經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第18章5
‘She hit me on the head with the rock again.’
“她又拿石頭砸了我腦袋一下。”
‘I think I can confirm that that was my daughter.’
“我想我可以確定她就是我女兒。”
‘Sweet kid.’
“可愛的孩子。”
‘You have to get to know her,’ said Arthur.
“你得慢慢了解她。”阿瑟說。
‘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。”阿瑟說，“不過至少你知道什麼時候該閃。”福特擡起腦袋，努力直視前方。
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.
西邊的天空開始發亮，那是日出的方向。阿瑟並不特別想看見它。這麼地獄般的一夜之後，他最不需要的就是一個該死的白天過來亂跑亂撞。
‘What are you doing in a place like this, Arthur?’ demanded Ford.
“你在這個地方幹嘛，阿瑟？”福特問。
‘Well,’ said Arthur, ‘making sandwiches mostly.’
“唔。基本上就是做三明治。”
‘What?’
“什麼？”
‘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，或者至少曾經是，一個小部落的三明治大師。說起來有些難爲情。我剛來的時候，也就是他們把我從那艘飛船上拉出來的時候，這些人對我非常和氣，於是我就想該找個法子幫幫他們。你知道，我也是受過教育的，又來自一個高科技文明，教他們一兩樣東西應該不成問題。結果我當然沒這本事。說到底，那些東西到底是怎麼回事我是一點概念也沒有。我指的可不是什麼錄像機，那玩意誰都搞不懂。我指的是比如說鋼筆或者自流井之類的。結果腦子裏半點概念也沒有。我什麼忙也幫不上。有一天我心情不好，就給自己做了塊三明治，結果他們全都興奮極了。他們過去從沒見過三明治。他們從沒想過還能有這種東西，而我碰巧又挺喜歡做三明治的，後來就那麼順理成章地當上了三明治大師。”
‘And you enjoyed that?’
“而你喜歡幹那個？”
‘Well, yes, I think I sort of did, really. Getting a good set of knives, that sort of thing.’
“沒錯，我的確有那麼點喜歡，對。給自己搞套好刀具之類的。”
‘You didn’t, for instance, find it mind-witheringly, explosively, astoundingly, blisteringly dull?’
“你難道就不覺得事情有點兒，比如說，悶得令人神志不清，一瀉千里，目瞪口呆，口舌生瘡嗎？”
‘Well, er, no. Not as such. Not actually blisteringly.’
“唔，呃，不。不像你說的那樣，不會真的口舌生瘡。”
