經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第12章9

Another, unexpected result was a dramatic lowering of the suicide rate. All sorts of stressed and rising executives who had been forced, during the dark days of the Breathe-o-Smart tyranny, to jump in front of trains or stab themselves, could now just clamber out on to their own window ledges and leap off at their leisure. What frequently happened, though, was that in the moment or two they had to look around and gather their thoughts they would suddenly discover that all they had really needed was a breath of air and a fresh perspective on things, and maybe also a farm on which they could keep a few sheep.

還有一個出乎大家意料的結果：自殺率出現了戲劇性的回落。在聰明呼吸獨裁的黑暗時期，各種各樣奮勇爭先，緊張壓抑的主管都只好往火車跟前跳或者拿刀往自己身上扎，現在他們可以輕而易舉地爬上自己辦公室的窗臺，想什麼時候往下跳就什麼時候往下跳。然而通常的情況是，他們爬上去，四下張望了一番，花一兩秒鐘整理整理自己的思緒，卻突然發現自己其實只是需要一點新鮮空氣和一個全新的視角，或許再加上個農場，養上幾隻羊。

Another completely unlooked for result was that Ford Prefect, stranded thirteen stories up a heavily armoured building armed with nothing but a towel and a credit card was nevertheless able to clamber through a supposedly rocket-proof window to safety.

另一個完全出乎意料的結果就是：福特.長官，擱淺在一座盔甲超厚的大樓十三層上，全部的裝備只有一條毛巾和一張信用卡，居然可以通過一扇應該能夠防導彈的窗戶逃進安全地帶。

He closed the window neatly after him, having first allowed Colin to follow him through, and then started to look around for this bird thing.

他讓科林也進來，然後乾淨利落地關上窗，開始尋找那個鳥一樣的東西。

The thing he realised about the windows was this: because they had been converted into openable windows after they had first been designed to be impregnable, they were, in fact, much less secure than if they had been designed as openable windows in the first place.

關於那些窗戶，他想到的問題是這樣的：因爲它們是原本被設計成牢不可破，然後才改造成了可以開關的窗戶，因此它們事實上會比那些一開始就設計成可開關的窗戶要容易突破得多。

Hey ho, it’s a funny old life, he was just thinking to himself, when he suddenly realised that the room he had gone to all this trouble to break into was not a very interesting one.

嚯嚯，生活老夥計可真是有意思。福特暗自得意起來，然後他又突然發現，自己費了九牛二虎之力才鑽進這間屋子，可它實在有些無趣。

He stopped in surprise.

他驚得定在原地。

Where was the strange flapping shape? Where was anything that was worth all this palaver – the extraordinary veil of secrecy that seemed to lie over this room and the equally extraordinary sequence of events that had seemed to conspire to get him into it?

那個撲騰翅膀的怪東西哪兒去了？之前那好一串離奇古怪的事件，簡直像個策劃已久的大陰謀，最後終於把他搞進了這間同樣神祕的稀奇古怪的屋子——可這兒哪有什麼值得大費周章的東西？

The room, like every other room in this building now, was done out in some appallingly tasteful grey. There were a few charts and drawings on the wall. Most of them were meaningless to Ford, but then he came across something that was obviously a mock-up for a poster of some kind.

這房間跟如今大樓裏其他的房間一樣，也被裝飾成一種挺有品位，讓人噁心的灰色。牆上掛了幾張圖標和繪畫。其中大多數在福特眼裏都毫無意義，不過很快他就發現一張有意思的，看上去顯然是某種海報的草圖。。

There was a kind of bird-like logo on it, and a slogan which said ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Mk II: the single most astounding thing of any kind ever. Coming soon to a dimension near you.’ No more information than that.

上頭有個像鳥一樣的標誌，還有一條口號，“《銀河系漫遊指南》MK 2：宇宙中最最令人驚歎的奇觀。即將在你的位面發售。”除此之外再沒有其他信息了。