就在那时，我才注意到他们长得多么相像。

They wore the same clothes. They wore their hair the same. They had the same thin bodies. From a distance, it was hard to tell the men and women apart. The only difference between the children and adults was their size. Most of the things that make us different were gone. Soon, I was alone at the top of the small hill. The climb was too hard for the Eloi, so they had left me. I found a yellow metal bench and sat down to look out at the countryside. The sun had set, and the sky was full of beautiful purples and reds. The colorful sky was reflected in the Thames as it curved into the distance. From where I sat, it looked as if the great city of London had disappeared. There were no longer streets crowded with people and traffic. There wasn't row after row of homes, offices, shops, and factories. Instead, statues and tall buildings were spread out across the countryside. They dotted a lush, green landscape of grass, bushes, and trees for as far as the eye could see.

他们穿着同样的衣服。 他们的发型是一样的。 他们的身体都很瘦。 从远处看，很难把男人和女人区分开来。 儿童和成人的唯一区别是他们的体型。 大多数让我们与众不同的东西都消失了。 很快，我独自一人来到了小山顶。 攀登对埃洛伊人来说太难了，所以他们离开了我。 我找了一张黄色的金属长凳，坐下来眺望外面的乡村。 太阳落山了，天空布满了美丽的紫色和红色。 泰晤士河弯弯曲曲地向远处望去，倒映着五彩缤纷的天空。 从我坐的地方看，伟大的伦敦城似乎已经消失了。 街道上不再挤满了人和车辆。 那里没有一排排的住宅、办公室、商店和工厂。 取而代之的是遍布乡间的雕像和高楼大厦。 放眼望去，它们点缀着一片郁郁葱葱的绿色草地、灌木丛和树木。

I didn't see any farms, either. There were no cattle or sheep to be seen in any of the fields. There were no fields of grains or vegetables. It was as if the whole earth had become one endless garden. I sat and thought about the future I had discovered. It seemed as if the world had become a paradise. No one appeared to work, and yet everyone had plenty to eat. There weren't any factories or machines, and yet everyone had clothes to wear and a place to live. I couldn't imagine the Eloi fighting or killing one another. My guess was that war was a thing of the past. Even the weather seemed perfect. In the last moment before the Time Machine had come to a halt in the future, I had noticed that the countryside was green even in the winter. I wouldn't have been surprised if the Eloi wore their robes and sandals all year long. As I sat on the bench, I noticed that the air was free of insect pests, and filled with colorful

我也没看到任何农场。 在任何一片田地里都看不见牛羊。 没有种谷物和蔬菜的田地。 整个地球仿佛变成了一个无边无际的花园。 我坐下来，思考着我所发现的未来。 世界似乎变成了天堂。 似乎没有人在工作，但每个人都有充足的食物。 那里没有任何工厂或机器，但每个人都有衣服穿，有地方住。 我无法想象埃洛伊人会互相残杀。 我猜战争是过去的事了。 就连天气似乎也很好。 在时间机器在未来停止之前的最后一刻，我注意到乡村即使在冬天也是绿色的。 如果埃洛伊人一年四季都穿着长袍和凉鞋，我也不会感到惊讶。 当我坐在长凳上时，我注意到空气中没有害虫，充满了色彩

butterflies. I didn't see any weeds or harmful plants, but fruit trees and beautiful flowers were everywhere. Below me, the Eloi strolled through their paradise. They all seemed healthy and happy. No one appeared to be richer or poorer than anyone else. For as far as I could see, there was no dirty air or water in sight. The world truly was a paradise. As the sky darkened, I imagined how it had happened. Today, science is always making new discoveries that make our lives easier. We are finding better ways to fight illness. We invent new machines to do our work for us. We build machines that can travel across the oceans or fly through the air. A couple of hundred years ago, there was no electricity. We hadn't invented the telegraph, steam engines, or railways yet. Now, only two centuries later, we have all those things. Two hundred years ago, disease, war, and

蝴蝶。我没有看到任何杂草或有害的植物，但到处都是果树和美丽的花朵。 在我下面，爱洛伊人在他们的天堂里漫步。 他们看起来都很健康和快乐。 没有人看起来比其他人更富有或更贫穷。 就我所能看到的，没有污浊的空气和水。 这个世界真是个天堂。 当天空变暗时，我想象着这是怎么发生的。 今天，科学总是有新的发现，使我们的生活更容易。 我们正在寻找更好的方法来对抗疾病。 我们发明新机器来代替我们工作。 我们制造的机器可以穿越海洋或在空中飞行。 几百年前，还没有电。 那时我们还没有发明电报、蒸汽机或铁路。 现在，仅仅两个世纪之后，我们就拥有了所有这些东西。 两百年前，疾病，战争，还有

poverty were much worse than today. In such a short time, we have made great strides. Today, those problems cause less suffering than ever. We have come so far in just two centuries. Imagine how far we could progress in hundreds of thousands of years. Here, it was as if all the struggles and hardships of life had ended. The world of the future was a world without war, poverty, or illness. It was the world humans had always dreamed of. After eight hundred thousand years, the dream had come true. At least, the dream had come true in some ways, I thought. In other ways, the Eloi and the world of the future disturbed me. Life was too easy. The Eloi did nothing but eat, sleep, laugh, and sing. Because of this, they'd become small and weak. They couldn't climb even a small hill —or else they were too lazy to be bothered. And because they had everything they needed, they didn't have to use their minds, either. They

那时的贫困比今天严重得多。 在这么短的时间里，我们取得了很大的进步。 今天，这些问题造成的痛苦比以往任何时候都少。 我们在短短两个世纪里就取得了长足的进步。 想象一下，在数十万年的时间里，我们能取得多大的进步。 在这里，似乎生活中所有的挣扎和艰辛都结束了。 未来的世界是一个没有战争、贫穷和疾病的世界。 这是人类一直梦想的世界。 八十万年后，梦想成真了。 我想，至少在某些方面，梦想实现了。 在其他方面，爱洛伊人和未来世界让我不安。 生活太容易了。爱洛伊人除了吃饭、睡觉、笑和唱歌什么也不做。 正因为如此，它们变得又小又弱。 他们甚至连一座小山都爬不上去——要不就是他们懒得被打扰。 因为他们有他们需要的一切，他们也不需要使用他们的大脑。 他们