經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第15章2

His daughter? He and Trillian had never even – had they? He was absolutely convinced he would have remembered. What about Zaphod?

他女兒？他和崔莉恩甚至從來沒有——對吧？他絕對相信自己應該會記得纔是。還有，贊福德呢？

‘Not the same species, Arthur,’ Trillian had answered. ‘When I decided I wanted a child they ran all sorts of genetic tests on me and could find only one match anywhere. It was only later that it dawned on me. I double checked and I was right. They don’t usually like to tell you, but I insisted.’

“不是一個種族，阿瑟。”崔莉恩是這麼回答的，“當我決定要個孩子的時候，他們給我做了各種各樣的基因測試，結果在哪兒都只能找到一個合適的。過了一陣我才明白過來。我重新覈查了一遍，結果發現猜得沒錯。通常這事兒他們不願意告訴你，但我堅持這麼做。”

‘You mean you went to a DNA bank?’ Arthur had asked, pop-eyed.

“你是說你去了DNA銀行？”阿瑟的眼珠子鼓了出來。

‘Yes. But she wasn’t quite as random as her name suggests, because, of course, you were the only homo sapiens donor. I must say, though, it seems you were quite a frequent flyer.’

“對。不過她的名字並不那麼準確，因爲，很顯然，你是唯一一個人類捐獻者。不過，我得說，看起來你還真是個常客。”

Arthur had stared wide-eyed at the unhappy looking girl who was slouching awkwardly in the door-frame looking at him.

阿瑟瞪大眼睛望着房門的方向，那姑娘也正無精打采地靠在門框上看着他。

‘But when… how long… ?’

“可什麼時候……多久了……”

‘You mean, what age is she?’

“你是問她多大？”

‘Yes.’

“對。”

‘The wrong one.’

“問錯了。”

‘What do you mean?’

“你是什麼意思？”

‘I mean that I haven’t any idea.’

“意思是說我不知道。”

‘What?’

“什麼？”

‘Well, in my time line I think it’s about ten years since I had her, but she’s obviously quite a lot older than that. I spend my life going backwards and forwards in time, you see. The job. I used to take her with me when I could, but it just wasn’t always possible. Then I used to put her into day care time zones, but you just can’t get reliable time tracking now. You leave them there in the morning, you’ve simply no idea how old they’ll be in the evening. You complain till you’re blue in the face but it doesn’t get you anywhere. I left her at one of the places for a few hours once, and when I came back she’d passed puberty. I’ve done all I can, Arthur, it’s over to you. I’ve got a war to cover.’

“那個，按我自己的時間計算，生下她大概有十年，可她顯然比這要大得多。你瞧，我總是在時間裏來來回回地跑，（、）工作。我儘可能帶她一起去，但也不是每次都行。後來我就把她送去市區日託，問題是眼下可靠的時間追蹤根本就不可能。你一早把他們送過去，天曉得晚上他們多大了。你抱怨得臉都綠了，結果半點用處也沒有。有一次我把她留在那種地方，就幾個鐘頭，等我回來的時候她已經過了青春期。能做的我都做了，阿瑟，現在該你負起責任來。我還有場戰爭要報道。”

The ten seconds that passed after Trillian left were about the longest of Arthur Dent’s life. Time, we know, is relative. You can travel light years through the stars and back, and if you do it at the speed of light then, when you return, you may have aged mere seconds while your twin brother or sister will have aged twenty, thirty, forty or however many years it is, depending on how far you travelled.

崔莉恩離開後的十秒鐘是阿瑟.鄧特這輩子最漫長的十秒。時間，我們知道，是相對的。你做星際旅行，出去好幾光年又折回來，如果是光速飛行，那麼等你回來的時候，你或許才老了幾秒鐘，而你的雙胞胎兄弟姐妹可能已經老了二十，三十，四十或者不知道多少歲——就看你走了多遠。

This will come to you as a profound personal shock, particularly if you didn’t know you had a twin brother or sister. The seconds that you have been absent for will not have been sufficient time to prepare you for the shock of new and strangely distended family relationships when you return.

這對你會是個極大的震撼，特別是如果你原先壓根不知道自己有個雙胞胎兄弟姐妹的話。你不過離開寥寥幾秒，肯定不夠讓你準備好面對莫名其妙膨脹出來的家庭關係。