经典科幻文学:《 再见 多谢你们的鱼》第40章3
日期:2015-07-29 09:58

(单词翻译:单击)

Leave me, he said, go on ahead, leave me to struggle painfully on my way. My time at last has nearly come. My race is nearly run. I fully expect, he said, feebly waving them on with a broken finger, to come in last. It would be fitting. Here I am, brain the size…

Between them they picked him up despite his feeble protests and insults. The metal was so hot it nearly blistered their fingers, but he weighed surprisingly little, and hung limply between their arms.

They carried him with them along the path that ran along the left of the Great Red Plain of Rars toward the encircling mountains of Quentulus Quazgar.

Arthur attempted to explain to Fenchurch, but was too often interrupted by Marvin’s dolorous cybernetic ravings.

They tried to see if they could get him some spare parts at one of the booths, but Marvin would have none of it.

I’m all spare parts, he droned.

Let me be! he groaned.

Every part of me, he moaned, has been replaced at least fifty times… except… He seemed almost imperceptibly to brighten for a moment. His head bobbed between them with the effort of memory. Do you remember, the first time you ever met me, he said at last to Arthur. I had been given the intellect-stretching task of taking you up to the bridge? I mentioned to you that I had this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side? That I had asked for them to be replaced but they never were?

He left a longish pause before he continued. They carried him on between them, under the baking sun that hardly ever seemed to move, let alone set.

See if you can guess, said Marvin, when he judged that the pause had become embarrassing enough, which parts of me were never replaced? Go on, see if you can guess.

Ouch, he added, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

At last they reached the last of the little booths, set down Marvin between them and rested in the shade. Fenchurch bought some cufflinks for Russell, cufflinks that had set in them little polished pebbles which had been picked up from the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, directly underneath the letters of fire in which was written God’s Final Message to His Creation.

Arthur flipped through a little rack of devotional tracts on the counter, little meditations on the meaning of the Message.

Ready? he said to Fenchurch, who nodded.

They heaved up Marvin between them.

“丢下我,”他说,“接着走吧。丢下我在这里痛苦地挣扎。我的日子总算快到头了。我的路快走完了。我真希望,”他说,“用一根破碎的手指和它们挥手告别,——终于要结束了。很是时候。我在这里,脑容量……”

他俩从两边把他架起来,没有理会他微弱的抗议和侮辱。他身上的金属热得几乎要把他们的手烫起水泡,不过他轻得令人吃惊,就那样软塌塌地在两人的胳膊上耷拉着。

他们架着他压着拉尔斯红色大平原左拐的路走向环绕在前方的昆图鲁斯·垮兹噶尔山脉。

阿瑟试着向芬切琪解释,但是总是被马文悲痛的倾诉打断。

在一个售货亭,他们想看看能不能给马文找点备用零件,可是马文一个都不要。

“我整个都是备用零件。”他喃喃的说。

“别管我!”他呻吟着。

“我的每个零件,”他哀号着,“都被换了至少五十次了,……除了……”他看起来好像难以察觉地高兴了一下。他的头在他们之间晃动了一下试图回忆起来,“你记不记得,你第一次碰见我的时候,”最后他对阿瑟说,“我被派来执行那个锻炼大脑的任务,就是带你去舰桥?我跟你说过我左边所有的二极管都疼得要命?我让他们给我换换,但是一直都没换?”

他停了一会儿没接着说。他俩在两边架着他,上面的太阳好像一直没挪过窝,更别说落下了。

“看看你能不能猜到,”马文发现他的停顿已经变得很尴尬,于是说,“我哪个部分一直没被换过?来,看看你能不能猜到?”

“哎哟,”他接着说,“哎哟,哎哟,哎哟,哎哟,哎哟。”

他们终于到达了最后的几个小售货亭,把马文在阴影中放下来。芬切琪给拉塞尔买了几个链扣,那些链扣上镶着磨光了的小石头,那些石头都是从昆图鲁斯·垮兹噶尔山脉里,写着上帝给自己造物最后的讯息的火焰字母下面捡来的。

阿瑟在柜台上翻动着一个小架子里面的内容虔诚的小册子,都是有关讯息的意义的一些冥思。

“准备好了吗?”他问芬切琪,芬切琪点点头。

他们从两边把马文架起来。

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重点单词
  • imperceptiblyadv. 极微地;微细地;察觉不到地
  • spareadj. 多余的,闲置的,备用的,简陋的 v. 抽出,饶
  • plainn. 平原,草原 adj. 清楚的,坦白的,简单的,平坦
  • shaden. 阴影,遮蔽,遮光物,(色彩的)浓淡 vt. 遮蔽,
  • devotionaladj. 虔诚的,祷告的;信仰的;献身的
  • exceptvt. 除,除外 prep. & conj. 除了 ..
  • feebleadj. 虚弱的,无力的
  • countern. 计算器,计算者,柜台 [计算机] 计数器 adj.
  • interruptedadj. 中断的;被打断的;不规则的 vt. 打断;中断
  • polishedadj. 擦亮的;优美的;圆滑的 v. 擦亮(polis