经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第24章9
日期:2014-08-01 10:59

(单词翻译:单击)

英文原版

“Well,” said Ford, “I can see that you’ve got a lot of things you’re going to talk about, so, thanks for the drinks, and if you could sort of drop us off at the nearest convenient planet…”
“Ah, well that’s a little difficult you see,” said the Captain, “because our trajectory thingy was preset before we left Golgafrincham, I think partly because I’m not very good with figures…”
“You mean we’re stuck here on this ship?” exclaimed Ford suddenly losing patience with the whole charade, “When are you meant to be reaching this planet you’re meant to be colonizing?”
“Oh, we’re nearly there I think,” said the Captain, “any second now. It’s probably time I was getting out of this bath in fact. Oh, I don’t know though, why stop just when I’m enjoying it?”
“So we’re actually going to land in a minute?”
“Well not so much land, in fact, not actually land as such, no… er…”
“What are you talking about?” said Ford sharply.
“Well,” said the Captain, picking his way through the words carefully, “I think as far as I can remember we were programmed to crash on it.”
“Crash?” shouted Ford and Arthur.
“Er, yes,” said the Captain, “yes, it’s all part of the plan I think. There was a terribly good reason for it which I can’t quite remember at the moment. It was something to with… er…”
Ford exploded.
“You’re a load of useless bloody loonies!” he shouted.
“Ah yes, that was it,” beamed the Captain, “that was the reason.”
“嗅,”福特说,“我能看得出你们还有许多事想交换意见。那么,谢谢你们的饮料。如果舰长能找一颗最近的方便的行星把我们放下去…”
“哦,你瞧,这有畦用难。”舰长说,“我们的航行轨道在离开高尔伽弗林查姆之前就预先设定好了,我想,部分原因是我对数字不太在行…”
“你是说我们被困在这艘飞船上了,”福特叫道。突然问,他再也不想打哑谜丁。“你们什么时候才能到达你们想殖民的那颗行星?”
“哦,我们几乎已经到了,我想。”舰长说,“随时吧。事实上,现在大概也到了我离开这个浴缸的时候了。噢,不过谁知道,为什么要在正洗得舒服的时候停下来?”
“这么说,我们很快就要降落了?”阿瑟问:
“嗯,不是‘降落’,事实上,不能说是降落,不,嗯……”
“你究竟在说什么啊?”福特厉声说。
“嗯,”舰长说,一边小心翼翼地选择着词汇,“我想,根据我的记忆,我们被设定为坠毁在那上面。”
“坠毁?”福特和阿瑟叫了起来。
“嗯,是的,”舰长说,“是的,这是计划的一部分,我想。关于这个安排有一个极好的理由,但我现在记不大清楚了。和一些事情有关嗯……”
福特终于爆发了。
“你们简直是一群毫无用处的十足的疯子!”他叫道。
“哦,对了,就是这个。”舰长的脸上绽开了笑容,“这就是那个理由。”

背景阅读

作者简介:

道格拉斯·亚当斯(Douglas Noël Adams,1952年3月11日-2001年5月11日)是一位英国广播剧作家、和音乐家,尤其以《银河系漫游指南》系列作品出名。亚当斯自称为“极端无神论者”。在去世以前,他是一位非常受欢迎的演讲者,尤其是在科技和环保等题材方面。他在49岁时的早逝在科幻和奇幻社群中引起了极大的哀悼。

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重点单词
  • patiencen. 耐心,忍耐,毅力 n. 单人玩的牌戏
  • charaden. 看手势猜字谜游戏,易识破的伪装
  • convenientadj. 方便的,便利的
  • planetn. 行星