第十九章（第10/13页）

我寄宿在一座不赖的老式农舍，位于机车路。房东是海帕克的火车司机，身材高大，蓄须，是位虔诚的教徒。其妻如鸟儿般活泼好动，热衷于所有高品位的东西。满嘴说的都是标准英语，口头禅是请允许我！但两人唯一的儿子在战争中殒命，这简直像剜去他们的心肝。好在他们还有个女儿，身材细高，个性腼腆，正在参加培训，希望成为教员。我有时会帮她补习功课，跟他们处得好像一家人。他们都是正派人，对我更是无微不至。我猜此刻的自己确实比你幸运得多。

I like farming all right. It's not inspiring, but then I don't ask to be inspired. I'm used to horses, and cows, though they are very female, have a soothing effect on me. When I sit with my head in her side, milking, I feel very solaced. They have six rather fine Herefords. Oatharvest is just over and I enjoyed it, in spite of sore hands and a lot of rain. I don't take much notice of people, but get on with them all right. Most things one just ignores.

农场的活计还算不错。虽说有些提不起兴趣，但我也不寄望这些。我过去习惯跟马匹打交道，而奶牛虽然是雌性动物，但仍能给我带来慰藉。坐在乳牛身旁挤奶的时候，我总会把头靠在它们身上，这让我感觉很平静。农场拥有六只膘肥肉厚的赫里福德牛。燕麦收获季刚刚结束，虽然两手伤痕累累，阴雨连绵，但我还挺享受收割的乐趣。我跟这里的人打交道不多，但也相处融洽。无需因不相干的事情浪费精力。

The pits are working badly; this is a colliery district like Tevershall. Only prettier. I sometimes sit in the Wellington and talk to the men. They grumble a lot, but they're not going to alter anything. As everybody says, the NottsDerby miners have got their hearts in the right place. But the rest of their anatomy must be in the wrong place, in a world that has no use for them. I like them, but they don't cheer me much: not enough of the old fightingcock in them. They talk a lot about nationalization, nationalization of royalties, nationalization of the whole industry. But you can't nationalize coal and leave all the other industries as they are. They talk about putting coal to new uses, like Sir Clifford is trying to do. It may work here and there, but not as a general thing. I doubt. Whatever you make you've got to sell it. The men are very apathetic. They feel the whole damned thing is doomed, and I believe it is. And they are doomed along with it. Some of the young ones spout about a Soviet, but there's not much conviction in them. There's no sort of conviction about anything, except that it's all a muddle and a hole. Even under a Soviet you've still got to sell coal: and that's the difficulty.

这里也像特弗沙尔一样，是个煤矿区，但矿场都不太景气。只不过更为美观。有时候，我会去惠灵顿酒馆，跟矿工们攀谈。他们牢骚满腹，但却不愿去改变什么。大家都说，诺丁汉到德比这片区域的矿工都心肠不坏。但其他器官却肯定都安错了位置，根本派不上什么用场。我喜欢跟他们谈天说地，但这些家伙缺少旧日雄鸡的斗志，很难让我热血沸腾。他们谈到国有化问题，说起开采权乃至整个采矿业的国有化。但总不能将煤矿全部纳入国有化范畴，而任其他行业自生自灭。他们期待研发出煤炭的新用途，这跟克利福德爵士的想法相似。在某些地方或许行得通，但很难放诸四海而皆准。我对此深表怀疑。不管将煤炭转化为何种能源，但卖得出去才是硬道理。矿工们都缺乏干劲儿。他们觉得一切都是劫数难逃，我也有同感。而他们同样难脱宿命。部分小伙子滔滔不绝地谈论着苏维埃，但他们对这种新政体也没有多少信心。他们对什么都缺乏信心，只知道自己深陷困境，进退两难。就算建立苏维埃政体，煤还是得卖出去，这才是症结所在。

We've got this great industrial population, and they've got to be fed, so the damn show has to be kept going somehow. The women talk a lot more than the men, nowadays, and they are a sight more cocksure. The men are limp, they feel a doom somewhere, and they go about as if there was nothing to be done. Anyhow, nobody knows what should be done in spite of all the talk, the young ones get mad because they've no money to spend. Their whole life depends on spending money, and now they've got none to spend. That's our civilization and our education: bring up the masses to depend entirely on spending money, and then the money gives out. The pits are working two days, two and a half days a week, and there's no sign of betterment even for the winter. It means a man bringing up a family on twentyfive and thirty shillings. The women are the maddest of all. But then they're the maddest for spending, nowadays.