經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章10

The hatch opened. Just a little dim light escaped. A moment or two passed and a figure emerged. He stood still for a moment or so, obviously trying to accustom his eyes to the darkness. Then he caught sight of Random standing there, and seemed a little surprised. He stArted to walk towards her. Then suddenly he shouted in surprise and started to run at her.

艙門開了。一點點暗淡的光線漏出來。幾秒鐘過去，一個人影出現。他在艙門口站了一兩秒，顯然爲了讓眼睛適應船外的黑暗，然後他發現了蘭登，似乎有些驚訝。他開始朝她這邊走，然後突然吃驚地大吼大叫，快步朝她跑過來。

Random was not a good person to take a run at on a dark night when she was feeling a little strung out. She had unconsciously been fingering the rock in her pocket from the moment she saw the craft coming down.

今晚蘭登的神經很受了些考驗，在這種狀態下，她絕不應該試圖奔跑逃命。自從看見飛船下落的那一刻起，她就下意識地撫弄口袋裏的石頭。

Still running, slithering, hurtling, bumping into trees, Arthur saw at last that he was too late. The ship had only been on the ground for about three minutes, and now, silently, gracefully it was rising up above the trees again, turning smoothly in the fine speckle of rain to which the storm had now abated, climbing, climbing, tipping up its nose and, suddenly, effortlessly, hurtling up through the clouds.

阿瑟還在跑，扭，衝，撞樹，但他終於還是明白自己趕不及了。飛船隻在地面停了大約三分鐘，現在它靜靜地，優雅地升上了樹頂，暴風雨已經減弱爲細雨，它在雨滴中流暢地轉個彎，爬升，爬升，擡起鼻子，然後輕輕鬆鬆地衝上了雲霄。

Gone. Random was in it. It was impossible for Arthur to know this, but he just went ahead and knew it anyway. She was gone. He had had his stint at being a parent and could scarcely believe how badly he had done at it. He tried to continue running, but his feet were dragging, his knee was hurting like fury and he knew that he was too late.

走了。而蘭登就在裏面。其實阿瑟不可能知道她是不是在裏面，但他還是不管不顧地認定了她就在裏面。他完成了自己的家長份額，而且簡直沒法相信自己幹得有多糟糕，他試着繼續跑，可他的腳拖在地上，他的膝蓋疼得像火燒，而且他知道自己已經遲了一步。

He could not conceive that he could feel more wretched and awful than this, but he was wrong.

他以爲自己已經達到了悲慘和不幸的頂點，但他錯了。

He limped his way at last to the cave where Random had sheltered and opened the box. The ground bore the indentations of the spacecraft that had landed there only minutes before, but of Random there was no sign. He wandered disconsolately into the cave, found the empty box and piles of missing matter pellets strewn around the place. He felt a little cross about that. He’d tried to teach her about cleaning up after herself. Feeling a bit cross with her about something like that helped him feel less desolate about her leaving. He knew he had no means of finding her.

他終於一瘸一拐地走到了蘭登避雨，拆包裹的山洞。洞外的地面上有飛船降落時留下的痕跡——就在僅僅幾分鐘之前——可蘭登卻不見蹤影。他怏怏不樂地晃到山洞裏，發現了空蕩蕩的盒子和滿地的失落物質。他有些生氣。他一直想教會她，自己的東西要自己收拾。爲這種事情生她的氣倒減輕了由於她離開而產生的鬱悶。他知道自己根本沒法找到她了。

His foot knocked against something unexpected. He bent down to pick it up, and was thoroughly surprised to discover what it was. It was his old Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. How did that come to be in the cave? He had never returned to collect it from the scene of the crash. He had not wanted to revisit the crash and he had not wanted the Guide again. He had reckoned he was here on Lamuella, making sandwiches for good. How did it come to be in the cave? It was active. The words on the cover flashed DON’T PANIC at him.

他不經意間踢到了什麼東西。他彎腰把它撿起來，結果驚得膛目結舌。那是他過去那本《銀河系漫遊指南》。它怎麼會出現在山洞裏？他從沒回飛船墜毀的地方找它。他不想回到那個地方，也不想再要這本《指南》。他以爲自己會待在拉姆拉，做一輩子的三明治。它怎麼會跑到山洞裏來了？而且還打開着。封面上“不要恐慌”四個字對着他閃啊閃啊。

He went out of the cave again into the dim and damp moonlight. He sat on a rock to have a look through the old Guide, and then discovered it wasn’t a rock, it was a person.

阿瑟從山洞回到陰暗，潮溼的月光裏。他在一塊石頭上坐下，翻看起自己的老《指南》，然後他發現屁股底下的不是塊石頭，那是人。