His daughter? He and Trillian had never even – had they? He was absolutely convinced he would have remembered. What about Zaphod?

他女儿？他和崔莉恩甚至从来没有——对吧？他绝对相信自己应该会记得才是。还有，赞福德呢？

‘Not the same species, Arthur,’ Trillian had answered. ‘When I decided I wanted a child they ran all sorts of genetic tests on me and could find only one match anywhere. It was only later that it dawned on me. I double checked and I was right. They don’t usually like to tell you, but I insisted.’

“不是一个种族，阿瑟。”崔莉恩是这么回答的，“当我决定要个孩子的时候，他们给我做了各种各样的基因测试，结果在哪儿都只能找到一个合适的。过了一阵我才明白过来。我重新核查了一遍，结果发现猜得没错。通常这事儿他们不愿意告诉你，但我坚持这么做。”

‘You mean you went to a DNA bank?’ Arthur had asked, pop-eyed.

“你是说你去了DNA银行？”阿瑟的眼珠子鼓了出来。

‘Yes. But she wasn’t quite as random as her name suggests, because, of course, you were the only homo sapiens donor. I must say, though, it seems you were quite a frequent flyer.’

“对。不过她的名字并不那么准确，因为，很显然，你是唯一一个人类捐献者。不过，我得说，看起来你还真是个常客。”

Arthur had stared wide-eyed at the unhappy looking girl who was slouching awkwardly in the door-frame looking at him.

阿瑟瞪大眼睛望着房门的方向，那姑娘也正无精打采地靠在门框上看着他。

‘But when… how long… ?’

“可什么时候……多久了……”

‘You mean, what age is she?’

“你是问她多大？”

‘Yes.’

“对。”

‘The wrong one.’

“问错了。”

‘What do you mean?’

“你是什么意思？”

‘I mean that I haven’t any idea.’

“意思是说我不知道。”

‘What?’

“什么？”

‘Well, in my time line I think it’s about ten years since I had her, but she’s obviously quite a lot older than that. I spend my life going backwards and forwards in time, you see. The job. I used to take her with me when I could, but it just wasn’t always possible. Then I used to put her into day care time zones, but you just can’t get reliable time tracking now. You leave them there in the morning, you’ve simply no idea how old they’ll be in the evening. You complain till you’re blue in the face but it doesn’t get you anywhere. I left her at one of the places for a few hours once, and when I came back she’d passed puberty. I’ve done all I can, Arthur, it’s over to you. I’ve got a war to cover.’

“那个，按我自己的时间计算，生下她大概有十年，可她显然比这要大得多。你瞧，我总是在时间里来来回回地跑，（、）工作。我尽可能带她一起去，但也不是每次都行。后来我就把她送去市区日托，问题是眼下可靠的时间追踪根本就不可能。你一早把他们送过去，天晓得晚上他们多大了。你抱怨得脸都绿了，结果半点用处也没有。有一次我把她留在那种地方，就几个钟头，等我回来的时候她已经过了青春期。能做的我都做了，阿瑟，现在该你负起责任来。我还有场战争要报道。”

The ten seconds that passed after Trillian left were about the longest of Arthur Dent’s life. Time, we know, is relative. You can travel light years through the stars and back, and if you do it at the speed of light then, when you return, you may have aged mere seconds while your twin brother or sister will have aged twenty, thirty, forty or however many years it is, depending on how far you travelled.

崔莉恩离开后的十秒钟是阿瑟.邓特这辈子最漫长的十秒。时间，我们知道，是相对的。你做星际旅行，出去好几光年又折回来，如果是光速飞行，那么等你回来的时候，你或许才老了几秒钟，而你的双胞胎兄弟姐妹可能已经老了二十，三十，四十或者不知道多少岁——就看你走了多远。

This will come to you as a profound personal shock, particularly if you didn’t know you had a twin brother or sister. The seconds that you have been absent for will not have been sufficient time to prepare you for the shock of new and strangely distended family relationships when you return.

这对你会是个极大的震撼，特别是如果你原先压根不知道自己有个双胞胎兄弟姐妹的话。你不过离开寥寥几秒，肯定不够让你准备好面对莫名其妙膨胀出来的家庭关系。