The animals huddled about Clover, not speaking. The knoll where they were lying gave them a wide prospect (景色) across the countryside.
Most of Animal Farm was within their view-the long pasture stretching down to the main road, the hayfield, the spinney (矮林), the drinking pool, the ploughed fields where the young wheat was thick and green, and the red roofs of the farm buildings with the smoke curling from the chimneys.
It was a clear spring evening. The grass and the bursting hedges (树篱) were gilded by the level rays of the sun. Never had the farm-and with a kind of surprise they remembered that it was their own farm, every inch of it their own property−appeared to the animals so desirable (值得要的) a place.{1}
As Clover looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race.
These scenes of terror and slaughter (杀戮) were not what they had looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred (激发) them to rebellion.
If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak, as she had protected the lost brood of ducklings with her foreleg on the night of Major's speech.{2}
Instead-she did not know why-they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed (游荡) everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.
There was no thought of rebellion or disobedience in her mind. She knew that, even as things were, they were far better off than they had been in the days of Jones, and that before all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings.{3}
Whatever happened she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napoleon. But still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped and toiled (苦干).
It was not for this that they had built the windmill and faced the bullets of Jones's gun. Such were her thoughts, though she lacked the words to express them.
At last, feeling this to be in some way a substitute (替代品) for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing Beasts of England. The other animals sitting round her took it up, and they sang it three times over-very tunefully (音调优美的), but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before.
They had just finished singing it for the third time when Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached (接近) them with the air of having something important to say. He announced that, by a special decree (命令) of Comrade Napoleon, Beasts of England had been abolished. From now onwards it was forbidden to sing it.
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The animals were taken aback.
"Why?" cried Muriel.
"It's no longer needed, comrade," said Squealer stiffly. "Beasts of England was the song of the Rebellion. But the Rebellion is now completed. The execution (死刑) of the traitors this afternoon was the final act.
The enemy both external and internal has been defeated. In Beasts of England we expressed our longing for a better society in days to come. But that society has now been established. Clearly this song has no longer any purpose."{4}
Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have protested, but at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad," which went on for several minutes and put an end to the discussion.
So Beasts of England was heard no more. In its place Minimus, the poet, had composed (创作) another song which began:
Animal Farm, Animal Farm,
Never through me shalt thou come to harm!
And this was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag. But somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come up to Beasts of England.
A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered-or thought they remembered-that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal."
And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this. Clover asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment, and when Benjamin, as usual, said that he refused to meddle (插手) in such matters, she fetched Muriel. Muriel read the Commandment for her.
It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.
Throughout the year the animals worked even harder than they had worked in the previous year. To rebuild the windmill, with walls twice as thick as before, and to finish it by the appointed date, together with the regular work of the farm, was a tremendous (巨大的) labour.
There were times when it seemed to the animals that they worked longer hours and fed no better than they had done in Jones's day.
On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased by two hundred per cent, three hundred per cent, or five hundred per cent, as the case might be.
The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion. All the same, there were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.
All orders were now issued through Squealer or one of the other pigs. Napoleon himself was not seen in public as often as once in a fortnight.
When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue (随行人员) of dogs but by a black cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of trumpeter (号手), letting out a loud "cock−a−doodle−doo" before Napoleon spoke.
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Even in the farmhouse, it was said, Napoleon inhabited (居住于) separate apartments from the others. He took his meals alone, with two dogs to wait upon him, and always ate from the Crown Derby dinner service which had been in the glass cupboard in the drawing-room.{5}
It was also announced that the gun would be fired every year on Napoleon's birthday, as well as on the other two anniversaries.