經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章7
‘Explain!’
“快說。”
‘Would you like to see your home?’
“想去看看你的家嗎？”
‘See it? It was destroyed!’
“看看？它都被炸爛了！”
‘It is discontinuous along the probability axis. Look!’
“它在概率的軸線上終斷了。看！”
Something very strange and wonderful now swam into view in the rain. It was a huge, bluish-greenish globe, misty and cloud-covered, turning with majestic slowness against a black, starry background.
某種非常古怪而奇特的東西滑進了蘭登的視線，只見雨中出現了一個巨大的球體，有些藍，有些綠，霧濛濛地映在白雲底下，襯着佈滿繁星的黑色背景緩緩轉動，頗有氣勢。
‘Now you see it,’ said the bird. ‘Now you don’t.’
“現在你看見它了。”指南鳥說，“現在你又看不見了。”
A little less than two miles away, now, Arthur Dent stood still in his tracks. He could not believe what he could see, hanging there, shrouded in rain, but brilliant and vividly real against the night sky – the Earth. He gasped at the sight of it. Then, at the Moment he gasped, it disappeared again. Then it appeared again. Then, and this was the bit that made him give up and stick straws in his hair, it turned into a sausage.
阿瑟.鄧特離他們已經不到兩裏。他停下腳步，他沒法相信自己的眼睛。飄在半空的那個東西，雖然被雨水包裹，但在夜空下仍然明亮耀眼，鮮活真實——那是地球。看見它，他的呼吸都停止了。然後，就在他屏住呼吸的時候，它又消失了。接着再次出現。然後——到現在他終於放棄努力，開始往頭髮裏插稻草——它變成了一根香腸。
Random was also startled by the sight of this huge, blue and green and watery and misty sausage hanging above her. And now it was a string of sausages, or rather it was a string of sausages in which many of the sausages were missing. The whole brilliant string turned and span in a bewildering dance in the air and then gradually slowed, grew insubstantial and faded into the glistening darkness of the night.
看見這根藍綠色、水汪汪、霧濛濛的大香腸懸在自己腦袋上，蘭登也嚇了一跳。現在它又變成了一大串香腸，或者更準確的說，一大串中間缺了很多根香腸。整串明晃晃的香腸在空中翻轉，跳起一支讓人着迷的舞，接着漸漸放慢了速度，變得虛無縹緲，最後消失在閃着微光的夜色裏。
‘What was that?’ asked Random, in a small voice.
“那是什麼？”蘭登低聲問。
‘A glimpse along the probability axis of a discontinuously probable object.’
“概率軸線上一箇中斷的可能物體。”
‘I see.’
“哦。”
‘Most objects mutate and change along their axis of probability, but the world of your origin does something slightly different. It lies on what you might call a fault line in the landscape of probability which means that at many probability co-ordinates, the whole of it simply ceases to exist. It has an inherent instability, which is typical of anything that lies within what are usually designated the Plural sectors. Make sense?’
“大多數物體都沿着自己的概率軸線變異更迭，可你的母星稍有不同。你可以把它想象成位於概率平面的一條故障線上，也就是說在許多個概率座標上，它乾脆就整個不存在了。它有一種內在的不穩定性，有種區域大家通常叫它復區，對那裏頭的任何物體這都是很常見的。明白？”
‘No.’
“不。”
‘Want to go and see for yourself?’
“想自己去看看嗎？”
‘To… Earth?’
“去……地球？”
‘Yes.’
“對。”
‘Is that possible?’
“這可能嗎？”
