1984

Winston could not definitely (точно) remember a time when his country had not been at war, but it was evident that there had been a fairly (довольно) long interval of peace during his childhood, because one of his early memories was of an air raid (налет) which appeared to take everyone by surprise. Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had fallen on Colchester. He did not remember the raid (рейд) itself, but he did remember his father’s hand clutching (сжимал) his own as they hurried down (спешил), down, down into some place deep in the earth, round and round a spiral staircase (лестница) which rang (звенел) under his feet and which finally so wearied (утомился) his legs that he began whimpering (хныкать) and they had to stop and rest. His mother, in her slow, dreamy way (манера), was following a long way behind them. She was carrying (нес) his baby sister – or perhaps it was only a bundle (сверток) of blankets (одеяла) that she was carrying: he was not certain (уверен) whether his sister had been born then. Finally they had emerged (оказался) into a noisy, crowded place which he had realized to be a Tube (станция метро) station.

There were people sitting all over the stone-flagged (каменный) floor (пол), and other people, packed (сбившись) tightly (тесно) together, were sitting on metal bunks (нары), one above the other. Winston and his mother and father found themselves a place on the floor, and near them an old man and an old woman were sitting side by side on a bunk (койка). The old man had on a decent (приличный) dark suit and a black cloth cap pushed back from (откинутый от) very white hair: his face was scarlet and his eyes were blue and full of tears (слезы). He reeked (пахло) of gin. It seemed to breathe (выдыхается) out of his skin in place of sweat (пот), and one could have fancied (можно было подумать) that the tears (слезы) welling (льющийся) from his eyes were pure (чистый) gin. But though slightly (слегка) drunk (пьяный) he was also suffering (страдал) under some grief (горе) that was genuine (искренний) and unbearable (невыносимый). In his childish way Winston grasped (понял) that some terrible thing, something that was beyond (нельзя) forgiveness (простить) and could never be remedied (исправил), had just happened. It also seemed to him that he knew what it was. Someone whom (кого-то, кого) the old man loved – a little granddaughter, perhaps – had been killed. Every few minutes the old man kept repeating:

«We didn’t ought (не должны были) to «ave trusted «em (им доверять). I said so, Ma, didn’t I? That’s what comes of trusting «em. I said so all along (я говорил это с самого начала). We didn’t ought to «ave trusted the buggers (ублюдки).»

But which buggers (мерзавцы) they didn’t ought to have trusted Winston could not now remember.

Since about that time, war had been literally continuous (непрерывный), though strictly (строго) speaking it had not always been the same war. For several months during his childhood there had been confused (происходил) street fighting in London itself, some of which he remembered vividly (ярко). But to trace out the history of the whole period, to say who was fighting whom at any given moment, would have been utterly (совершенно) impossible, since (поскольку) no written record, and no spoken word, ever made mention (упоминался) of any other alignment (расклад) than the existing one. At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance (заявление) was it ever admitted (признавался) that the three powers had at any time been grouped (группировался) along different lines. Actually (на самом деле), as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely (лишь) a piece (часть) of furtive (скрытый) knowledge which he happened to possess (владеть) because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore (следовательно) Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.

The frightening (пугающий) thing, he reflected (размышлял) for the ten thousandth time as he forced (отводя) his shoulders painfully (болезненно) backward (with hands on hips (бедра), they were gyrating (вращал) their bodies from the waist (талия), an exercise that was supposed to be good for the back muscles) – the frightening thing was that it might all be true. If the Party could thrust (сунуть) its hand into the past and say of this or that event, IT NEVER HAPPENED – that, surely, was more terrifying (страшнее) than mere torture (пытки) and death? 18

The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness (сознание), which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted (принимал) the lie which the Party imposed (навязывал) – if all records told the same tale (сказка) —then the lie passed into history and became truth. «Who controls the past,» ran (гласил) the Party slogan, «controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.» And yet (все же) the past, though of its nature alterable (изменяемый), never had been altered (изменен). Whatever (что угодно) was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting (от вечности к вечности). It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending (бесконечный) series of victories over your own memory. «Reality control’, they called it: in Newspeak, «doublethink’.

«Stand easy!’ barked (рявкнул) the instructress (инструкторша), a little more genially (добродушно). 19

Winston sank (опустил) his arms to his sides and slowly refilled (наполнил) his lungs (легкие) with air. His mind slid away (ускользнул) into the labyrinthine (запутанный) world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious (осознавать) of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously (одновременно) two opinions which cancelled out (сводятся на нет), knowing them to be contradictory (противоречивый) and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate (отвергать) morality while laying claim (претендуя) to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian (страж) of democracy, to forget whatever (все) it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back (снова вызвать) into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly (быстро) to forget it again: and above all (превыше всего), to apply (применить) the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate (предельный) subtlety (тонкость): consciously to induce (вызвать) unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed (совершил). Even to understand the word «doublethink’ involved (требовался) the use of doublethink.

The instructress had called them to attention again. «And now let’s see which of us can touch our toes (пальцы ног)!» she said enthusiastically. «Right over from the hips (бедра), please, comrades. ONE-two! ONE-two!…»

Winston loathed (ненавидел) this exercise, which sent (вызывал) shooting (стреляющий) pains (боли) all the way from his heels (пятки) to his buttocks (ягодицы) and often ended by bringing on another coughing (приступ) fit (кашель). The half-pleasant (наполовину приятный) quality (качество) went out of his meditations (медитации). The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even the most obvious (очевидный) fact when there existed no record outside your own memory? He tried to remember in what year he had first heard mention of Big Brother. He thought it must have been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to be certain (уверенный). In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother figured as the leader and guardian of the Revolution since its very earliest days. His exploits (подвиги) had been gradually (постепенно) pushed (отодвигался) backwards (назад) in time until already they extended (распространился) into the fabulous (сказочный) world of the forties and the thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical hats still rode (разъезжал) through the streets of London in great gleaming motor-cars or horse carriages (экипажи) with glass sides. There was no knowing how much of this legend was true and how much invented (изобретен). Winston could not even remember at what date the Party itself had come into existence. He did not believe he had ever heard the word Ingsoc before 1960, but it was possible that in its Oldspeak form – «English Socialism’, that is to say – it had been current (ходячий) earlier. Everything melted (растаял) into mist (туман). Sometimes, indeed (действительно), you could put your finger on a definite (явный) lie. It was not true, for example, as was claimed in the Party history books, that the Party had invented (изобрел) aeroplanes. He remembered aeroplanes since his earliest childhood. But you could prove (доказать) nothing. There was never any evidence (доказательство). Just once (всего один раз) in his whole life he had held in his hands unmistakable documentary proof (доказательство) of the falsification of an historical fact. And on that occasion —

«Smith!» screamed (завопил) the shrewish (сварливый) voice from the telescreen. «6079 Smith W.! Yes, YOU! Bend lower (наклонитесь ниже), please! You can do better than that. You’re not trying. Lower, please! THAT’S better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad (отделение), and watch me.»

A sudden (внезапно) hot sweat (пот) had broken out all over Winston’s body. His face remained (оставался) completely inscrutable (непроницаемый). Never show dismay (смятение)! Never show resentment (обида)! A single flicker (дрожание) of the eyes could give you away (выдать тебя). He stood watching while the instructress raised her arms above her head and – one could not say gracefully (изящно), but with remarkable (поразительный) neatness (аккуратность) and efficiency – bent over (наклонилась) and tucked (подогнул) the first joint (сустав) of her fingers under her toes.

«THERE, comrades! THAT’S how I want to see you doing it. Watch me again. I’m thirty-nine and I’ve had four children. Now look.» She bent over again. «You see MY knees (колени) aren’t bent (не согнут). You can all do it if you want to,» she added as she straightened (выпрямляясь) herself up. «Anyone (любой) under forty-five is perfectly (вполне) capable (способен) of touching his toes (пальцы ног). We don’t all have the privilege of fighting in the front line, but at least (по крайней мере) we can all keep fit (поддерживать форму). Remember our boys on the Malabar front! And the sailors in the Floating Fortresses (крепости)! Just (просто) think what THEY have to put up with (приходится мириться). Now try again. That’s better, comrade, that’s MUCH better,» she added encouragingly (ободряюще) as Winston, with a violent lunge (выпад), succeeded in touching his toes (пальцы ног) with knees (колени) unbent (разогнутый), for the first time in several years.

Chapter 4

With the deep, unconscious sigh which not even the nearness (близость) of the telescreen could prevent (помешать) him from uttering (издать) when his day’s work started, Winston pulled (поставил) the speakwrite (диктофон) towards him, blew (сдул) the dust (пыль) from its mouthpiece (мундштук), and put on his spectacles. Then he unrolled (развернул) and clipped (скрепил) together four small cylinders of paper which had already flopped out (вылетел) of the pneumatic tube (трубка) on the right-hand side of his desk.

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices (отверстия). To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach (досягаемость) of Winston’s arm, a large oblong (продолговатый) slit (щель) protected by a wire (проволочный) grating (решетка). This last was for the disposal (удаление) of waste (отходы) paper. Similar slits (щели) existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed (прозвал) memory holes (дыры). When one knew that any document was due for destruction (уничтожение), or even when one saw a scrap (клочок) of waste (отход) paper lying (валяющийся) about, it was an automatic action to lift (поднимать) the flap (крышка) of the nearest memory hole (ближайшее хранилище) and drop (бросал) it in, whereupon (после чего) it would be whirled away (уносил) on a current (поток) of warm air to the enormous (огромный) furnaces (печи) which were hidden (спрятан) somewhere in the recesses (тайники) of the building.

Winston examined the four slips (кучи) of paper which he had unrolled (развернул). Each contained (содержал) a message of only one or two lines, in the abbreviated (сокращенный) jargon (жаргон) – not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words – which was used in the Ministry for internal purposes. They ran:

сообщение с ошибками (исправлен) текущий минипленты (исправлять) (без упоминания) times 17.3.84 bb speech malreported ( ) africa rectify times 19.12.83 forecasts (прогнозы) 3 yp 4th quarter 83 misprints (опечатки) verify current ( ) issue times 14.2.84 miniplenty ( ) malquoted (неправильно процитированный) chocolate rectify times 3.12.83 reporting (отчет) bb dayorder (дневной порядок) doubleplusungood (вдвойне хорошо) refs unpersons rewrite fullwise (полный мудрый) upsub antefiling (противообрастающий)

With a faint (слабый) feeling of satisfaction Winston laid (отложил) the fourth message aside. It was an intricate (сложный) and responsible (ответственный) job and had better be dealt with last (разбираться в последнюю очередь). The other three were routine (рутинный) matters (дела), though the second one would probably mean some tedious (утомительный) wading (блуждание) through lists of figures.

Winston dialled (набрал) «back numbers (обратные номера) ’ on the telescreen and called for the appropriate (соответствующий) issues of «The Times’, which slid out (выскользнул) of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes’ delay (задержка). The messages he had received (получил) referred (относился) to articles or news items (предметы) which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify (исправить). For example, it appeared from «The Times’ of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous (предыдущий) day, had predicted (предсказал) that the South Indian front would remain (оставался) quiet (спокойствие) but that a Eurasian offensive (наступление) would shortly (вскоре) be launched (начался) in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone (в покое). It was therefore (поэтому) necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech, in such a way (таким образом) as to make (заставить) him predict (предсказать) the thing that had actually happened. Or again, «The Times’ of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts (прогнозы) of the output (выпуск) of various classes of consumption goods (потребительские товары) in the fourth quarter (квартал) of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement (отчет) of the actual output (результат), from which it appeared that the forecasts (прогнозы) were in every instance (случай) grossly (грубо) wrong (ошибочный). Winston’s job was to rectify (исправить) the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for (что касается) the third message, it referred (упомянул) to a very simple error which could be set right (исправить) in a couple (пара) of minutes. As short a time ago (недавно) as February, the Ministry of Plenty (изобилие) had issued a promise (обещание) a «categorical pledge (обещание) ’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction (сокращение) of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware (знал), the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute (заменить) for the original promise a warning (предупреждение) that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.

As soon as (как только) Winston had dealt (разобрался) with each of the messages, he clipped (прикрепил) his speakwritten (исправления) corrections to the appropriate (соответствующий) copy of «The Times’ and pushed (затолкал) them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up (скомкал) the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped (бросил) them into the memory hole (дыра памяти) to be devoured (сожрало) by the flames (пламя).

What happened in the unseen (невидимый) labyrinth (лабиринт) to which the pneumatic tubes led (вел), he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms (черты). As soon as (как только) all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of «The Times’ had been assembled (собран) and collated (сопоставлен), that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead (вместо нее). This process of continuous (непрерывный) alteration was applied (применялся) not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets (листовки), films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs – to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably (предположительно) hold any political or ideological significance (значение). Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction (предсказание) made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence (доказательство) to have been correct, nor was any item (сообщение) of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed (когда-либо позволял) to remain (оставаться) on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped (вычищенный) clean and reinscribed (переписываемый) exactly (ровно) as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department (отдел документации), far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down (отслеживать) and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded (заменен) and were due for destruction. A number of «The Times’ which might (возможно), because of changes in political alignment (расклад), or mistaken prophecies (пророчество) uttered (произнесенный) by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood (все еще стоял) on the files bearing (несущий) its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict (противоречить) it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably (неизменно) reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received (получал), and which he invariably (неизменно) got rid (избавлялся) of as soon as (как только) he had dealt (разбирался) with them, never stated (говорилось) or implied (подразумевался) that an act of forgery (подделка) was to be committed (привержен): always the reference (ссылка) was to slips (упоминался), errors, misprints (опечатки), or misquotations (неправильные цитаты) which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy (точность). 20 21 22

But actually (на самом деле), he thought as he re-adjusted (корректируя) the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery (подделка). It was merely (просто) the substitution (замена) of one piece (часть) of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing (дело) with had no connexion (связь) with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained (содержался) in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much (такой же) a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified (исправленный) version. A great deal (часть) of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty’s forecast (прогноз) had estimated (оценивался) the output (объем) of boots (ботинки) for the quarter at 145 million pairs. The actual output (объем) was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked (снизил) the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as (чтобы) to allow (учесть) for the usual claim (утверждение) that the quota had been overfulfilled (перевыполнен). In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than 145 millions. Very likely (весьма вероятно) no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still (еще более вероятно), nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared (тем более не заботился). All one knew was that (все, что было известно) every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while (в то время) perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot (босиком). And so it was with every class of recorded (зафиксированных) fact, great or small. Everything faded away (растворилось) into a shadow-world (мир теней) in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain (неопределенный).

Winston glanced (оглядел) across the hall. In the corresponding (соответствующий) cubicle (кабинка) on the other side a small, precise-looking (аккуратного вида), darkchinned (темнокожий) man named Tillotson was working steadily (сосредоточенно) away, with a folded (сложенный) newspaper on his knee (колено) and his mouth very close to the mouthpiece (рупор) of the speakwrite. He had the air of trying to keep what he was saying a secret between himself and the telescreen. He looked up (посмотрел вверх), and his spectacles darted (метнул) a hostile (враждебный) flash (взгляд) in Winston’s direction.

Winston hardly knew Tillotson, and had no idea what work he was employed on. People in the Records Department did not readily (неохотно) talk about their jobs. In the long, windowless hall, with its double row of cubicles and its endless rustle (шелест) of papers and hum (гул) of voices murmuring (бормочущий) into speakwrites, there were quite a dozen people whom Winston did not even know by name, though he daily saw them hurrying (спешил) to and fro (туда-сюда) in the corridors or gesticulating (жестикулировал) in the Two Minutes Hate. He knew that in the cubicle next to him the little woman with sandy (песочный) hair toiled (трудился) day in day out, simply at tracking down (выслеживая) and deleting (удаляя) from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized (испарился) and were therefore considered (считался) never to have existed. There was a certain fitness (логика) in this, since her own husband had been vaporized (испарился) a couple of years earlier. And a few cubicles away a mild (кроткий), ineffectual, dreamy creature (существо) named Ampleforth, with very hairy (волосатый) ears and a surprising talent for juggling (жонглирование) with rhymes (рифмы) and metres, was engaged (занимался) in producing garbled (искаженный) versions – definitive (окончательный) texts, they were called – of poems which had become ideologically offensive (оскорбительный), but which for one reason or another were to be retained (сохранено) in the anthologies. And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts (около того), was only one sub-section, a single cell (ячейка), as it were (так сказать), in the huge (огромный) complexity (сложность) of the Records Department. Beyond (за ними), above (вверху), below (внизу), were other swarms (толпы) of workers engaged in an unimaginable (невообразимый) multitude (множество) of jobs. There were the huge printing-shops with their sub-editors, their typography experts, and their elaborately (тщательно) equipped (оборудованными) studios for the faking (подделка) of photographs. There was the teleprogrammes section with its engineers, its producers, and its teams of actors specially chosen for their skill (умение) in imitating voices. There were the armies of reference clerks (референты) whose job was simply to draw up (составить) lists of books and periodicals which were due for recall (подлежал отзыву). There were the vast repositories (хранилища) where the corrected documents were stored (хранился), and the hidden (скрытый) furnaces (печи) where the original copies were destroyed. And somewhere (где-то там) or other, quite anonymous (анонимно), there were the directing brains (мозги) who co-ordinated the whole effort (усилие) and laid down (определял) the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved (сохранен), that one falsified, and the other rubbed (стерт) out of existence. 23