‘These numbers round the edge mark the hours. In the little window on the right it says THU, which means Thursday, and the number is 14, which means it’s the fourteenth day of the month of MAY which is what it says in this window over here.

“围在四周的这些数字用来显示时间。右边的小窗口上是个‘四’字，说明今天是星期四，‘14’和那边的‘五月’代表今天是五月十四日。

‘And this sort of crescent-shaped window at the top tells you about the phases of the moon. In other words it tells you how much of the moon is lit up at night by the sun, which depends on the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon and, well… the Earth.’

顶上这个月牙形的窗户能告诉你月亮的圆缺。也就是晚上月亮有多少能被太阳照亮，这跟它们的相对位置有关，太阳，月亮还有，唔……地球。”

‘The Earth,’ said Random.

“地球。”兰登说。

‘Yes.’

“是的。”

‘And that’s where you came from, and where Mum came from.’

“就是你出生的地方，也是妈妈出生的地方。”

‘Yes.’

“是的。”

Random took the watch back from him and looked at it again, clearly baffled by something. Then she held it up to her ear and listened in puzzlement.

兰登拿过手表又看了一会，显然被什么东西搞糊涂了。然后她把它贴在耳朵上，脸上露出迷惑的神情。

‘What’s that noise?’

“什么声音。”

‘It’s ticking. That’s the mechanism that drives the watch. It’s called clockwork. It’s all kind of interlocking cogs and springs that work to turn the hands round at exactly the right speed to mark the hours and minutes and days and so on.’

“它在走。那是驱动手表的机械，叫发条装置。各种各样的齿轮和弹簧，让指针以精确的速度测出小时，分钟，天数之类的。”

Random carried on peering at it.

兰登继续瞅着它。

‘There’s something puzzling you,’ said Arthur. ‘What is it?’

“有什么事让你闹不明白，”阿瑟问，“是什么？”

‘Yes,’ said Random, at last. ‘Why’s it all in hardware?’

“对。”兰登最后说，“为什么材料全是金属？”

Arthur suggested they went for a walk. He felt there were things they should discuss, and for once Random seemed, if not precisely amenable and willing, then at least not growling. From Random’s point of view this was also all very weird. It wasn’t that she wanted to be difficult, as such, it was just that she didn’t know how or what else to be.

阿瑟建议他们去散个步。他觉得有些东西他俩该讨论讨论，而这一次兰登尽管说不上心甘情愿、积极响应，至少并没有满腹牢骚。在兰登自己看来这也一样古怪的很。倒不是说她一直故意找茬，她只是不晓得自己还能怎么做，或者还能摆出什么样子。

Who was this guy? What was this life she was supposed to lead? What was this world she was supposed to lead it in? And what was this universe that kept coming at her through her eyes and ears? What was it for? What did it want?

这家伙是谁？人家要她过的这种日子是怎么回事？人家要她待的这个世界是怎么回事？还有，这个不停透过她的眼睛耳朵杀过来的宇宙又是怎么回事？它是干吗用的？它想要什么？

She’d been born in a spaceship that had been going from somewhere to somewhere else, and when it had got to somewhere else, somewhere else had only turned out to be another somewhere that you had to get to somewhere else again from, and so on.

她出生在一艘飞船上，在从某个地方到另一个地方的路上。等飞船到了那另一个地方，那地方却只是变成了另一个某个地方，某个再次出发去另一个地方的起点，就这样不停走下去。

It was her normal expectation that she was supposed to be somewhere else. It was normal for her to feel that she was in the wrong place.

根据过去的经验，人家总要她去另一个地方，于是她总觉得自己出现在了错误的地方。