經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第29章2

The cat seemed undecided on the matter. It pawed rather condescendingly at the piece of fish the man was holding out, and then got distracted by a piece of dust on the floor.
“Pussy not eat his fish, pussy get thin and waste away, I think,” said the man. Doubt crept into his voice.
“I imagine this is what will happen,” he said, “but how can I tell?”
He proffered the fish again.
“Pussy think,” he said, “eat fish or not eat fish. I think it is better if I don’t get involved.” He sighed.
“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?”
He left the fish on the floor for the cat, and retired to his seat.
“Ah, I seem to see you eating it,” he said at last, as the cat exhausted the entertainment possibilities of the speck of dust and pounced on to the fish.
“I like it when I see you eat the fish,” said the man, “because in my mind you will waste away if you don’t.”
He picked up from the table a piece of paper and the stub of a pencil. He held one in one hand and the other in the other, and experimented with the different ways of bringing them together. He tried holding the pencil under the paper, then over the paper, then next to the paper. He tried wrapping the paper round the pencil, he tried rubbing the stubby end of the pencil against the paper and then he tried rubbing the sharp end of the pencil against the paper. It made a mark, and he was delighted with the discovery, as he was every day. He picked up another piece of paper from the table. This had a crossword on it. He studied it briefly and filled in a couple of clues before losing interest.
He tried sitting on one of his hands and was intrigued by the feel of the bones of his hip.
“Fish come from far away,” he said, “or so I’m told. Or so I imagine I’m told. When the men come, or when in my mind the men come in their six black ships, do they come in your mind too? What do you see pussy?”
He looked at the cat, which was more concerned with getting the fish down as rapidly as possible than it was with these speculations.
“And when I hear their questions, do you hear questions? What do their voices mean to you? Perhaps you just think they’re singing songs to you.” He reflected on this, and saw the flaw in the supposition.
“Perhaps they are singing songs to you,” he said, “and I just think they’re asking me questions.”
He paused again. Sometimes he would pause for days, just to see what it was like.

這隻貓似乎還沒有拿定主意。它猶豫地用爪子撥着這人遞過來的魚，但很快就被地板上的一團灰塵吸引了過去
“貓咪不吃他的魚，貓眯變瘦了，一天比天瘦。”這人說聲音巾帶着一絲懷疑。
“我覺得這是以後會發生的事，”他說，“但我怎麼能說出來呢？”
他又把魚遞過去。
“貓咪想想吧，”他說，”吃魚還是不吃魚。如果我不在這兒攙和的話，情況也許會好點兒。”他嘆了口氣。
“我認爲魚很好吃，又認爲雨太多了。唉，我說什麼，憑什麼亂下判斷？”
他把魚放在地板上，留給那隻貓，然後回到自己的座位上，
“嗅，我好像看見你在吃它丁。”他最厲說：那隻貓終於玩膩了那團灰塵所能提供的所有的娛樂性，然後撲向了那條魚。
“我喜歡看見你吃魚。”這人說，“在我的想像中，如果你不這麼做的話，你就會一天天衰弱下去。”
他從桌面上拿起一張紙和一截用禿了的鉛筆頭，他一隻手拿着這樣，另一隻於章着另樣，試驗着把它們湊到一起的各種不同的辦法。他試着把鉛筆放在紙的下面，然後是紙的上面，然後又是紙的旁邊：他試着用紙把鉛筆捲起來，他試着把鉛筆鈍的一頭和紙壓在一起，然後叉試着把鉛筆尖的一頭和紙壓在一起，這樣做的結果是形成丁一個印}己，他對於這個發現很高興，他每天都會爲這個發現而高興：他又從桌面上拿起另一張紙。這張紙上面有一個縱橫字謎他研究了片刻，填了幾條，然後就失去了興趣。
他試同坐在自己的一隻手上，臀部的感覺激起了他的興趣。
“魚是從很遠的地方來的，”他說，“人家是這麼告訴我的=或者我想像人家是這麼告訴我的。那些人來的時候-或者在我的想像中那些人來的時候，他們乘坐着六艘閃耀着黑色光澤的飛船‘在你的想像中他們也來了嗎，你怎麼看，貓眯？”
他看着那隻貓。比起思考這些問題來，它更熱衷於儘可能快地把魚吃下去。
“當我聽到他們的問題時，你聽到問題了嗎？他們的聲音州爾來說意味着什麼，也許體只是認爲他們在對你唱歌吧，”他仔細地想了想這個問題，然後發現唯一推測中的漏洞。
“也許他們確實是在對你唱歌，”他說，“只不過我想像成了他們在問我問題。”
他頓了頓。有時候他甚至會一頓好幾天，只不過爲了瞧瞧一頓好幾天是什麼樣子。