經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第16章4

The suns blazed into the pitch of space and a low ghostly music floated through the bridge: Marvin was humming ironically because he hated humans so much.
As Ford gazed at the spectacle of light before them excitement burnt inside him, but only the excitement of seeing a strange new planet, it was enough for him to see it as it was. It faintly irritated him that Zaphod had to impose some ludicrous fantasy on to the scene to make it work for him. All this Magrathea nonsense seemed juvenile. Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
All this Magrathea business seemed totally incomprehensible to Arthur. He edged up to Trillian and asked her what was going on.
"I only know what Zaphod's told me," she whispered. "Apparently Magrathea is some kind of legend from way back which no one seriously believes in. Bit like Atlantis on Earth, except that the legends say the Magratheans used to manufacture planets."
Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was.
"Is there any tea on this spaceship?" he asked.
More of the planet was unfolding beneath them as the Heart of Gold streaked along its orbital path. The suns now stood high in the black sky, the pyrotechnics of dawn were over, and the surface of the planet appeared bleak and forbidding in the common light of day — grey, dusty and only dimly contoured. It looked dead and cold as a crypt. From time to time promising features would appear on the distant horizon — ravines, maybe mountains, maybe even cities — but as they approached the lines would soften and blur into anonymity and nothing would transpire. The planet's surface was blurred by time, by the slow movement of the thin stagnant air that had crept across it for century upon century.
Clearly, it was very very old.

雙星在太空中閃耀着光芒，一陣可怕的音樂聲卻在控制橋內響了起來：馬文在諷刺地哼哼着小曲，因爲他簡直恨透了人類。
福特盯着眼前這光的奇觀，內心也感到十分興奮，但這僅僅是見到一顆新行星的興奮之情；他已經看得足夠多了。贊福德非要把滑稽的幻想強加在這樣的場面上，從而爲他自己的觀點服務。這種做法使他稍微有點兒生氣。所有這些關於曼格拉斯的胡說八道看起來都太過幼稚了。難道只看見一個花園非常美麗還不夠，還非要相信它裏面有仙女嗎？
所有這些關於曼格拉斯的事情對於阿瑟來說通通都是無法理解的。他靠到崔莉恩身邊，問她正在發生什麼事。
“我也只知道贊福德告訴我的那些。”她對他耳語道，“曼格拉斯顯然是一個沒有人真正相信的傳說。聽起來有點兒像地球上關於亞特蘭蒂斯的傳說，只不過這個傳說裏說，曼格拉斯人曾經制造過行星。”
阿瑟望着屏幕，感到自己似乎忘記了什麼很重要的東西。突然，他意識到了那是什麼。
“這艘飛船上有茶嗎？”他問。
隨着黃金之心號在它的軌道上運行，越來越多的行星表面在他們下面呈現出來。雙星現在高高地懸掛在黑色的天空中，黎明的燦爛霞光已經結束，行星的表面在正常的白晝光線中顯得荒涼而可怕——灰暗、佈滿塵土、只露出模糊的輪廓。整個星球看上去死寂而寒冷，就像地下的墓穴。有時，一些讓人充滿希望的影像會出現在遠處的地平線上——峽谷，也許是山峯，甚至可能是城市——但當他們靠近時，這一切又都變得模糊起來，沒有任何東西出現。行星的表面被時間所侵蝕，被籠罩着的稀薄空氣一個世紀接着一個世紀的緩慢移動所侵蝕。
顯然，它非常非常古老。