經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第1章Part 8

Ford beckoned to Prosser who sadly, awkwardly, sat down in the mud. He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. The mud folded itself round his bottom and his arms and oozed into his shoes.
Ford looked at him severely.
"And no sneaky knocking down Mr Dent's house whilst he's away, alright?" he said.
"The mere thought," growled Mr Prosser, "hadn't even begun to speculate," he continued, settling himself back, "about the merest possibility of crossing my mind."
He saw the bulldozer driver's union representative approaching and let his head sink back and closed his eyes. He was trying to marshal his arguments for proving that he did not now constitute a mental health hazard himself. He was far from certain about this — his mind seemed to be full of noise, horses, smoke, and the stench of blood. This always happened when he felt miserable and put upon, and he had never been able to explain it to himself. In a high dimension of which we know nothing the mighty Khan bellowed with rage, but Mr Prosser only trembled slightly and whimpered. He began to fell little pricks of water behind the eyelids. Bureaucratic cock-ups, angry men lying in the mud, indecipherable strangers handing out inexplicable humiliations and an unidentified army of horsemen laughing at him in his head — what a day.
What a day. Ford Prefect knew that it didn't matter a pair of dingo's kidneys whether Arthur's house got knocked down or not now.
Arthur remained very worried.
"But can we trust him?" he said.
"Myself I'd trust him to the end of the Earth," said Ford.
"Oh yes," said Arthur, "and how far's that?"
"About twelve minutes away," said Ford, "come on, I need a drink."

福特又朝普洛塞招了招手，於是他一臉沮喪，笨拙地坐到了泥漿裏。這個時候，普洛塞感覺他的整個人生就像是一場夢，有時還不能確定這夢是誰的，以及他們能否從中獲得快樂。泥漿裹住了他的下半身和手臂，還滲進了鞋子。
福特嚴厲地看着他。
“你們不會趁鄧特先生離開的這會兒去打擾他的房子，是吧？”他說。
“這樣的念頭，”普洛塞先生抱怨說，“根本還沒有冒出來過呢，”他繼續道，往後坐了坐，“反正在我腦子裏是沒有可能的。”
這時，他看見推土機司機一夥的代表正走過來，於是索性頭往後一倒，閉上了眼睛。他想組織一下辯論語言，以證明自己不是突然間神經出了毛病。不過這一點看上去不大可能——他的頭腦裏彷彿充滿了噪音、馬、煙霧以及血腥的氣味。每當他感到自己很悲慘或者是成了犧牲品，就會出現這種情形，連他自己也解釋不了。在某個我們一無所知的空間裏，偉大的可汗憤怒地咆哮着，但普洛塞先生卻只是微微地顫抖和嗚咽。他開始感覺到眼簾後面快有淚水流出了。官僚政治一團糟，憤怒的人躺在泥漿裏，身份不明的陌生人帶來解釋不清楚的屈辱，還有不知道從哪兒冒出來的一隊騎兵在腦子裏嘲笑着自己——天啊，這是什麼鬼日子。
什麼鬼日子。福特·普里弗克特知道，阿瑟的房子現在被推倒了沒有，這個問題的價值甚至不值一對澳洲野狗的腰子。
阿瑟依舊很擔心。
“我們能相信他嗎？”他問。
“就我自己來說，我相信他，直到地球的毀滅。”福特說。
“噢，是嗎，”阿瑟說，“我們離地球毀滅有多遠？”
“大概12分鐘的路程。”福特說，“走吧，我需要喝一杯。”