“You know that we have lost the sense of space. We say ‘space is annihilated’, but we have annihilated not space, but the sense thereof. We have lost a part of ourselves. I determined to recover it, and I began by walking up and down the platform of the railway outside my room. Up and down, until I was tired, and so did recapture the meaning of ‘Near’ and ‘Far’. ‘Near’ is a place to which I can get quickly on my feet, not a place to which the train or the air-ship will take me quickly. ‘Far’ is a place to which I cannot get quickly on my feet; the vomitory is ‘far’, though I could be there in thirty-eight seconds by summoning the train. Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man’s feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong. Then I went further: it was then that I called to you for the first time, and you would not come.
マシーンによって管理され、蜂の巣部屋で一生を過ごすこと、それは『空間が消滅した（‘space is annihilated’）』のではなく、空間の感覚（not space, but the sense thereof）を失ったのだ、とクーノーは言います。彼は『近い』と『遠い』（‘Near’ and ‘Far’）を体感したくて、部屋を出入りし、歩き回って、を繰り返したわけ。そして「人間が尺度だ（Man is the measure.）」と確信します。
“This city, as you know, is built deep beneath the surface of the earth, with only the vomitories protruding. Having paced the platform outside my own room, I took the lift to the next platform and paced that also, and so with each in turn, until I came to the topmost, above which begins the earth. All the platforms were exactly alike, and all that I gained by visiting them was to develop my sense of space and my muscles. I think I should have been content with this ―― it is not a little thing, ―― but as I walked and brooded, it occurred to me that our cities had been built in the days when men still breathed the outer air, and that there had been ventilation shafts for the workmen. I could think of nothing but these ventilation shafts. Had they been destroyed by all the food-tubes and medicine-tubes and music-tubes that the Machine has evolved lately? Or did traces of them remain? One thing was certain. If I came upon them anywhere, it would be in the railway-tunnels of the topmost storey. Everywhere else, all space was accounted for.
“I am telling my story quickly, but don’t think that I was not a coward or that your answers never depressed me. It is not the proper thing, it is not mechanical, it is not decent to walk along a railway-tunnel. I did not fear that I might tread upon a live rail and be killed. I feared something far more intangible ―― doing what was not contemplated by the Machine. Then I said to myself, ‘Man is the measure’, and I went, and after many visits I found an opening.
“The tunnels, of course, were lighted. Everything is light, artificial light; darkness is the exception. So when I saw a black gap in the tiles, I knew that it was an exception, and rejoiced. I put in my arm ―― I could put in no more at first ―― and waved it round and round in ecstasy. I loosened another tile, and put in my head, and shouted into the darkness: ‘I am coming, I shall do it yet,’ and my voice reverberated down endless passages. I seemed to hear the spirits of those dead workmen who had returned each evening to the starlight and to their wives, and all the generations who had lived in the open air called back to me, ‘You will do it yet, you are coming,'”
He paused, and, absurd as he was, his last words moved her.
For Kuno had lately asked to be a father, and his request had been refused by the Committee. His was not a type that the Machine desired to hand on.
人工照明しかない地下の都市で、初めて暗闇を見つけたクーノー。そこには、かつて、地下都市を作った労働者たちが地上で待つ夜空の星や妻たちのもとに戻っていく（dead workmen who had returned each evening to the starlight and to their wives）暗闇でした。「やってやる！今行くぞ！（I am coming, I shall do it yet）」というかれの叫びに、かれらの声が応えてくれるよう感じがしたんですね。
クーノーは父親になることを委員会に却下されていたということが分かりました。この時代、ものごとを考える体力と気力がある人間は「不適切」とされていたんですな。 それでも、ものごとを測る基準は自分のなかにある、ということに気づいたクーノーの挑戦は止まりませんぞ！