經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第18章9

‘What was the self-sacrifice?’

“自我犧牲的是什麼？”

‘I jettisoned half of a much loved and I think irreplaceable pair of shoes.’

“我放棄了一隻我真心喜愛而且很可能無法替代的鞋子。”

‘Why was that self-sacrifice?’

“爲什麼這要算自我犧牲？”

‘Because they were mine!’ said Ford crossly.

“因爲它們是我的！”福特氣呼呼地回答道。

‘I think we have different value systems.’

“我想我們可能有不同的價值體系。”

‘Well mine’s better.’

“好吧，反正我的更好。”

‘That’s according to your… oh never mind. So having saved yourself very cleverly once you very sensibly went and jumped again. Please don’t tell me why. Just tell me what happened if you must.’

“那是你根據你的……哦，算了。那麼說在非常機靈地救了你自己一命之後你又非常機智地跑去重新跳了一回樓。請別告訴我爲什麼。只告訴我發生了什麼事就行，如果你一定要說的話。”

‘I fell straight into the open cockpit of a passing jet towncar whose pilot had just accidentally pushed the eject button when he meant only to change tracks on the stereo. Now, even I couldn’t think that that was pArticularly clever of me.’

“一輛噴射式林肯車剛好經過，我直愣愣地掉進了它的駕駛艙裏。那個司機本來只想給收音機換個臺，結果卻一不小心把頂蓋打開了。真的，就連我也沒辦法把這想成什麼特別機靈的招數。”

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Arthur wearily. ‘I expect you probably sneaked into his jetcar the previous night and set the pilot’s least favourite track to play or something.’

“哦，誰知道呢。”阿瑟厭倦地說，“我猜你大概在前一天晚上溜進了他的噴射汽車裏，把他的收音機調到了他最不喜歡的頻道之類的。”

‘No, I didn’t,’ said Ford.

“不，我沒有。”福特說。

‘Just checking.’

“只是問問。”

‘Though oddly enough, somebody else did. And this is the nub. You could trace the chain and branches of crucial events and coincidences back and back. Turned out the new Guide had done it. That bird.’

“不過奇怪的是，另外有人這麼幹了。這就是關鍵。你可以找到哪些決定性的偶發性的事件，沿着它們的鏈條，分支一直往前追溯，最後發現一切全是新《指南》搞的鬼。那隻鳥。”

‘What bird?’

“什麼鳥？”

‘You haven’t seen it?’

“你沒有看見？”

‘No.’

“沒有。”

‘Oh. It’s a lethal little thing. Looks pretty, talks big, collapses waveforms selectively at will.’

“哦，一個致命的小東西。模樣漂亮，愛說大話，能選擇性地隨意瓦解波形。”

‘What does that mean?’

“什麼意思？”