經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第7章 Part 3

Ford was rasping for breath. He rolled his dusty tongue round his parched mouth and moaned.
Arthur said brightly: "Actually I quite liked it."
Ford turned and gaped. Here was an approach that had quite simply not occurred to him.
The Vogon raised a surprised eyebrow that effectively obscured his nose and was therefore no bad thing.
"Oh good ..." he whirred, in considerable astonishment.
"Oh yes," said Arthur, "I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective."
Ford continued to stare at him, slowly organizing his thoughts around this totally new concept. Were they really going to be able to bareface their way out of this?
"Yes, do continue ..." invited the Vogon.
"Oh ... and er ... interesting rhythmic devices too," continued Arthur, "which seemed to counterpoint the ... er ... er ..." He floundered.
Ford leaped to his rescue, hazarding "counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the ... er ..." He floundered too, but Arthur was ready again.
"... humanity of the ..."
"Vogonity," Ford hissed at him.
"Ah yes, Vogonity (sorry) of the poet's compassionate soul," Arthur felt he was on a home stretch now, "which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that, and come to terms with the fundamental dichotomies of the other," (he was reaching a triumphant crescendo ...) "and one is left with a profound and vivid insight into ... into ... er ..." (... which suddenly gave out on him.) Ford leaped in with the coup de grace:"Into whatever it was the poem was about!" he yelled. Out of the corner of his mouth: "Well done, Arthur, that was very good."
The Vogon perused them. For a moment his embittered racial soul had been touched, but he thought no — too little too late. His voice took on the quality of a cat snagging brushed nylon.
"So what you're saying is that I write poetry because underneath my mean callous heartless exterior I really just want to be loved," he said. He paused. "Is that right?"
Ford laughed a nervous laugh. "Well I mean yes," he said, "don't we all, deep down, you know ... er ..."
The Vogon stood up.

福特大口地喘着粗氣。他用舌頭舔着火辣辣的嘴，呻吟着。
阿瑟洪亮地說：“實際上，我確實很喜歡你的詩。”
福特轉過臉來，目瞪口呆地對着阿瑟。
沃貢人揚起眉毛，這有效地削弱了他的大鼻子，因此還真不是件壞事。
“喔，很好……”他說，一副相當驚訝的表情。
“哦，是真的，”阿瑟繼續道，“我認爲其中的一些隱喻意象相當有效。”。
福特繼續盯着他，慢慢地開始圍繞這一全新立場重組自己的思維。他們真的能借助這一立場逃脫厄運嗎？
“是的，繼續……”沃貢人要求道。
“哦……嗯……韻律也很有趣，”阿瑟說，“感覺是對應上了……嗯……嗯……”他語塞了。
這時多虧福特站出來打圓場，他鼓足勇氣說：“……對應上了隱喻的超現實主義原則，關於……嗯……”他也接不下去了，不過這時阿瑟已經又準備好了。
“……人性……”
“沃貢特質。”福特搶過話題。
“噢，對，沃貢特質——對不起——詩人那富於同情心的靈魂——”阿瑟意識到現在正是最關鍵的時刻，“通過詩歌的結構獲得昇華，超越了一切術語，”他即將到達勝利的終點，“通過深刻而鮮活的洞察力直透……直透……嗯……”他的靈感突然用盡了。好在福特接了上來，最終完成了致勝的一擊：“直透詩歌之所以成爲詩歌的本質！”他幾乎大聲嚷道。嘴角邊輕聲一句嘀咕：“幹得漂亮，阿瑟，棒極了。”
沃貢人仔仔細細打量了他們一番。他的內心一度被觸動了，但是他立刻便否定了自己——畢竟這觸動太輕微也太遲了。他的聲音聽上去像是一隻貓在撓尼龍布。
“所以，照你們看來，我寫詩是因爲在我看似冷酷無情的外表下還是渴望着被愛。”他說。他頓了一下，“是這樣嗎？”
福特緊張地笑了笑。“噢，我想，是的。”他說。
沃貢人站起身來。