The regime theoretically restricts everyone, but in practice a few men have structured Gilead so they have all the power, especially over women.

理論上，這個政權限制每一位人民的權力，但實際上，少數的男人創立基列是為了握有國家極權，尤其是在控制女人方面。

The Handmaid's Tale is what Atwood calls speculative fiction, meaning it theorizes about possible futures.

《侍女的故事》就是愛特伍所謂的推理小說，意思是它推測出一個可能的未來。

This is a fundamental characteristic shared by both utopian and dystopian texts.

這是烏托邦和反烏托邦作品共有的一個基本特色。

The possible futures in Atwood's novels are usually negative, or dystopian, where the actions of a small group have destroyed society as we know it.

愛特伍所作小說中出現的可能未來通常都是負面或是反烏托邦形式的，由少部分人的行動摧毀了大家所熟知的社會。

Utopian and dystopian writing tends to parallel political trends.

烏托邦和反烏托邦風格的寫作形式傾向於出現對比的政治形態。

Utopian writing frequently depicts an idealized society that the author puts forth as a blueprint to strive toward.

烏托邦風格經常描繪一個理想化的社會，作者藉此提出一個未來社會進步的藍圖。

Dystopias, on the other hand, are not necessarily predictions of apocalyptic futures, but rather warnings about the ways in which societies can set themselves on the path to destruction.

相反的，反烏托邦不見得就是預知了末日的未來，而是警示大家社會如何可能走上毀滅之路。

The Handmaid's Tale was published in 1985, when many conservative groups attacked the gains made by the second-wave feminist movement.

《侍女的故事》出版於 1985 年，當時許多保守主義團體出面抨擊第二波女性主義運動帶來的影響。

This movement had been advocating greater social and legal equality for women since the early 1960s.

這波運動源自六零年代晚期，旨在為女性爭取更多社會和法律平等。

The Handmaid's Tale imagines a future in which the conservative counter-movement gains the upper hand and not only demolishes the progress women had made toward equality but makes women completely subservient to men.

《侍女的故事》設想一個未來，在那裡保守派佔上風，不只消弭了女性平等權既有的進步，更要求女性完全臣服於男性。

Gilead divides women in the regime into distinct social classes based upon their function as status symbols for men.

基列在政權上依據女性對男性的用途，將她們歸類為特定的社會階級。

Even their clothing is color-coded.

甚至她們的衣服都被以顏色分類。

Women are no longer allowed to read or move about freely in public, and fertile women are subject to state-engineered rape in order to give birth to children for the regime.

女性被禁止閱讀或是在公共場所自由出入，有生育能力的女性則被分派給特定的長官強暴，好替這個政權產下後代。

Although The Handmaid's Tale is set in the future, one of Atwood's self-imposed rules in writing it was that she wouldn't use any event or practice that hadn't already happened in human history.

雖然《侍女的故事》時空設定在未來，愛特伍其中一個自我寫作的要求就是除非是人類歷史上曾發生過的事件或是習俗，否則她不會套用。

The book is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city that during the American colonial period had been ruled by the theocratic Puritans.

故事地點設定在麻薩諸塞州，劍橋，在美國殖民期間，這座城市由神權政治的清教徒統領。

In many ways, the Republic of Gilead resembles the strict rules that were present in Puritan society: rigid moral codes, modest clothing, banishment of dissenters, and regulation of every aspect of people's lives and relationships.

在很多方面，基列共和國模仿了清教徒社會的嚴厲規範：嚴格的道德規範、端莊的衣著、放逐反叛者、以及其他諸多對於人民生活和人際關係的規條。

For Atwood, the parallels to Massachusett's Puritans were personal as well as theoretical.

麻薩諸塞州的清教徒們對愛特伍而言，既有個人關聯也有理論上的關係。

She spent several years studying the Puritans at Harvard and she's possibly descended from Mary Webster, a Puritan woman accused of witchcraft who survived her hanging.

她在哈佛花了幾年研讀有關清教徒，她個人也可能是 Mary Webster 的後代，Mary Webster 是一位女清教徒，層被指控施行巫術但最後倖存於絞刑。

Atwood is a master storyteller.

愛特伍是個說故事的大師。

The details of Gilead, which we've only skimmed the surface of, slowly come into focus through the eyes of its characters, mainly the novel's protagonist Offred, a handmaid in the household of a commander.

有關基列國的細節，雖然我們僅看過它表面的樣子，都透過她筆下角色的雙眼慢慢聚焦，尤其是透過小說主角 Offred，一位指揮官家中的侍女。

Before the coup that established Gilead, Offred had a husband, a child, a job, and a normal, middle-class American life.

在政變創立基列前，Offred 有丈夫、小孩、工作，以及一個正常的美國中產階級生活。

But when the fundamentalist regime comes into power, Offred is denied her identity, separated from her family, and reduced to being, in Offred's words, "a two-legged womb for increasing Gilead's waning population."

但是當基本教義派政權掌權時，Offred 的身份被剝奪，家人被奪去，最後淪為，套用 Offred 的說法：「一個有著雙腿的子宮，負責替基列增加人口。」

She initially accepts the loss of her fundamental human rights in the name of stabilizing the new government.

最初她以安定新政府為由，接受了她喪失人類基本權利的事實。

But state control soon extends into attempts to control the language, behavior, and thoughts of herself and other individuals.

但是政府控制的魔爪逐漸伸向言語、行為和她對自身以及其他個體思想的控制。

Early on, Offred says, "I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must compose, as one composes a speech."

不久， Offred 表示：「我等待。我編寫自我。我的自我必須被重新編寫，如同編寫一場演講。」

She likens language to the formulation of identity.

她將語言比擬為自我認同的組成。

Her words also acknowledge the possibility of resistance, and it's resistance, the actions of people who dare to break the political, intellectual, and sexual rules, that drives the plot of the Handmaid's Tale.

她的文字同時代表了反抗的可能性，而正是這種反抗，以及那些敢於違抗政權、意識形態、和性行為規範的人們交織出了《侍女的故事》的情節。

Ultimately, the novel's exploration of the consequences of complacency, and how power can be wielded unfairly, makes Atwood's chilling vision of a dystopian regime ever relevant.

歸根究底，小說中對於自負所帶來的結果探索，以及權力是如何能夠被濫用，使得愛特伍令人不寒而慄的反烏托邦作品成為上乘之作。