Then came the Asbestos Clothes. In one year humanity made enough suits to last for ever and ever. That, of course, could never have been if it hadn't been connected with the revolt of women and the fall of Fashion."
“这以后就是石棉服了。就一年的时间,人类就做了足够多的这种衣服,永远也穿不完。当然这与妇女的造反运动和时尚的衰落紧密相关,不然,这是永远不可能的。”
"Have the fashions gone," I asked, "that insane, extravagant idea of—?" I was about to launch into one of my old-time harangues about the sheer vanity of decorative dress, when my eyes rested on the moving figures in asbestos, and I stopped.
“现在人们不讲时髦了,”我问道,“不讲那种愚蠢的荒谬的——?”我当时正想再讲一遍反对那种纯粹为了虚荣追求时髦的老话,但我突然看到那些正在走动的穿着石棉服的人,我就 讲不下去了。
"All gone," said the Man in Asbestos. "Then next to that we killed the change of climate. I don't think that in your day you properly understood how much of your work was due to the shifts of what you called the weather. It meant the need of all kinds of special clothes and houses and shelters, a wilderness of work. How dreadful it must have been in your day—wind and storms, clouds flying through the air, the ocean tossed and tom by the wind, snow thrown all over everything."
“都没有了,”那个穿石棉衣服的人说,“在那之后,我们把气候变化也给消灭了。我相信在你们那个时候,你们并不知道你们有多少工作是和你们所谓的气候变化有关的。它意味着需要各种各样特别的衣服和能挡风霜雨雪的房屋建筑,那真是一大堆令人头昏目眩的工作。 你们那时候日子肯定是够可怕的——不是狂风就是暴雨,空中乌云乱飞,海洋给风搅得白浪滔 天,地上的一切都让冰雪盖得严严实实。”
"So," I said, "the Conquest of Nature meant that presently there was no more work to do?"
“这么说来,”我说,“‘征服了自然’的意思是现在已经没事情要做了?”
"Exactly," he said, "nothing left."
“一点儿也不错,”他说,“无事可做了。”
"Food enough for all?"
“人人都有饭吃?”
"Too much," he answered.
“根本吃不完,”他回答说。
"Houses and clothes?"
“房子和衣服?”
"All you like."