He had discovered that the reason for the carnival atmosphere on Saquo-Pilia Hensha was that the local people were celebrating the annual feast of the Assumption of St Antwelm. St Antwelm had been, during his lifetime, a great and popular king who had made a great and popular assumption. What King Antwelm had assumed was that what everybody wanted, all other things being equal, was to be happy and enjoy themselves and have the best possible time together. On his death he had willed his entire personal fortune to financing an annual festival to remind everyone of this, with lots of good food and dancing and very silly games like Hunt the Wocket. His Assumption had been such a brilliantly good one that he was made into a saint for it. Not only that, but all the people who had previously been made saints for doing things like being stoned to death in a thoroughly miserable way or living upside down in barrels of dung were instantly demoted and were now thought to be rather embarrassing.

他已经发现，萨夸-派利亚.亨萨之所以带着狂欢节的氛围，是因为当地人正在庆祝一年一度的圣安忒维姆升天节。圣安忒维姆生前是个广受爱戴的伟大国王，曾经提出过一个同样广受爱戴的伟大假说。圣安忒维姆假说的内容是，在其他一切条件对等的情况下，大家最希望的就是高高兴兴，开开心心，再尽可能一起好好乐乐。他死的时候留下遗嘱，把所有财产用于赞助一年一度的节庆，过节时所有人都好吃好喝，跳舞唱歌，再玩些诸如狩猎毛怪之类的傻瓜游戏，以此提醒大家记住这个理论。圣安忒维姆的假说是如此光辉灿烂精妙绝伦，最后大家干脆把他追封为圣人。不仅如此，过去的那些圣人，无论是凄惨无比被石头砸死还是头下脚上住在粪桶里搞到封号的，全部立即降级，而且现在大家想起来，都觉得他们挺丢人的。

The familiar H-shaped building of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide offices rose above the outskirts of the city, and Ford Prefect had broken into it in the familiar way. He always entered via the ventilation system rather than the main lobby because the main lobby was patrolled by robots whose job it was to quiz incoming employees about their expense accounts. Ford Prefect’s expense accounts were notoriously complex and difficult affairs and he had found, on the whole, that the lobby robots were ill-equipped to understand the arguments he wished to put forward in relation to them. He preferred, therefore, to make his entrance by another route.

《银河系漫游指南》熟悉的H型大楼矗立在城市的郊区，福特.长官照老办法闯了进来。他从来不走大堂，而是从通风系统走，因为大堂有机器人巡逻，专门拦住进门的员工，检查他们报销经费的情况。福特.长官的报销单及其复杂难搞，早已经臭名远扬。他发现，总的来说，大堂的机器人缺乏很好的装备，没法理解他提出的那些个论证，因此他宁愿另找通道入场。

This meant setting off nearly every alarm in the building, but not the one in the accounts department, which was the way that Ford preferred it.

这就意味着大楼里几乎所有警报都会拉响，只除了会计部的那一个，而这正合福特的心意。

He hunkered down behind the storage cabinet, he licked the rubber suction cup of the toy arrow, and then fitted it to the string of the bow.

他在储物柜背后蹲下，舔舔玩具箭的吸盘，然后把它搭到弓弦上。只过了三十秒钟，一个小西瓜大小的机器人沿走廊过来，它飞行在大概齐腰的角度，一面前进一面左右搜索异常情况。

Within about thirty seconds a security robot the size of a small melon came flying down the corridor at about waist height, scanning left and right for anything unusual as it did so. With impeccable timing Ford shot the toy arrow across its path. The arrow flew across the corridor and stuck, wobbling, on the opposite wall. As it flew, the robot’s sensors locked on to it instantly and the robot twisted through ninety degrees to follow it, see what the hell it was and where it was going.

福特射出玩具箭，时间拿捏的恰到好处，箭从机器人身前穿过走廊，颤颤巍巍地贴在了对面的墙壁上，它刚一飞出去，机器人的感应器就立刻把它锁定，然后自己一个九十度的大转弯跟了上去，想看看那该死的东西到底是什么玩意儿，想往哪里去。

This bought Ford one precious second, during which the robot was looking in the opposite direction from him. He hurled the towel over the flying robot and caught it.

现在机器人全神贯注地注视着跟福特相反的方向，这给了他宝贵的一秒钟，他趁机把毛巾扔过去，逮住了它。

Because of the various sensory protuberances with which the robot was festooned, it couldn’t manoeuvre inside the towel, and it just twitched back and forth without being able to turn and face its captor.

机器人身上鼓着各式各样的传感器，不可能在毛巾里活动自如；它前前后后地扭个不停，可总也没法把脸朝向猎人。

Ford hauled it quickly towards him and pinned it down to the ground. It was beginning to whine pitifully. With one swift and practised movement, Ford reached under the towel with his No.3 gauge prising tool and flipped off the small plastic panel on top of the robot which gave access to its logic circuits.

福特迅速把它拉到自己的身边，按在地上。它开始发出可怜巴巴的呜呜声。福特把自己的3号扳手伸到毛巾底下，撬开了机器人头顶上盖住逻辑电路的塑料面板，动作极为敏捷，显然训练有素。

Now logic is a wonderful thing but it has, as the processes of evolution discovered, certain drawbacks.

逻辑的确是个好东西，不过呢，进化的发展也告诉我们，它同样带有某些缺陷。