‘She hit me on the head with the rock again.’

“她又拿石头砸了我脑袋一下。”

‘I think I can confirm that that was my daughter.’

“我想我可以确定她就是我女儿。”

‘Sweet kid.’

“可爱的孩子。”

‘You have to get to know her,’ said Arthur.

“你得慢慢了解她。”阿瑟说。

‘She eases up does she?’

“混熟了就好了？”

‘No,’ said Arthur, ‘but you get a better sense of when to duck.’ Ford held his head and tried to see straight.

“不。”阿瑟说，“不过至少你知道什么时候该闪。”福特抬起脑袋，努力直视前方。

The sky was beginning to lighten in the west, which was where the sun rose. Arthur didn’t particularly want to see it. The last thing he wanted after a hellish night like this one was some blasted day coming along and barging about the place.

西边的天空开始发亮，那是日出的方向。阿瑟并不特别想看见它。这么地狱般的一夜之后，他最不需要的就是一个该死的白天过来乱跑乱撞。

‘What are you doing in a place like this, Arthur?’ demanded Ford.

“你在这个地方干嘛，阿瑟？”福特问。

‘Well,’ said Arthur, ‘making sandwiches mostly.’

“唔。基本上就是做三明治。”

‘What?’

“什么？”

‘I am, probably was, the sandwich maker for a small tribe. It was a bit embarrassing really. When I first arrived, that is, when they rescued me from the wreckage of this super high-technology spacecraft which had crashed on their planet, they were very nice to me and I thought I should help them out a bit. You know, I’m an educated chap from a high-technology culture, I could show them a thing or two. And of course I couldn’t. I haven’t got the faintest idea, when it comes down to it, of how anything actually works. I don’t mean like video-recorders, nobody knows how to work those. I mean just something like a pen or an artesian well or something. Not the foggiest. I couldn’t help at all. One day I got glum and made myself a sandwich. That suddenly got them all excited. They’d never seen one before. It was just an idea that had never occurred to them, and I happen to quite like making sandwiches, so it all sort of developed from there.’

“我是，或者至少曾经是，一个小部落的三明治大师。说起来有些难为情。我刚来的时候，也就是他们把我从那艘飞船上拉出来的时候，这些人对我非常和气，于是我就想该找个法子帮帮他们。你知道，我也是受过教育的，又来自一个高科技文明，教他们一两样东西应该不成问题。结果我当然没这本事。说到底，那些东西到底是怎么回事我是一点概念也没有。我指的可不是什么录像机，那玩意谁都搞不懂。我指的是比如说钢笔或者自流井之类的。结果脑子里半点概念也没有。我什么忙也帮不上。有一天我心情不好，就给自己做了块三明治，结果他们全都兴奋极了。他们过去从没见过三明治。他们从没想过还能有这种东西，而我碰巧又挺喜欢做三明治的，后来就那么顺理成章地当上了三明治大师。”

‘And you enjoyed that?’

“而你喜欢干那个？”

‘Well, yes, I think I sort of did, really. Getting a good set of knives, that sort of thing.’

“没错，我的确有那么点喜欢，对。给自己搞套好刀具之类的。”

‘You didn’t, for instance, find it mind-witheringly, explosively, astoundingly, blisteringly dull?’

“你难道就不觉得事情有点儿，比如说，闷得令人神志不清，一泻千里，目瞪口呆，口舌生疮吗？”

‘Well, er, no. Not as such. Not actually blisteringly.’

“唔，呃，不。不像你说的那样，不会真的口舌生疮。”