So this was where accountants spent their time. There was clearly more to them than met the eye. He looked around carefully, trying not to let it all swell and swim and overwhelm him.

原来那些会计就是在这种地方消磨时间啊。他们显然并不像表面上看起来那么简单。福特小心翼翼地四下打量，努力不让周围的一切膨胀，旋转，把自己吞没。

He didn’t know his way around this universe. He didn’t even know the physical laws that determined its dimensional extents or behaviours, but his instinct told him to look for the most outstanding feature he could detect and make towards it.

在这个宇宙他不识路，对决定它空间范围或者行为模式的物理定律也一概不知，但他的直觉要他寻找最初的特征，并且接近它。

Way off in some indistinguishable distance – was it a mile or a million or a mote in his eye? – was a stunning peak that overarched the sky, climbed and climbed and spread out in flowering aigrettes , agglomerates , and archimandrites .

在远得没法分辨的地方——也不知究竟是一里还是一百万里，当然也可能是他眼睛里的一粒灰——有座让人目瞪口呆的高山直入云霄，最后散成了鹭羽，集块岩和修院长。

He weltered towards it, hooling and thurling, and at last reached it in a meaninglessly long umthingth of time.

他朝它挣扎过去，又是冲又是挤，终于在一段虚无含混，长的没有意义的时间之后到了它跟前。

He clung to it, arms outspread, gripping tightly on to its roughly gnarled and pitted surface. Once he was certain that he was secure he made the hideous mistake of looking down.

他紧紧地贴上它，两臂张开，用力抱住它凹凸不平的粗糙表面。他确定自己已经安全了，于是犯了个丑陋的错误——他往下看了一眼。

While he had been weltering, hooling and thurling, the distance beneath him had not bothered him unduly, but now that he was gripping, the distance made his heart wilt and his brain bend. His fingers were white with pain and tension. His teeth were grinding and twisting against each other beyond his control. His eyes turned inwards with waves from the willowing extremities of nausea.

当他在挣扎，在冲在挤地时候，脚下的距离并没有故意跑来捣乱，可等他现在抓紧了，这高度却让他的精神和大脑都萎靡屈服。他的手指因为疼痛和紧张变得煞白。他的牙齿完全不听号令，挤在一起又咬又扭。他的眼睛因为一波接一波汹涌澎湃的恶心使劲往眼眶里钻。

With an immense effort of will and faith he simply let go and pushed.

凭借着无比的意志和信念，他干脆放开了双手，用力一推。

He felt himself float. Away. And then, counter-intuitively, upwards. And upwards.

他感到自己在飘，往外飘。然后又——这简直完全违背常识——往上，再往上。

He threw his shoulders back, let his arms drop, gazed upwards and let himself be drawn loosely, higher and higher.

他挺起胸膛，任两只胳膊落下，眼睛盯着天上，任自己往上升，越来越高，越来越高。

Before long, insofar as such terms had any meaning in this virtual universe, a ledge loomed up ahead of him on which he could grip and on to which he could clamber.

不久之后——尽管在这个虚拟的宇宙里时间的意义实在很难说——前面出现了一块突出的岩石，他可以抓住它，还可以爬上去。

He rose, he gripped, he clambered.

他立起来，他抓住它，他爬了上去。