經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第13章 Part3

Ford was not going to be outcooled. "Zaphod," he drawled, "great to see you, you're looking well, the extra arm suits you. Nice ship you've stolen."
Arthur goggled at him.
"You mean you know this guy?" he said, waving a wild finger at Zaphod.
"Know him!" exclaimed Ford, "he's ..." he paused, and decided to do the introductions the other way round.
"Oh, Zaphod, this is a friend of mine, Arthur Dent," he said, "I saved him when his planet blew up."
"Oh sure," said Zaphod, "hi Arthur, glad you could make it." His right-hand head looked round casually, said "hi" and went back to having his teeth picked.
Ford carried on. "And Arthur," he said, "this is my semi-cousin Zaphod Beeb ..."
"We've met," said Arthur sharply.
When you're cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your bonnet in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way that this remark threw Ford Prefect off his.
"Err ... what?"
"I said we've met."
Zaphod gave an awkward start of surprise and jabbed a gum sharply.

“贊福德，”福特也漫不經心地回答道，“很高興見到你，你看起來氣色不錯，這條額外的胳膊也很配。看來你偷了艘不錯的飛船。”
阿瑟瞪眼望着他。
“你認識這傢伙？”他指着贊福德問。
“當然認識！”福特大叫一聲，“他是……”他停頓了一下，決定把介紹的次序顛倒一下。
“哦，贊福德，這位是我的一個朋友，阿瑟。登特。”他介紹說，“他的星球被毀滅時，是我救了他。”
“哦，當然，”贊福德說，“你好，阿瑟，歡迎來這兒。”他的右邊腦袋隨意地轉過來打了聲招呼，然後又轉回去繼續剔牙。
福特繼續介紹道：“阿瑟，這位是我的半個堂兄，贊福德。畢博……”
“我們見過。”阿瑟厲聲說。
當你在快車道上輕而易舉地超過幾輛車後，你會自我感覺非常良好，這時如果你碰巧從4擋直接打到1擋而不是3擋的話，你的引擎就會從引擎蓋下飛出來，以後的事情就不必說了——這恰恰就是福特·普里弗克特聽到這句話後的感覺。
“喔……什麼？”他說。
“我說我們見過。”
贊福德很尷尬地吃了一驚，使勁嚼着口香糖。