經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第11章3

At first he tried to sit and read. But the literature of BArtledan, famed though it was throughout this sector of the Galaxy for its subtlety and grace, didn’t seem to be able to sustain his interest. The problem was that it wasn’t actually about human beings after all. It wasn’t about what human beings wanted. The people of Bartledan were remarkably like human beings to look at, but when you said ‘Good evening’ to one, he would tend to look around with a slight sense of surprise, sniff the air and say that, yes, he supposed that it probably was a goodish evening now that Arthur came to mention it.

剛開始他試着坐下讀書。不過，巴忒勒丹的文學，儘管在銀河系的這一區以精細高雅著稱，卻似乎很難讓阿瑟保持興趣。問題在於，它跟人其實扯不上什麼關係。它寫的不是人的需要。巴忒勒丹人，如果光看外表倒是跟地球人蠻像的，可當你對他說“晚上好”的時候，他會有點驚訝地四處看看，再嗅嗅空氣，然後說，是的，經阿瑟這麼一提他才注意到，這似乎的確是個挺好的晚上。

‘No, what I meant was to wish you a good evening,’ Arthur would say, or rather, used to say. He soon learned to avoid these conversations. ‘I mean that I hope you have a good evening,’ he would add.

“不，我是想祝你晚上過得好。”阿瑟會這麼說——或者，更準確的講，他曾經這麼說，不過很快他就學會了避免此類談話。“我是說我希望你今晚過得好。”他會加上一句。

More puzzlement.

更嚴重的迷茫。

‘Wish?’ the Bartledanian would say at last, in polite bafflement.

“希望？”最後，那個巴忒勒丹人會帶着禮貌的困惑這麼問。

‘Er, yes,’ Arthur would then have said. ‘I’m just expressing the hope that…’

“呃，是的。”然後阿瑟就會說，“我只是在表達一種願望。”

‘Hope?’

“願望？”

‘Yes.’

“是的。”

‘What is hope?’

“願望是什麼？”

Good question, thought Arthur to himself, and retreated back to his room to think about things.

好問題，阿瑟暗想，然後就退回自己房間裏琢磨去了。

On the one hand he could only recognise and respect what he learnt about the Bartledanian view of the universe, which was that the universe was what the universe was, take it or leave it. On the other hand he could not help but feel that not to desire anything, not ever to wish or to hope, was just not natural.

他了解了巴忒勒丹人的宇宙觀：宇宙就是宇宙，你要就要不要就不要拉倒。一方面他不得不承認並且尊重這種觀念，但另一方面他又忍不住覺得，從來不渴望得到什麼東西，永遠沒有任何希望或者願望，這實在太不自然了。

Natural. There was a tricky word.

自然。這可是個不大好對付的字眼。