經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第30章1

Chapter 30
"So there you have it," said Slartibartfast, making a feeble and perfunctory attempt to clear away some of the appalling mess of his study. He picked up a paper from the top of a pile, but then couldn't think of anywhere else to put it, so he but it back on top of the original pile which promptly fell over. "Deep Thought designed the Earth, we built it and you lived on it."
"And the Vogons came and destroyed it five minutes before the program was completed," added Arthur, not unbitterly.
"Yes," said the old man, pausing to gaze hopelessly round the room. "Ten million years of planning and work gone just like that. Ten million years, Earthman ... can you conceive of that kind of time span? A galactic civilization could grow from a single worm five times over in that time. Gone." He paused. "Well that's bureaucracy for you," he added.
"You know," said Arthur thoughtfully, "all this explains a lot of things. All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was." "No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that." "Everyone?" said Arthur. "Well, if everyone has that perhaps it means something! Perhaps somewhere outside the Universe we know ..." "Maybe. Who cares?" said Slartibartfast before Arthur got too excited. "Perhaps I'm old and tired," he continued, "but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway." He rummaged around in a pile of debris and pulled out a large perspex block with his name on it and a model of Norway moulded into it.
"Where's the sense in that?" he said. "None that I've been able to make out. I've been doing fjords in all my life. For a fleeting moment they become fashionable and I get a major award." He turned it over in his hands with a shrug and tossed it aside carelessly, but not so carelessly that it didn't land on something soft.

第三十章
“你都看到了……”斯拉提巴特法斯特一邊說，一邊心不在焉馬馬虎虎的試圖略微清理一下他混亂不堪的書房，他從一堆紙的頂端拿起一張紙，但卻一時想不起能把它放在別的什麼地方，於是只好又把它放回到原來那堆紙上面，卻使整堆紙倒了下去，“深思設計了地球，我們建造了它，而你住在上面。”
“沃貢人則來毀掉了它，就在整個程序還有5分鐘就要結束的時候。”阿瑟不無怨恨的補充了一句。
“是啊。”老人說，停頓了一下，不抱希望的環視了房間一圈，“1000萬年的計劃和工作就這樣付諸東流了。1000萬年，地球人，你能夠想像這樣漫長的時間嗎？在這段時間內，一種銀河系文明甚至可以從一條簡單的毛蟲開始循環5次了。就這樣飄散了。”他又頓了一下，“哦，對你來說有點兒官僚腔了。”他補充道。
“你知道，”阿瑟若有所思的說，“這樣一來，很多東西都解釋得通了。在我整個一生中，我一直有一種解釋不清的感覺，總覺得有什麼事情正在世界上發生着，很重大的事情，甚至是兇險的，可是從來沒有人能告訴我這究竟是什麼。”“不。”老人說，“那只是最最普通的偏執狂症狀，宇宙中每一個人都有。”“每一個人？”阿瑟說，“好吧，如果每一個人都有的話，也許它正意味着什麼！也許在我們已知宇宙以外的某個地方……”“說不定吧，誰在乎呢？”司拉提巴特法斯特在阿瑟過於興奮之前說，“也許我老了，也疲倦了，可我總是在想，找出真正發生著的事情的可能性太渺茫了，簡直近乎荒謬。我們唯一能做的只是將事情的意義懸置起來，自己專注的去幹。看看我吧：我設計海岸線，因爲挪威還得了獎呢。”他在一堆破爛中檢查了一番，抽出一塊很大的有機玻璃牌子，上面有他的名字，玻璃中間鑄有挪威的模型。
“這其中的意義是什麼呢？”他說，“我根本不可能得出來。我一生都在製作海灣。它們一度很時髦，於是我也就獲得了一個重要獎項。”他把牌子在手裏翻了一面，聳了聳肩，不在意的隨手把它扔到一邊——但也並非完全毫不在意，他避開了所有堅硬的東西。