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Animal Farm by George Orwell
动物庄园 乔治·奥威尔
Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.
故事发生在曼纳庄园里。这天晚上，庄园的主人琼斯先生说是已经锁好了鸡棚，由于他喝得醉意十足，竟把里面的那些小门都忘了关上。他提着马灯踉踉跄跄地穿过院子，马灯光也跟着一直不停地晃来晃去，到了后门，他把靴子一脚一只踢了出去，又从洗碗间的酒桶里舀起最后一杯啤酒，一饮而尽，然后才上床休息。此时，床上的琼斯夫人已是鼾声如雷了。
As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous night and wished to communicate it to the other animals. It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.
等那边庄主院卧室里的灯光一熄灭，整个庄园窝棚里就泛起一阵扑扑腾腾的骚动。还在白天的时候，庄园里就风传着一件事，说是老麦哲，就是得过“中等白鬃毛”奖的那头雄猪，在前一天晚上作了一个奇怪的梦，想要传达给其他动物。当时，大家都已经同意，等琼斯先生完全走开后，他们就到大谷仓内集合。
Old Major (so he was always called, though the name under which he had been exhibited was Willingdon Beauty) was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say. At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam. He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut.
老麦哲（他一直被这样称呼，尽管他在参加展览时用的名字是“威灵顿美神”）在庄园里一直德高望重，所以动物们为了聆听他想要讲的事情，都十分乐意牺牲一小时的睡眠。在大谷仓一头一个凸起的台子上，麦哲已经安稳地坐在草垫子上了，在他头顶上方的房梁上悬挂着一盏马灯。他已经十二岁了，近来长得有些发胖，但他依然仪表堂堂。尽管事实上他的犬牙从来没有割剪过，这也并不妨碍他面带着智慧和慈祥。
Before long the other animals began to arrive and make themselves comfortable after their different fashions. First came the three dogs, Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher, and then the pigs, who settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform. The hens perched themselves on the window-sills, the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters, the sheep and cows lay down behind the pigs and began to chew the cud.
不一会，动物们开始陆续赶来，并按各自不同的方式坐稳了。最先到来的是三条狗，布鲁拜尔、杰西和平彻，猪随后走进来，并立即坐在台子前面的稻草上。鸡栖在窗台上，鸽子扑腾上了房梁，羊和牛躺在猪身后并开始倒嚼起来。
The two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw. Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal. Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.
两匹套四轮货车的马，鲍克瑟和克拉弗，一块赶来，他们走进时走得很慢，每当他们在落下那巨大的毛乎乎的蹄子时，总是小心翼翼，生怕草堆里藏着什么小动物。克拉弗是一匹粗壮而慈爱的母马，接近中年。她在生了第四个小驹之后，体形再也没有能恢复原样。鲍克瑟身材高大，有近两米高的个头，强壮得赛过两匹普通马相加。
A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work. After the horses came Muriel, the white goat, and Benjamin, the donkey.
不过，他脸上长了一道直到鼻子的白毛，多少显得有些戆相。实际上，他确实不怎么聪明，但他坚韧不拔的个性和干活时那股十足的劲头，使他赢得了普遍的尊敬。跟着马后面到的是白山羊穆丽尔，还有那头驴，本杰明。
Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark--for instance, he would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies. Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed. If asked why, he would say that he saw nothing to laugh at.
本杰明是庄园里年龄最老的动物，脾气也最糟。他沉默寡言，不开口则已，一开口就少不了说一些风凉话。譬如，他会说上帝给了他尾巴是为了驱赶苍蝇，但他却宁愿没有尾巴也没有苍蝇。庄园里的动物中，唯有他从来没有笑过。要问为什么，他会说他没有看见什么值得好笑的。
Nevertheless, without openly admitting it, he was devoted to Boxer; the two of them usually spent their Sundays together in the small paddock beyond the orchard, grazing side by side and never speaking.
然而他对鲍克瑟却是真诚相待，只不过没有公开承认罢了。通常，他俩总是一起在果园那边的小牧场上消磨星期天，肩并着肩，默默地吃草。
The two horses had just lain down when a brood of ducklings, which had lost their mother, filed into the barn, cheeping feebly and wandering from side to side to find some place where they would not be trodden on.
这两匹马刚躺下，一群失去了妈妈的小鸭子排成一溜进了大谷仓，吱吱喳喳，东张西望，想找一处不会被踩上的地方。
Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it and promptly fell asleep. At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar. She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with.
克拉弗用她粗壮的前腿象墙一样地围住他们，小鸭子偎依在里面，很快就入睡了。莫丽来得很晚，这个愚蠢的家伙，长着一身白生生的毛，是一匹套琼斯先生座车的母马。她扭扭捏捏地走进来，一颠一颠地，嘴里还嚼着一块糖。她占了个靠前的位置，就开始抖动起她的白鬃毛，试图炫耀一番那些扎在鬃毛上的红饰带。
Last of all came the cat, who looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover; there she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying. All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door. When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began:
猫是最后一个来的，她象往常一样，到处寻找最热乎的地方，最后在鲍克瑟和克拉弗当中挤了进去。在麦哲讲演时，她在那儿自始至终都得意地发出“咕咕噜噜”的声音，压根儿没听进麦哲讲的一个字。 那只驯顺了的乌鸦摩西睡在庄主院后门背后的架子上，除他之外，所有的动物都已到场。看到他们都坐稳了，并聚精会神地等待着，麦哲清了清喉咙，开口说道：
"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you.”
“同志们，我昨晚做了一个奇怪的梦，这个你们都已经听说了，但我想等一会再提它。我想先说点别的事。同志们，我想我和你们在一起呆不了多久了。在我临死之前，我觉得有责任把我已经获得的智慧传授给你们。我活了一辈子，当我独自躺在圈中时，我总在思索，我想我敢说，如同任何一个健在的动物一样，我悟出了一个道理，那就是活在世上是怎么回事。这就是我要给你们讲的问题。”
"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty.”
“那么，同志们，我们又是怎么生活的呢？让我们来看一看吧：我们的一生是短暂的，却是凄惨而艰辛。一生下来，我们得到的食物不过仅仅使我们苟延残喘而已，但是，只要我们还能动一下，我们便会被驱赶着去干活，直到用尽最后一丝力气，一旦我们的油水被榨干，我们就会在难以置信的残忍下被宰杀。”
“No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.”
“在英格兰的动物中，没有一个动物在一岁之后懂得什么是幸福或空闲的涵意。没有一个是自由的。显而易见，动物的一生是痛苦的、备受奴役的一生。”
"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no!”
“但是，这真的是命中注定的吗？那些生长在这里的动物之所以不能过上舒适的生活，难道是因为我们这块土地太贫瘠了吗？不！同志们！一千个不！”
“The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings.”
“英格兰土地肥沃，气候适宜，它可以提供丰富的食物，可以养活为数比现在多得多的动物。拿我们这一个庄园来说，就足以养活十二匹马、二十头牛和数百只羊，而且我们甚至无法想象，他们会过得多么舒适，活得多么体面。那么，为什么我们的悲惨境况没有得到改变呢？这是因为，几乎我们的全部劳动所得都被人类窃取走了。”
“There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.”
“同志们，有一个答案可以解答我们的所有问题。我可以把它总结为一个字——人。人就是我们唯一真正的仇敌。把人从我们的生活中消除掉，饥饿与过度劳累的根子就会永远拔掉。”
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves?”
“人是一种最可怜的家伙，什么都产不了，只会挥霍。那些家伙产不了奶，也下不了蛋，瘦弱得拉不动犁跑起来也是慢吞吞的，连个兔子都逮不住。可那家伙却是所有动物的主宰。他驱使他们去干活，给他们报偿却只是一点少得不能再少的草料，仅够他们糊口而已。而他们劳动所得的其余的一切则都被他据为己有。是我们流血流汗在耕耘这块土地，是我们的粪便使它肥沃，可我们自己除了这一副空皮囊之外，又得到了什么呢！你们这些坐在我面前的牛，去年一年里，你们已产过多少加仑的奶呢！那些本来可以喂养出许多强壮的牛犊的奶又到哪儿去了呢？”
“Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies. And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?”
“每一滴都流进了我们仇敌的喉咙里。还有你们这些鸡、这一年里你们已下了多少只蛋呢？可又有多少孵成了小鸡？那些没有孵化的鸡蛋都被拿到市场上为琼斯和他的伙计们换成了钞票！你呢，克拉弗，你的四匹小马驹到哪儿去了？他们本来是你晚年的安慰和寄托！而他们却都在一岁时给卖掉了，你永远也无法再见到他们了。补偿给你这四次坐月子和在地里劳作的，除了那点可怜的饲料和一间马厩外，还有什么呢？”
"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all must come--cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone.”
“就是过着这样悲惨的生活，我们也不能被允许享尽天年。拿我自己来说，我无可抱怨，因为我算是幸运的。我十二岁了，已有四百多个孩子。这对一个猪来说就是应有的生活了。但是，到头来没有一个动物能逃过那残忍的一刀。你们这些坐在我面前的小肉猪们，不出一年，你们都将在刀架上嚎叫着断送性命。这恐怖就是我们——牛、猪、鸡、羊等等每一位都难逃的结局。”
