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1984 by George Orwell, Chapter 7 (2)

Chapter 7 (2)

But the really relevant date was seven or eight years earlier.

The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which the original leaders of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. By 1q7o none of them was left, except Big Brother himself. All the rest had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter-revolutionaries. Goldstein had fled and was hiding no one knew where, and of the others, a few had simply disappeared, while the majority had been executed after spectacular public trials at which they made confession of their crimes. Among the last survivors were three men named Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. It must have been in 1q65 that these three had been arrested. As often happened, they had vanished for a year or more, so that one did not know whether they were alive or dead, and then had suddenly been brought forth to incriminate themselves in the usual way. They had confessed to intelligence with the enemy (at that date, too, the enemy was Eurasia), embezzlement of public funds, the murder of various trusted Party members, intrigues against the leadership of Big Brother which had started long before the Revolution happened, and acts of sabotage causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people. After confessing to these things they had been pardoned, reinstated in the Party, and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important. All three had written long, abject articles in ‘The Times', analysing the reasons for their defection and promising to make amends.

Some time after their release Winston had actually seen all three of them in the Chestnut Tree Cafe. He remembered the sort of terrified fascination with which he had watched them out of the corner of his eye. They were men far older than himself, relics of the ancient world, almost the last great figures left over from the heroic days of the Party. The glamour of the underground struggle and the civil war still faintly clung to them. He had the feeling, though already at that time facts and dates were growing blurry, that he had known their names years earlier than he had known that of Big Brother. But also they were outlaws, enemies, untouchables, doomed with absolute certainty to extinction within a year or two. No one who had once fallen into the hands of the Thought Police ever escaped in the end. They were corpses waiting to be sent back to the grave.

There was no one at any of the tables nearest to them. It was not wise even to be seen in the neighbourhood of such people. They were sitting in silence before glasses of the gin flavoured with cloves which was the speciality of the cafe. Of the three, it was Rutherford whose appearance had most impressed Winston. Rutherford had once been a famous caricaturist, whose brutal cartoons had helped to inflame popular opinion before and during the Revolution. Even now, at long intervals, his cartoons were appearing in The Times. They were simply an imitation of his earlier manner, and curiously lifeless and unconvincing. Always they were a rehashing of the ancient themes — slum tenements, starving children, street battles, capitalists in top hats — even on the barricades the capitalists still seemed to cling to their top hats an endless, hopeless effort to get back into the past. He was a monstrous man, with a mane of greasy grey hair, his face pouched and seamed, with thick negroid lips. At one time he must have been immensely strong; now his great body was sagging, sloping, bulging, falling away in every direction. He seemed to be breaking up before one's eyes, like a mountain crumbling.

It was the lonely hour of fifteen. Winston could not now remember how he had come to be in the cafe at such a time. The place was almost empty. A tinny music was trickling from the telescreens. The three men sat in their corner almost motionless, never speaking. Uncommanded, the waiter brought fresh glasses of gin. There was a chessboard on the table beside them, with the pieces set out but no game started. And then, for perhaps half a minute in all, something happened to the telescreens. The tune that they were playing changed, and the tone of the music changed too. There came into it — but it was something hard to describe. It was a peculiar, cracked, braying, jeering note: in his mind Winston called it a yellow note. And then a voice from the telescreen was singing:

Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me:

There lie they, and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree.

The three men never stirred. But when Winston glanced again at Rutherford's ruinous face, he saw that his eyes were full of tears. And for the first time he noticed, with a kind of inward shudder, and yet not knowing AT WHAT he shuddered, that both Aaronson and Rutherford had broken noses.

A little later all three were re-arrested. It appeared that they had engaged in fresh conspiracies from the very moment of their release. At their second trial they confessed to all their old crimes over again, with a whole string of new ones. They were executed, and their fate was recorded in the Party histories, a warning to posterity. About five years after this, in 1973, Winston was unrolling a wad of documents which had just flopped out of the pneumatic tube on to his desk when he came on a fragment of paper which had evidently been slipped in among the others and then forgotten. The instant he had flattened it out he saw its significance. It was a half-page torn out of ‘The Times' of about ten years earlier — the top half of the page, so that it included the date

— and it contained a photograph of the delegates at some Party function in New York. Prominent in the middle of the group were Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. There was no mistaking them, in any case their names were in the caption at the bottom.

The point was that at both trials all three men had confessed that on that date they had been on Eurasian soil. They had flown from a secret airfield in Canada to a rendezvous somewhere in Siberia, and had conferred with members of the Eurasian General Staff, to whom they had betrayed important military secrets. The date had stuck in Winston's memory because it chanced to be midsummer day; but the whole story must be on record in countless other places as well. There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies.

Of course, this was not in itself a discovery. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. It was enough to blow the Party to atoms, if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known.

He had gone straight on working. As soon as he saw what the photograph was, and what it meant, he had covered it up with another sheet of paper. Luckily, when he unrolled it, it had been upside-down from the point of view of the telescreen.

He took his scribbling pad on his knee and pushed back his chair so as to get as far away from the telescreen as possible. To keep your face expressionless was not difficult, and even your breathing could be controlled, with an effort: but you could not control the beating of your heart, and the telescreen was quite delicate enough to pick it up. He let what he judged to be ten minutes go by, tormented all the while by the fear that some accident — a sudden draught blowing across his desk, for instance

— would betray him. Then, without uncovering it again, he dropped the photograph into the memory hole, along with some other waste papers. Within another minute, perhaps, it would have crumbled into ashes.

That was ten — eleven years ago. Today, probably, he would have kept that photograph. It was curious that the fact of having held it in his fingers seemed to him to make a difference even now, when the photograph itself, as well as the event it recorded, was only memory. Was the Party's hold upon the past less strong, he wondered, because a piece of evidence which existed no longer HAD ONCE existed?

But today, supposing that it could be somehow resurrected from its ashes, the photograph might not even be evidence. Already, at the time when he made his discovery, Oceania was no longer at war with Eurasia, and it must have been to the agents of Eastasia that the three dead men had betrayed their country. Since then there had been other changes — two, three, he could not remember how many. Very likely the confessions had been rewritten and rewritten until the original facts and dates no longer had the smallest significance. The past not only changed, but changed continuously. What most afflicted him with the sense of nightmare was that he had never clearly understood why the huge imposture was undertaken. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious. He took up his pen again and wrote:

I understaud HOW: I do not understand WHY.

He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.

He picked up the children's history book and looked at the portrait of Big Brother which formed its frontispiece. The hypnotic eyes gazed into his own. It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you — something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?

But no! His courage seemed suddenly to stiffen of its own accord. The face of O'Brien, not called up by any obvious association, had floated into his mind. He knew, with more certainty than before, that O'Brien was on his side. He was writing the diary for O'Brien — TO O'Brien: it was like an interminable letter which no one would ever read, but which was addressed to a particular person and took its colour from that fact.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

Chapter 7 (2) Kapitel 7 (2)

But the really relevant date was seven or eight years earlier.

The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which the original leaders of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. La historia realmente comenzó a mediados de los sesenta, el período de las grandes purgas en las que los líderes originales de la Revolución fueron aniquilados de una vez por todas. Справжня історія почалася в середині шістдесятих років, у період великих чисток, під час яких оригінальні лідери революції були знищені раз і назавжди. By 1q7o none of them was left, except Big Brother himself. En 1q7o no quedaba ninguno de ellos, excepto el propio Gran Hermano. До 1q7o нікого з них не залишилося, крім самого Старшого Брата. All the rest had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter-revolutionaries. Para entonces, todos los demás habían sido expuestos como traidores y contrarrevolucionarios. Усіх інших на той час було викрито як зрадників і контрреволюціонерів. Goldstein had fled and was hiding no one knew where, and of the others, a few had simply disappeared,  while    the    majority    had  been    executed  after spectacular public trials at which they made confession of their crimes. Goldstein había huido y se escondía nadie sabía dónde, y de los demás, algunos simplemente habían desaparecido, mientras que la mayoría habían sido ejecutados tras espectaculares juicios públicos en los que confesaron sus crímenes. Гольдштейн утік і переховувався невідомо де, а з інших деякі просто зникли, тоді як більшість було страчено після вражаючих публічних судових процесів, на яких вони зізналися у своїх злочинах. Among the last survivors were three men named Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Серед останніх, хто вижив, були троє чоловіків на ім'я Джонс, Ааронсон і Резерфорд. It must have been in 1q65 that these three had been arrested. Мабуть, саме в 1кв65 ці троє були заарештовані. As often happened, they had vanished for a year or more, so that one did not know whether they were alive or dead, and then had suddenly been brought forth to incriminate themselves in the usual way. Como sucedía a menudo, habían desaparecido durante un año o más, de modo que uno no sabía si estaban vivos o muertos, y luego, de repente, los habían sacado para incriminarse a sí mismos de la manera habitual. Як це часто бувало, вони зникали на рік або й більше, так що ніхто не знав, живі вони чи мертві, а потім раптом з'являлися, щоб звинуватити себе у звичний спосіб. They had confessed to intelligence with the enemy (at that date, too, the enemy was Eurasia), embezzlement of public funds, the murder of various trusted Party members, intrigues against the leadership of Big Brother which had  started long before the Revolution happened, and acts of sabotage causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people. Вони зізналися у розвідці на користь ворога (тоді ворогом також була Євразія), розкраданні державних коштів, вбивстві різних довірених членів партії, інтригах проти керівництва Великого Брата, які почалися задовго до Революції, та актах саботажу, що призвели до загибелі сотень тисяч людей. After confessing to these things they had been pardoned, reinstated in the Party, and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important. Після того, як вони зізналися в цих речах, їх помилували, поновили в партії і призначили на посади, які насправді були синекурами, але звучали як важливі. All three had written long, abject articles in ‘The Times', analysing the reasons for their defection and promising to make amends. Los tres habían escrito artículos largos y abyectos en 'The Times', analizando las razones de su deserción y prometiendo enmendarlos. Всі троє написали довгі, жалюгідні статті в "Таймс", аналізуючи причини свого дезертирства і обіцяючи загладити свою провину.

Some time after their release Winston had actually seen all three of them in the Chestnut Tree Cafe. Algún tiempo después de su liberación, Winston los había visto a los tres en el Chestnut Tree Cafe. Через деякий час після їхнього звільнення Вінстон бачив усіх трьох у кафе "Каштанове дерево". He remembered the sort of terrified fascination with which he had watched them out of the corner of his eye. Recordó la especie de fascinación aterrorizada con la que los había observado con el rabillo del ojo. Він пам'ятав, з яким переляканим захопленням спостерігав за ними краєм ока. They were men far older than himself, relics of the ancient world, almost the last great figures left over from the heroic days of the Party. Eran hombres mucho mayores que él, reliquias del mundo antiguo, casi las últimas grandes figuras que quedaban de los heroicos días del Partido. Це були люди набагато старші за нього, реліквії стародавнього світу, чи не останні великі постаті, що залишилися від героїчних днів партії. The glamour of the underground struggle and the civil war still faintly clung to them. El glamour de la lucha clandestina y la guerra civil todavía se adhería débilmente a ellos. Блиск підпільної боротьби і громадянської війни ще ледь-ледь тримався на них. He had the feeling, though already at that time facts and dates were growing blurry, that he had known their names years earlier than he had known that of Big Brother. Tenía la sensación, aunque ya en ese momento los hechos y las fechas se estaban volviendo borrosos, que había conocido sus nombres años antes de lo que había conocido al Gran Hermano. У нього було відчуття, хоча факти й дати вже тоді розпливалися, що він знав їхні імена роками раніше, ніж імена Старшого Брата. But also they were outlaws, enemies, untouchables, doomed with  absolute certainty to extinction within  a year or two. Pero también eran forajidos, enemigos, intocables, condenados con absoluta certeza a la extinción en uno o dos años. Але також вони були поза законом, ворогами, недоторканними, приреченими з абсолютною впевненістю на вимирання протягом одного-двох років. No one who had once fallen into the hands of the Thought Police ever escaped in the end. Nadie que alguna vez había caído en manos de la Policía del Pensamiento escapó al final. Ніхто з тих, хто одного разу потрапляв до рук "Поліції думок", зрештою, не врятувався. They were corpses waiting to be sent back to the grave. Вони були трупами, які чекали, щоб їх відправили назад у могилу.

There was no one at any of the tables nearest to them. No había nadie en ninguna de las mesas más cercanas a ellos. За найближчими до них столиками нікого не було. It was not wise even to be seen in the neighbourhood of such people. Ni siquiera era prudente que lo vieran en las cercanías de esas personas. Було нерозумно навіть перебувати поруч з такими людьми. They were sitting in silence before glasses of the gin flavoured with cloves which was the speciality of the cafe. Вони сиділи мовчки перед келихами джину, приправленого гвоздикою, який був фірмовою стравою кафе. Of the three, it was Rutherford whose appearance had most impressed Winston. De los tres, era Rutherford la apariencia que más había impresionado a Winston. З усіх трьох саме Резерфорд справив на Вінстона найбільше враження. Rutherford had once been a famous caricaturist, whose brutal cartoons had helped to inflame popular opinion before and during the Revolution. Резерфорд колись був відомим карикатуристом, чиї жорстокі карикатури допомагали розпалювати громадську думку до і під час революції. Even now, at long intervals, his cartoons were appearing in The Times. Навіть зараз, з великими інтервалами, його карикатури з'являються в The Times. They were simply an imitation of his earlier manner, and curiously lifeless and unconvincing. Вони були просто імітацією його ранньої манери, напрочуд млявою і непереконливою. Always they were a rehashing of the ancient themes — slum tenements, starving children, street battles, capitalists in top hats — even on the barricades the capitalists still seemed to cling to their top hats an endless, hopeless effort to get back into the past. Вони завжди були повторенням давніх тем — багатоквартирних будинків, голодуючих дітей, вуличних битв, капіталістів у циліндрах — навіть на барикадах капіталісти, здавалося, усе ще чіплялися за свої циліндри, намагаючись безкінечно, безнадійно повернутися в минуле. He was a monstrous man, with a mane of greasy grey hair, his face pouched and seamed, with thick negroid lips. Це був жахливий чоловік, з гривою жирного сивого волосся, обличчям, зморщеним і зморщеним, з товстими негритянськими губами. At one time he must have been immensely strong; now his great body was sagging, sloping, bulging, falling away in every direction. Колись він, мабуть, був надзвичайно сильним; тепер його величезне тіло обвисло, нахилилося, випиналося, відвалювалося в усі боки. He seemed to be breaking up before one's eyes, like a mountain crumbling. Здавалося, він розпадається на очах, як гора, що обсипається.

It was the lonely hour of fifteen. Була самотня п'ятнадцята година. Winston could not now remember how he had come to be in the cafe at such a time. Вінстон не міг пригадати, як він опинився в кафе в такий час. The place was almost empty. Там було майже порожньо. A tinny music was trickling from the telescreens. З екранів телевізорів лилася бляшана музика. The three men sat in their corner almost motionless, never speaking. Троє чоловіків сиділи у своєму кутку майже нерухомо, не розмовляючи. Uncommanded, the waiter brought fresh glasses of gin. Офіціант без команди приніс свіжі склянки джину. There was a chessboard on the table beside them, with the pieces set out but no game started. На столі біля них стояла шахівниця з розставленими фігурами, але партія не починалася. And then, for perhaps half a minute in all, something happened to the telescreens. А потім, десь на півхвилини, щось сталося з екранами телевізорів. The tune that they were playing changed, and the tone of the music changed too. Мелодія, яку вони грали, змінилася, і тон музики також змінився. There came into it — but it was something hard to describe. Я прийшов у нього - але це було щось таке, що важко описати. It was a peculiar, cracked, braying, jeering note: in his mind Winston called it a yellow note. Це була своєрідна, потріскана, криклива, насмішкувата нота: подумки Вінстон називав її жовтою нотою. And then a voice from the telescreen was singing: А потім голос з екрану телевізора заспівав:

Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me: Під розлогим каштаном я продав тебе, а ти продала мене:

There lie they, and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree. Там лежать вони, а тут лежимо ми під розлогим каштаном.

The three men never stirred. Троє чоловіків не ворухнулися. But when Winston glanced again at Rutherford's ruinous face, he saw that his eyes were full of tears. Але коли Вінстон знову глянув на зруйноване обличчя Резерфорда, він побачив, що його очі повні сліз. And for the first time he noticed, with a kind of inward shudder, and yet not knowing AT WHAT he shuddered, that both Aaronson and Rutherford had broken noses. І вперше він помітив, з якимось внутрішнім здриганням, але ще не знаючи, від чого він здригнувся, що і в Ааронсона, і в Резерфорда були зламані носи.

A little later all three were re-arrested. Трохи згодом усіх трьох заарештували повторно. It appeared that they had engaged in fresh conspiracies from the very moment of their release. Виявилося, що вони займалися новими змовами з самого моменту звільнення. At their second trial they confessed to all their old crimes over again, with a whole string of new ones. На другому суді вони знову зізналися у всіх своїх старих злочинах, додавши до них цілу низку нових. They were executed, and their fate was recorded in the Party histories, a warning to posterity. Вони були страчені, а їхні долі занесені до партійних історій, як пересторога нащадкам. About  five  years  after  this, in  1973, Winston  was unrolling a wad of documents which had just flopped out of the pneumatic tube on to his desk when he came on a fragment of paper which had evidently been slipped in among the others and then forgotten. Приблизно через п'ять років після цього, у 1973 році, Вінстон розгортав на своєму столі пачку документів, яка щойно вилетіла з пневматичної трубки, коли натрапив на клаптик паперу, який, вочевидь, всунули серед інших, а потім забули. The instant he had flattened it out he saw its significance. Щойно він розплющив його, він побачив його значення. It was a half-page torn out of ‘The Times' of about ten years earlier — the top half of the page, so that it included the date Це було півсторінки, вирваної з "Таймс" приблизно десятирічної давнини - верхня половина сторінки, так що на ній була дата

— and it contained a photograph of the delegates at some Party function in New York. - і там була фотографія делегатів на якомусь партійному заході в Нью-Йорку. Prominent in the middle of the group were Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. В середині групи виділялися Джонс, Ааронсон і Резерфорд. There was no mistaking them, in any case their names were in the caption at the bottom. Переплутати їх було неможливо, у всякому разі, їхні імена були у підписі внизу.

The point was that at both trials all three men had confessed that on that date they had been on Eurasian soil. Справа в тому, що на обох судових процесах всі троє чоловіків зізналися, що в той день вони перебували на євразійській землі. They had flown from a secret airfield in Canada to a rendezvous somewhere in Siberia, and had conferred with members of the Eurasian General Staff, to whom they had betrayed important military secrets. Вони вилетіли з секретного аеродрому в Канаді на зустріч десь у Сибіру і провели нараду з членами Євразійського генерального штабу, яким зрадили важливі військові таємниці. The date had stuck in Winston's memory because it chanced to be midsummer day; but the whole story must be on record in countless other places as well. Ця дата закарбувалася в пам'яті Вінстона, бо випала на день Івана Купала; але вся ця історія має бути записана в незліченній кількості інших місць. There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies. Висновок був тільки один: зізнання були брехнею.

Of course, this was not in itself a discovery. Звісно, саме по собі це не було відкриттям. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. Навіть у той час Вінстон не уявляв, що люди, які були знищені під час чисток, насправді скоїли злочини, в яких їх звинувачували. But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. Але це був конкретний доказ; це був фрагмент скасованого минулого, як викопна кістка, яка опинилася не в тому шарі і зруйнувала геологічну теорію. It was enough to blow the Party to atoms, if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known. Bastaba volar el Partido en átomos, si de alguna manera se hubiera podido publicar en el mundo y dar a conocer su significado. Цього було достатньо, щоб розірвати партію на атоми, якби якимось чином її вдалося опублікувати і донести до світу її значення.

He had gone straight on working. Había seguido trabajando directamente. Він одразу ж повернувся до роботи. As soon as he saw what the photograph was, and what it meant, he had covered it up with another sheet of paper. Як тільки він побачив, що це за фотографія і що вона означає, він накрив її іншим аркушем паперу. Luckily, when he unrolled it, it had been upside-down from the point of view of the telescreen. На щастя, коли він розгорнув її, вона була перевернута догори дном з точки зору телевізійного екрану.

He took his scribbling pad on his knee and pushed back his chair so as to get as far away from the telescreen as possible. Cogió su bloc de notas sobre la rodilla y echó la silla hacia atrás para alejarse lo más posible de la telepantalla. Він поклав блокнот на коліно і відсунув стілець так, щоб опинитися якомога далі від екрану телевізора. To keep your face expressionless was not difficult, and even your breathing could be controlled, with an effort: but you could not control the beating of your heart, and the telescreen was quite delicate enough to pick it up. Mantener su rostro inexpresivo no era difícil, e incluso su respiración podía controlarse con un esfuerzo: pero no podía controlar los latidos de su corazón, y la telepantalla era lo suficientemente delicada como para captarlo. Зберігати обличчя без виразу було неважко, і навіть дихання можна було контролювати, доклавши зусиль: але ви не могли контролювати биття свого серця, а телевізійний екран був досить чутливим, щоб його вловити. He let what he judged to be ten minutes go by, tormented all the while by the fear that some accident — a sudden draught blowing across his desk, for instance Dejó pasar lo que consideró diez minutos, atormentado todo el tiempo por el temor de que algún accidente, una corriente repentina que soplara sobre su escritorio, por ejemplo Він пропустив хвилин десять, весь час мучившись страхом, що якийсь нещасний випадок — наприклад, раптовий протяг, що дме через його стіл

— would betray him. - зрадить його. Then, without uncovering it again, he dropped the photograph into the memory hole, along with some other waste papers. Luego, sin volver a descubrirlo, dejó caer la fotografía en el agujero de la memoria, junto con algunos otros papeles de desecho. Потім, не відкриваючи її знову, він вкинув фотографію в яму пам'яті разом з іншими макулатурою. Within another minute, perhaps, it would have crumbled into ashes. Ще за хвилину, можливо, вона розсипалася б на попіл.

That was ten — eleven years ago. Це було десять-одинадцять років тому. Today, probably, he would have kept that photograph. Сьогодні, напевно, він би зберіг цю фотографію. It was curious that the fact of having held it in his fingers seemed to him to make a difference even now, when the photograph itself, as well as the event it recorded, was only memory. Цікаво, що той факт, що він тримав її в руках, здавалося, мав значення навіть зараз, коли сама фотографія, як і подія, яку вона зафіксувала, була лише спогадом. Was the Party's hold upon the past less strong, he wondered, because a piece of evidence which existed no longer HAD ONCE existed? ¿Era el dominio del Partido sobre el pasado menos fuerte, se preguntó, porque una prueba que existía ya no HABÍA existido UNA VEZ? Він задавався питанням, чи не стала партія менш сильною через те, що докази, які існували, більше НЕ ІСНУВАЛИ?

But today, supposing that it could be somehow resurrected from its ashes, the photograph might not even be evidence. Але сьогодні, якщо припустити, що його можна було б якось воскресити з попелу, фотографія могла б навіть не бути доказом. Already, at the time when he made his discovery, Oceania was no longer at war with Eurasia, and it must have been to the agents of Eastasia that the three dead men had betrayed their country. У той час, коли він зробив своє відкриття, Океанія вже не перебувала у стані війни з Євразією, і, мабуть, агентам Істазії троє мерців зрадили свою країну. Since then there had been other changes — two, three, he could not remember how many. Відтоді відбулися інші зміни - дві, три, він уже не пам'ятав, скільки саме. Very likely the confessions had been rewritten and rewritten until the original facts and dates no longer had the smallest significance. Es muy probable que las confesiones se hubieran reescrito y reescrito hasta que los hechos y fechas originales ya no tuvieran el menor significado. Дуже ймовірно, що зізнання переписувалися і переписувалися до тих пір, поки початкові факти і дати не втратили найменшого значення. The past not only changed, but changed continuously. El pasado no solo cambió, sino que cambió continuamente. Минуле не просто змінювалося, а змінювалося безперервно. What most afflicted him with the sense of nightmare was that he had never clearly understood why the huge imposture was undertaken. Lo que más lo afligía con la sensación de pesadilla era que nunca había entendido claramente por qué se llevó a cabo la enorme impostura. Що найбільше вражало його кошмаром, так це те, що він ніколи чітко не розумів, навіщо було зроблено таку величезну аферу. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious. Безпосередні переваги фальсифікації минулого були очевидні, але кінцевий мотив був загадковим. He took up his pen again and wrote: Він знову взявся за перо і почав писати:

I understaud HOW: I do not understand WHY. Я не розумію ЯК: Я не розумію ЧОМУ.

He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Він думав, як і багато разів раніше, чи він сам божевільний. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. Quizás un lunático era simplemente una minoría de uno. Можливо, божевільний був просто меншістю. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is unalterable. En un tiempo había sido un signo de locura creer que la tierra gira alrededor del sol; hoy, creer que el pasado es inalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. Él podría estar SOLO en sostener esa creencia, y si está solo, entonces un lunático. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong. Pero la idea de ser un lunático no le preocupaba mucho: el horror era que él también podía estar equivocado.

He picked up the children's history book and looked at the portrait of Big Brother which formed its frontispiece. Cogió el libro de historia infantil y miró el retrato del Gran Hermano que formaba su portada. The hypnotic eyes gazed into his own. Los ojos hipnóticos miraron a los suyos. It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you — something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Рано чи пізно вони неминуче заявили про це: цього вимагала логіка їхньої позиції. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. No sólo la validez de la experiencia, sino la existencia misma de la realidad externa, fue negada tácitamente por su filosofía. The heresy of heresies was common sense. La herejía de las herejías era de sentido común. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. І страшно було не те, що вони вб’ють вас за іншу думку, а те, що вони могли бути праві. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then? Si tanto el pasado como el mundo externo existen solo en la mente, y si la mente misma es controlable, ¿entonces qué?

But no! His courage seemed suddenly to stiffen of its own accord. Su coraje pareció endurecerse de repente por sí solo. Здавалося, що його мужність раптово застигла сама собою. The face of O'Brien, not called up by any obvious association, had floated into his mind. El rostro de O'Brien, no llamado por ninguna asociación obvia, había flotado en su mente. Обличчя О’Браєна, не викликане жодною очевидною асоціацією, спливло в його пам’яті. He knew, with more certainty than before, that O'Brien was on his side. He was writing the diary for O'Brien — TO O'Brien: it was like an interminable letter which no one would ever read, but which was addressed to a particular person and took its colour from that fact. Estaba escribiendo el diario para O'Brien - PARA O'Brien: era como una carta interminable que nadie leería jamás, pero que estaba dirigida a una persona en particular y tomaba su color de ese hecho.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. Партія сказала вам відкинути докази ваших очей і вух. It was their final, most essential command. Fue su comando final y más esencial. Це був їхній останній, найважливіший наказ.