經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第9章4

She turned to peer at him, myopically, then turned back, swiped at a fly and missed.

她扭頭眯着近視眼瞅瞅他，然後又轉回去，朝一隻蒼蠅揮拍，沒打中。

‘What about?’ she said.

“關於什麼的？”她問。

‘I beg your pardon?’ he said.

“抱歉？”

‘I said, what about?’ she almost screeched.

“我說，關於什麼的？”她幾乎是在尖叫。

‘Well,’ said Arthur. ‘Just sort of general advice, really. It said in the brochure—’

“唔，”阿瑟說，“就是比較概括的那種，其實。旅遊手冊上說……”

‘Ha! Brochure!’ spat the old woman. She seemed to be waving her bat more or less at random now.

“哈！旅遊手冊！”那女人啐了一口。現在她揮拍的動作看上去或多或少有些漫無目的。

Arthur fished the crumpled-up brochure from his pocket. He wasn’t quite certain why. He had already read it and she, he expected, wouldn’t want to. He unfolded it anyway in order to have something to frown thoughtfully at for a moment or two. The copy in the brochure wittered on about the ancient mystical arts of the seers and sages of Hawalius, and wildly over-represented the level of accommodation available in Hawalion. Arthur still carried a copy of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with him but found, when he consulted it, that the entries were becoming more abstruse and paranoid and had lots of x’s and j’s and {’s in them. Something was wrong somewhere. Whether it was in his own personal unit, or whether it was something or someone going terribly amiss, or perhaps just hallucinating, at the heart of the Guide organisation itself, he didn’t know. But one way or another he was even less inclined to trust it than usual, which meant that he trusted it not one bit, and mostly used it for eating hissandwiches off when he was sitting on a rock staring at something.

阿瑟從口袋裏摸出那本皺巴巴的旅遊手冊。他也不大確定自己爲什麼這麼幹。他已經讀過了，而她，他猜，並沒有想讀的意思。不過他還是把它展開，好讓自己可以對着什麼東西若有所思地皺會兒眉頭。小冊子沒完沒了地絮叨着夏威流斯的預言家和智者們古老神祕的藝術，毫無節制地誇大夏威流斯人的接待能力。阿瑟隨身帶着《銀河系漫遊指南》，可最近他發現，裏頭的條目常常發神經，越來越深奧難懂，而且還多出了好多x,y和{。有什麼地方出了問題，但阿瑟不知道毛病是出在自己這一本還是出在整個《指南》公司；沒準是公司內部有什麼東西或者什麼人不大對頭，也可能他們乾脆產生了幻覺。但無論如何，他比平常更不信任它了。換句話說，他如今半點也不相信上頭的鬼話，只有坐在石頭上盯着什麼東西發呆的時候纔拿它墊着吃三明治。

The woman had turned and was walking slowly towards him now. Arthur tried, without making it too obvious, to judge the wind direction, and bobbed about a bit as she approached.

那女人已經轉過身，正往他這邊走。阿瑟試圖不着痕跡地判斷風向，並且在她接近時稍微調整了自己的位置。

‘Advice,’ she said. ‘Advice, eh?’

“建議。”她說，“建議，呃？”

‘Er, yes,’ said Arthur. ‘Yes, that is—’

“額，是的。”他說，“是的，我是說……”