The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The fire burned brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought roams gracefully free of the trammels of precision. And he put it to us in this way—marking the points with a lean forefinger—as we sat and lazily admired his earnestness over this new paradox (as we thought it) and his fecundity.

时光旅行者（方便起见，这样称呼他）正在给我们解释一个深奥的问题。他灰色的眼睛此时闪着光芒，往常他总是面色苍白，这会儿却两颊泛着红光，富有生气。壁炉的火烧得很旺，银制的百合花形灯罩中，炽热的灯火散发出柔和的光晕，照在我们手中杯子里一闪即逝的气泡上。我们的座椅是时光旅行者的专利发明，不单是让人坐一坐那么简单，而是怀抱、轻抚着我们，十分舒适。晚饭后的气氛舒适惬意，大家畅快地交流思想，不必羁绊于表述的严谨。讲话中，关键的地方他总是用纤细的食指一顿。我们则坐在那里，懒洋洋地看着他专注地解释自己的新悖论（在我们看来如此），叹服他丰富的想象力。

"You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for instance, they taught you at school is founded on a misconception."

“你们必须紧跟我的思路。我会推翻一两个几乎是普遍接受的观点。比如，你们在学校学的几何学，它的理论基础根本就是谬误。”

"Is not that rather a large thing to expect us to begin upon?" said Filby, an argumentative person with red hair.

“从这个给我们讲起，是不是太大了点？”好争论的红头发菲尔比说。

"I do not mean to ask you to accept anything without reasonable ground for it. You will soon admit as much as I need from you. You know of course that a mathematical line, a line of thickness nil, has no real existence. They taught you that? Neither has a mathematical plane. These things are mere abstractions."

“我不是说要你们接受任何观点，而不给你们合理的解释。你们很快就会承认我说的这些，正如我所期望的那样。想必大家都知道，数学上的一条线，一条高度为零的线，实际上是不存在的。数学课上都是这么教的吧？这样的一个平面也是不存在的。它们都不过是些抽象的概念而已。”

"That is all right," said the Psychologist.

“没错。”心理学家说道。

"Nor, having only length, breadth, and thickness, can a cube have a real existence."

“一个立方体只具备长、宽、高，它就确实存在，这个说法也不对。”

"There I object," said Filby. "Of course a solid body may exist. All realthings—"

“我不这么认为，”菲尔比说道，“一个物体当然可能 存在了。所有实实在在的物体——”

"So most people think. But wait a moment. Can an instantaneous cube exist?"

“大多数人都是这么认为的。不过先别急，你们说，一个转瞬即逝的立方体能真正存在吗？”

"Don't follow you," said Filby.

“我没明白你的意思。”菲尔比说。

"Can a cube that does not last for any time at all, have a real existence?"

“一个立方体持续的时间为零，它能真实存在吗？”

Filby became pensive. "Clearly," the Time Traveller proceeded, "any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and—Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives."

菲尔比陷入了沉思。时光旅行者继续说道：“显而易见，任何真实存在的物体都必须具有四个维度：长度、宽度、高度，还有——持续时间。但是由于人自身的缺陷，我们很容易忽视这个事实。至于这一缺陷，我稍后再给大家解释。事实上，确实有四个维度，其中三个就是我们称作构成空间的三个平面，而第四个就是时间。但是，因为我们的意识从生命开始到结束都是沿着时间维度朝一个方向断断续续地向前推进，因此人们往往容易把前面三个维度和时间维度区别开来，而这个区别是不真实的。”

"That," said a very young man, making spasmodic efforts to relight his cigar over the lamp; "that... very clear indeed."

“这，”一个年轻人说着，一再地想要用灯火重新点燃他的雪茄，“这个……的确无可置疑。”

"Now, it is very remarkable that this is so extensively overlooked," continued the Time Traveller, with a slight accession of cheerfulness. "Really this is what is meant by the Fourth Dimension, though some people who talk about the Fourth Dimension do not know they mean it. It is only another way of looking at Time. There is no difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it. But some foolish people have got hold of the wrong side of that idea. You have all heard what they have to say about this Fourth Dimension?"

“可是现在，很明显，这一点通常都被忽视了，”时光旅行者继续说道，脸上多了一分满意的微笑，“这才是第四维度的真正所指，尽管有些人谈论第四维度，却不知道他们所说的就是时间。其实这只是换一种角度看时间。除了我们的意识沿着时间流动外，时间与空间的其他三个维度毫无差别。不过有些愚蠢的人曲解了这个观点。你们都听过这些人关于第四维度的说法吧？”

"I have not," said the Provincial Mayor.

“我没有。”一个来自外省的市长先生说道。

"It is simply this. That Space, as our mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length, Breadth, and Thickness, and is always definable by reference to three planes, each at right angles to the others. But some philosophical people have been asking why three dimensions particularly—why not another direction at right angles to the other three?—and have even tried to construct a Four-Dimension geometry. Professor Simon Newcomb was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month or so ago. You know how on a f lat surface, which has only two dimensions, we can represent a figure of a three-dimensional solid, and similarly they think that by models of three dimensions they could represent one of four—if they could master the perspective of the thing. See?"

“简单来说是这样的。按照数学家的说法，空间有三个维度，可以称为长度、宽度和高度。三个平面互相垂直就可以确定一个空间。但是一些哲学人士就一直有疑问：为什么就特定是三个维度呢？为什么不会有另外一个维度和这三个分别垂直呢？他们甚至尝试构造一个四维几何。就在大约一个月之前，西蒙. 尼科姆教授还在给纽约数学协会解释这个四维几何。大家都能理解在一个二维平面上，可以再现一个三维物体。同样道理，他们就想到利用三维模型，可以再现四维物体，只要掌握这个物体的透视法就行了。你们都明白了吗？”

"I think so," murmured the Provincial Mayor; and, knitting his brows, he lapsed into an introspective state, his lips moving as one who repeats mystic words. "Yes, I think I see it now," he said after some time, brightening in a quite transitory manner.

“我想是吧。”市长先生喃喃自语着。他紧锁眉头，自己反思着，嘴唇蠕动着，像是在那里叨念着什么咒语。沉默片刻，他忽然间恍然大悟道：“啊，现在我想明白了。”

"Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another at fifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and unalterable thing.

“现在，我不介意告诉大家我从事四维几何的研究已经有一段时间了。我的一些研究结果十分新奇。比如，这里有一个八岁男孩的画像，还有他十五岁、十七岁、二十三岁等各年纪的画像。所有这些画像都明显是一个人的不同阶段，可以说，这就是用三维再现出来的四维生命体，而这四维生命体的存在是确定的、不容改变的事实。”

"Scientific people," proceeded the Time Traveller, after the pause required for the proper assimilation of this, "know very well that Time is only a kind of Space. Here is a popular scientific diagram, a weather record. This line I trace with my finger shows the movement of the barometer. Yesterday it was so high, yesterday night it fell, then this morning it rose again, and so gently upward to here. Surely the mercury did not trace this line in any of the dimensions of Space generally recognized? But certainly it traced such a line, and that line, therefore, we must conclude was along the Time-Dimension."

待大家揣摩片刻后，时光旅行者继续说道：“科学人士非常清楚，时间只是空间的一种。这里有一张常见的科学图表，是记录天气变化的。我手指定位的这条线显示了气压的变化情况。昨天显示气压是这么高，昨天晚上有所下降，今天早上又有上升，就像这样缓缓升到这里。无疑，水银的这条变化曲线不是沿着普遍认为的任何一个空间维度所形成的，对吧？但是，它又确实是沿着这样一条线而变化。因此，我们必然得出这样一个结论，这条线就是沿着时间维度而变化的。”

"But," said the Medical Man, staring hard at a coal in the fire, "if Time is really only a fourth dimension of Space, why is it, and why has it always been, regarded as something different? And why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of Space?"

“但是，”医生凝视着炉火中的煤块，问道，“如果说时间的确仅仅是空间的第四个维度，那它为什么总是一直被认为有所不同呢？在空间的其他几个维度中，我们可以自由移动，但在时间里为什么就不行呢？”

The Time Traveller smiled. "Are you sure we can move freely in Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough, and men always have done so. I admit we move freely in two dimensions. But how about up and down? Gravitation limits us there."

时光旅行者笑着说：“你确定我们在空间里可以移动自如吗？左右移动不成问题，前进后退也毫无障碍，这些活动我们都经常做。我承认我们可以在两个维度中自由活动。但是我们也能自由地上天入地吗？地球引力把我们限制住了。”

"Not exactly," said the Medical Man. "There are balloons."

医生反驳道：“也未必啊，气球就可以上天。”

"But before the balloons, save for spasmodic jumping and the inequalities of the surface, man had no freedom of vertical movement."

“但是在气球出现之前，除了蹦一蹦、跳一跳以及地势不平的原因外，人们是不能自由上下移动的。”

"Still they could move a little up and down," said the Medical Man. "Easier, far easier down than up."

“但还是能小幅上下移动的。”医生还不放弃。“落下来远比向上运动容易多了。”

"And you cannot move at all in Time, you cannot get away from the present moment."

“在时间里根本无法移动，人不能脱离现在这一刻。”

"My dear sir, that is just where you are wrong. That is just where the whole world has gone wrong. We are always getting away from the present movement. Our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimensions, are passing along the Time-Dimension with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave. Just as we should travel down if we began our existence fifty miles above the earth's surface."

“我亲爱的朋友，这正是你们的错误所在，也正是全世界的错误所在。实际上，我们经常逃离此刻。我们的精神存在是非物质形态的，不具有任何维度。从我们出生直到死亡，它都是沿着时间维度匀速向前的。就像我们如果身处地球表面五十英里上空的话就会向下降落一样。”

"But the great difficulty is this," interrupted the Psychologist. "You can move about in all directions of Space, but you cannot move about in Time."

心理学家打断道：“但是问题是，在空间的各个方向人都可以自由活动，而在时间里就不可以。”

"That is the germ of my great discovery. But you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in Time. For instance, if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded, as you say. I jump back for a moment. Of course we have no means of staying back for any length of Time, any more than a savage or an animal has of staying six feet above the ground. But a civilized man is better off than the savage in this respect. He can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way?"

“这正是我伟大发现的开始。但是你说我们在时间里无法自由移动可就不对了。例如，如果我正身临其境地回忆着过去的某件事，我就会回到它发生的那个瞬间。你们会说我心不在焉。有那么片刻，我跳回到了过去。当然，我们无法在过去停留哪怕一丁点儿的时间，就像一个野蛮人或是动物没法做到在离地面六英尺之上停留一分一秒一样。不过，在这方面，文明社会的人要比那些尚未开化的野蛮人强多了。既然他可以乘坐气球挣脱地球引力，为什么就不能期望最终在时间维度上停止或者做加速运动，甚至逆向运动呢？”

"Oh, this," began Filby, "is all—"

“哦，这个，”菲尔比禁不住说道，“都是——”

"Why not?" said the Time Traveller.

话未说完，时光旅行者就打断道：“为什么不可以呢？”

"It's against reason," said Filby.

“这不合逻辑。”菲尔比回答说。

"What reason?" said the Time Traveller.

“什么逻辑？”时光旅行者反问。

"You can show black is white by argument," said Filby, "but you will never convince me."

“你可以把黑的说成是白的，但你永远不可能使我信服。”菲尔比斩钉截铁地说。

"Possibly not," said the Time Traveller. 'But now you begin to see the object of my investigations into the geometry of Four Dimensions. Long ago I had a vague inkling of a machine—"

“也许是吧，”时光旅行者回答，“但是现在你们开始 明白我研究四维几何的目的了。我很早之前就萌生念头， 想发明一种机器——”

"To travel through Time!" exclaimed the Very Young Man.

“去穿梭时空！”那个年轻人惊叫道。

"That shall travel indifferently in any direction of Space and Time, as the driver determines." Filby contented himself with laughter.

“只要驾驶机器的人愿意，这个机器可以朝空间和时 间的任意方向行进。”菲尔比自顾自地笑了笑。

"But I have experimental verification," said the Time Traveller.

“但是我有实验为证。”时光旅行者说。

"It would be remarkably convenient for the historian," the Psychologist suggested. "One might travel back and verify the accepted account of the Battle of Hastings , for instance!"

心理学家建议说：“有了这个机器，历史学家可就方便多了，比如，他可以回到过去，验证一下现在公认的关于黑斯廷斯战役的描述！”

"Don't you think you would attract attention?" said the Medical Man. "Our ancestors had no great tolerance for anachronisms."

“你会因此而备受关注的，你不觉得吗？”医生说，“我 们的先人可没有如此的宽宏大量，能容忍时光倒错的出现。”

"One might get one's Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato," the Very Young Man thought.

“这样就可以通过听荷马和柏拉图的亲口传授，学习希腊语了。”年轻人一边思索着一边说道。

"In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much."

“那样的话，他们肯定会让你初试不及格的。要知道德国学者后来大大发展了希腊语。”

"Then there is the future," said the Very Young Man. "Just think! One might invest all one's money, leave it to accumulate at interest, and hurry on ahead!"

“人还可以去未来，”年轻人兴奋地说道，“想想看，你可以把积蓄都存起来，让它积累生息，然后再赶到未来去取款！”

"To discover a society," said I, "erected on a strictly communistic basis.. "Of all the wild extravagant theories!" began the Psychologist.

“可以看看严格按照共产主义理论建立的社会是什么样子的。”我说。“都是些异想天开的理论！”心理学家开始说道。

"Yes, so it seemed to me, and so I never talked of it until—"

“是的，以前我也是这么觉得，因此，之前我从不谈论它，直到——”

"Experimental verification!" cried I. "You are going to verify that?"

“实验证明！”我惊呼，“你真要证明它？”

"The experiment!" cried Filby, who was getting brain-weary.

“啊，实验！”菲尔比惊呼，他有些头昏脑胀了。

"Let's see your experiment anyhow," said the Psychologist, "though it's all humbug, you know."

“尽管我认为你是鬼话连篇，不过，无论如何，让我们来亲眼目睹你的实验吧。”心理学家说。

The Time Traveller smiled round at us. Then, still smiling faintly, and with his hands deep in his trousers pockets, he walked slowly out of the room, and we heard his slippers shuffling down the long passage to his laboratory.

时光旅行者微笑着环顾听者。他双手深深插在裤兜里，缓缓走出屋子，脸上依旧带着微笑。我们听到他拖着拖鞋，穿过长长的走廊，向实验室走去。

The Psychologist looked at us. "I wonder what he's got?"

心理学家看着我们说：“不知道他会拿什么东西出来？”

"Some sleight-of-hand trick or other," said the Medical Man, and Filby tried to tell us about a conjurer he had seen at Burslem; but before he had finished his preface the Time Traveller came back, and Filby's anecdote collapsed.

“可能是变个戏法或耍个花招什么的吧。”医生说。菲尔比想要给大家讲述他在波斯勒姆镇见到的一位魔术师，不过还没等他把开头讲完，时光旅行者就回来了，菲尔比的趣闻就此作罢。

The thing the Time Traveller held in his hand was a glittering metallic framework, scarcely larger than a small clock, and very delicately made. There was ivory in it, and some transparent crystalline substance. And now I must be explicit, for this that follows—unless his explanation is to be accepted—is an absolutely unaccountable thing. He took one of the small octagonal tables that were scattered about the room, and set it in front of the fire, with two legs on the hearthrug. On this table he placed the mechanism. Then he drew up a chair, and sat down. The only other object on the table was a small shaded lamp, the bright light of which fell upon the model. There were also perhaps a dozen candles about, two in brass candlesticks upon the mantel and several in sconces, so that the room was brilliantly illuminated. I sat in a low arm-chair nearest the fire, and I drew this forward so as to be almost between the Time Traveller and the fireplace. Filby sat behind him, looking over his shoulder. The Medical Man and the Provincial Mayor watched him in profile from the right, the Psychologist from the left. The Very Young Man stood behind the Psychologist. We were all on the alert. It appears incredible to me that any kind of trick, however subtly conceived and however adroitly done, could have been played upon us under these conditions.

时光旅行者手里拿着一个金属构造的东西，闪闪发光，比一个小闹钟大不了多少，做得很是精巧。这个小东西里面有象牙和一些透明的晶状物体。从现在开始，我的叙述必须详尽，因为下面所发生的事情，除非我们认同旅行者的解释，否则简直不可思议。屋子里有一些小八角桌，他搬了一张放在壁炉前，有两个桌腿压在壁炉前的地毯上。时光旅行者把小装置放在桌子上，然后拉了一把椅子坐下来。除了那个小机器，桌上就只有一个带灯罩的小油灯，明亮的灯光落在那个机器模型上。房间里可能还有十来支蜡烛，有两个插在铜制的烛台上，摆在壁炉架上，还有一些插在壁式烛台上，所以照得整间屋子都亮堂堂的。我坐在一把不高的扶手椅上，离炉火最近。我又把椅子往前拉了拉，差不多坐在时光旅行者和壁炉中间了。菲尔比坐在旅行者后面，目光掠过他的肩膀看着实验。医生和市长先生从右侧，心理学家从他左侧观察着旅行者，那个年轻人则站在心理学家后面。我们都全神贯注。在这样的情形下，不管时光旅行者的把戏设计得有多么精妙，手法有多么灵巧，我也不相信他能瞒天过海，骗过我们这么多双眼睛。

The Time Traveller looked at us, and then at the mechanism. "Well?" said the Psychologist.

时光旅行者看了看大家，然后把目光转向桌上的模型。“怎么样，开始吧？”心理学家说。

"This little affair," said the Time Traveller, resting his elbows upon the table and pressing his hands together above the apparatus, "is only a model. It is my plan for a machine to travel through time. You will notice that it looks singularly askew, and that there is an odd twinkling appearance about this bar, as though it was in some way unreal." He pointed to the part with his finger. "Also, here is one little white lever, and here is another."

“这个小东西，”时光旅行者把胳膊肘撑在桌面上，双手按在机器上说道，“只是一个模型，它是我计划穿越时光的一个机器雏形。你们可能会发现它看起来歪歪斜斜的，另外这根操纵杆闪闪发光，看起来有些奇怪，似乎有点像假的。”旅行者边说边用手指着那个部位，“这儿有一个小的白色操纵杆，这边还有一个。”

The Medical Man got up out of his chair and peered into the thing. "It's beautifully made," he said.

医生站起身，过去盯着那个小东西仔细看，然后说：“制作得很精美。”

"It took two years to make," retorted the Time Traveller. Then, when we had all imitated the action of the Medical Man, he said. "Now I want you clearly to understand that this lever, being pressed over, sends the machine gliding into the future, and this other reverses the motion. This saddle represents the seat of a time traveller. Presently I am going to press the lever, and off the machine will go. It will vanish, pass into future Time, and disappear. Have a good look at the thing. Look at the table too, and satisfy yourselves there is no trickery. I don't want to waste this model, and then be told I'm a quack."

“我花了两年时间才做出来的。”时光旅行者回应道。等我们一个个都把那小东西细细端详一番后，时光旅行者说：“现在，我要你们都听明白，这个操作杆按下去后，机器就会驶向未来，而按下另外一个操纵杆，机器就会回到过去。穿越时空的人坐在里边的这个座位上。我马上就要按下第一个操纵杆，机器就会出发。它会突然消失，进入未来时空，然后就彻底消失了。你们可要仔细看看这个小东西，还有这张桌子，确信我没有使什么骗术。我可不想白白浪费了这个模型，结果还反被说成是个骗子。”

There was a minute's pause perhaps. The Psychologist seemed about to speak to me, but changed his mind. Then the Time Traveller put forth his finger towards the lever. "No," he said suddenly. "Lend me your hand." And turning to the Psychologist, he took that individual's hand in his own and told him to put out his forefinger. So that it was the Psychologist himself who sent forth the model Time Machine on its interminable voyage. We all saw the lever turn. I am absolutely certain there was no trickery. There was a breath of wind, and the lamp flame jumped. One of the candles on the mantel was blown out, and the little machine suddenly swung round, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone—vanished! Save for the lamp the table was bare.

大约有一分钟的光景大家都没有讲话。心理学家似乎想要跟我说些什么，却欲言又止。紧接着时光旅行者把手指伸向操纵杆，突然他又停了下来：“不，”他转向心理学家，“借用一下你的手。”就这样，时光旅行者攥着心理学家的手，并让他伸出食指。这样一来就是心理学家启动了时光机器模型，开始了漫无尽头的旅行。我们都亲眼目睹了操纵杆转动的瞬间。我百分之一百地肯定没有任何花招。我感到有一缕清风，灯火随之跳跃了一下。壁炉架上的蜡烛有一只被吹灭了。那个小机器突然开始转起圈来，变得模糊了，乍一看像个幽灵一般，黄 铜色和象牙色闪闪发光，汇成令人晕眩的漩涡，接着就不见了——消失得无影无踪！除了那盏灯，桌子上空荡荡 的什么也没有。

Everyone was silent for a minute. Then Filby said he was damned.

大家沉默了片刻。而菲尔比直骂自己该死。

The Psychologist recovered from his stupor, and suddenly looked under the table. At that the Time Traveller laughed cheerfully. "Well?" he said, with a reminiscence of the Psychologist. Then, getting up, he went to the tobacco jar on the mantel, and with his back to us began to fill his pipe.

心理学家从恍惚中回过神来，突然低头往桌子底下看了看。这个举动引得时光旅行者开怀大笑。“怎么样？”他用之前心理学家的口吻说道。时光旅行者起身走到壁炉架前，那上面有一罐烟丝，他背对着我们，开始往自己烟斗里填烟丝。

We stared at each other. "Look here," said the Medical Man, "are you in earnest about this? Do you seriously believe that that machine has travelled into time?"

我们面面相觑。“我说，”医生说话了，“刚才的事情你 不会是认真的吧？你真的相信那个小机器去时空旅行了？”

"Certainly," said the Time Traveller, stooping to light a spill at the fire. Then he turned, lighting his pipe, to look at the Psychologist's face. (The Psychologist, to show that he was not unhinged, helped himself to a cigar and tried to light it uncut.. "What is more, I have a big machine nearly finished in there"—he indicated the laboratory—"and when that is put together I mean to have a journey on my own account."

“当然了。”时光旅行者边说着边俯身借炉火点燃纸捻。说完他转过身，点燃烟斗，看着心理学家。（心理学家为了证明自己并未心神不宁，取出一支雪茄，结果没有剪烟嘴就要点火。）“而且，我在那儿（他指的是实验室）还有一个大型的机器就快完成了。”“等那台机器装好了，我打算亲自体验一次时空旅行。”

"You mean to say that that machine has travelled into the future?" said Filby.

“你的意思是说刚才那个小机器进入未来时空了？”菲尔比问。

"Into the future or the past—I don't, for certain, know which."

“可能是未来，也可能是过去，我也不确定。”

After an interval the Psychologist had an inspiration. "It must have gone into the past if it has gone anywhere," he said.

过了一会儿，心理学家突发灵感：“如果说它确实去了 某个地方的话，那么它一定是回到过去了。”

"Why?" said the Time Traveller.

“为什么这么说？”时光旅行者问道。

"Because I presume that it has not moved in space, and if it traveled into the future it would still be here all this time, since it must have travelled through this time."

“因为我猜测它没有发生位移。如果它进入未来的话，它 应该一直就在这个地方，因为它肯定会经历现在这个时间。”

"But," I said, "if it travelled into the past it would have been visible when we came first into this room; and last Thursday when we were here; and the Thursday before that; and so forth!"

“但是，如果说它回到了过去的话，我们之前进屋的 时候应该能看到它啊，还有上周四我们在这儿的时候以及 上上周四等等！”

"Serious objections," remarked the Provincial Mayor, with an air of impartiality, turning towards the Time Traveller.

市长先生带着一副公正的表情，转向时光旅行者说道：“严重的漏洞。”

"Not a bit," said the Time Traveller, and, to the Psychologist. "You think. You can explain that. It's presentation below the threshold, you know, diluted presentation."

“一点也不是。”时光旅行者反驳道。他对心理学家说：“你想想看。你可以解释的。这是临界之下的表象，你知道的，弱化的表象。”

"Of course," said the Psychologist, and reassured us. "That's a simple point of psychology. I should have thought of it. It's plain enough, and helps the paradox delightfully. We cannot see it, nor can we appreciate this machine, any more than we can the spoke of a wheel spinning, or a bullet flying through the air. If it is travelling through time fifty times or a hundred times faster than we are, if it gets through a minute while we get through a second, the impression it creates will of course be only one-fiftieth or one-hundredth of what it would make if it were not travelling in time. That's plain enough." He passed his hand through the space in which the machine had been. "You see?" he said, laughing.

“当然了。”心理学家说道，打消了我们的疑虑。“这是心理学上一个很简单的道理。我早就应该想到的。道理不难，也能很好地解释刚才的矛盾。就像我们看不到车轮高速转动时的辐条，也看不到飞过空中的子弹一样，我们看不到那个模型，更不可能觉察到它也是同样的道理。如果这个机器在时间中前进的速度比我们快50 倍或是100 倍；如果我们过一秒钟的时间，它已经过了一分钟，那么它留给我们的印象就只是它未做时光旅行情况下的五十分之一或百分之一。就这么简单。”心理学家在之前放着那个机器的地方挥手比划了一下。“你们明白了吗？”他笑着说。

We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. Then the Time Traveller asked us what we thought of it all.

我们坐在那里，盯着空空的桌子看了一分钟左右。时光旅行者问我们有什么看法。

"It sounds plausible enough tonight," said the Medical Man, "but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning."

医生说道：“就今天晚上看，听起来是有些道理，不过等明天再看看。等明天早上头脑恢复常理时再做评论。”

"Would you like to see the Time Machine itself?" asked the Time Traveller. And therewith, taking the lamp in his hand, he led the way down the long, draughty corridor to his laboratory. I remember vividly the flickering light, his queer, broad head in silhouette, the dance of the shadows, how we all followed him, puzzled but incredulous, and how there in the laboratory we beheld a larger edition of the little mechanism which we had seen vanish from before our eyes. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory, parts had certainly been filed or sawn out of rock crystal. The thing was generally complete, but the twisted crystalline bars lay unfinished upon the bench beside some sheets of drawings, and I took one up for a better look at it. Quartz it seemed to be.

“你们想看看真正的时光机器吗？”时光旅行者问。话刚说完，他就拿起灯，带着我们穿过走廊走向实验室，走廊很长，还有穿堂风。那天的场景我现在回想起来仍历历在目：我清楚地记得闪烁的灯火，还有旅行者形状奇特又宽大的头部轮廓，我们的影子仿佛在跳跃起舞。我们跟在他身后，心里装满困惑，不太相信这一切。在实验室我们看到一个更大的机器，它是之前从我们眼前消失的那个小机器的放大版。有的部件是镍做的，有的是象牙做的，还有的部分我敢肯定是用水晶岩加工打磨出来的。基本上快完工了，只差几根弯曲的、晶莹透亮的杆还没完成，放在长椅上，旁边还有一些设计图。我拿起一根杆仔细端详起来，质地看起来像石英石。

"Look here," said the Medical Man, "are you perfectly serious? Or is this a trick—like that ghost you showed us last Christmas?"

“听我说，”医生说道，“你真的是认真的吗？还是跟上次圣诞节你给我们展示的幽灵一样，只是个把戏？”

"Upon that machine," said the Time Traveller, holding the lamp aloft, "I intend to explore time. Is that plain? I was never more serious in my life."

“我打算乘坐那部机器，”时光旅行者把手里的灯高高举起答道，“去探索时空。这样讲够清楚吗？我这辈子还从来没有这么认真过。”

None of us quite knew how to take it.

听到这，我们谁也不知道该不该相信。

I caught Filby's eye over the shoulder of the Medical Man, and he winked at me solemnly.

我的目光越过医生的肩膀与菲尔比的视线相对，他朝我眨了个眼，神情凝重。 q+zBG9zXyH1hgkKp4JumJe5RQPSGTir5OS+zy/yXXuAwV7aPbvJTDCc3lJlaoX6u