經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第8章5

So this was where accountants spent their time. There was clearly more to them than met the eye. He looked around carefully, trying not to let it all swell and swim and overwhelm him.

原來那些會計就是在這種地方消磨時間啊。他們顯然並不像表面上看起來那麼簡單。福特小心翼翼地四下打量，努力不讓周圍的一切膨脹，旋轉，把自己吞沒。

He didn’t know his way around this universe. He didn’t even know the physical laws that determined its dimensional extents or behaviours, but his instinct told him to look for the most outstanding feature he could detect and make towards it.

在這個宇宙他不識路，對決定它空間範圍或者行爲模式的物理定律也一概不知，但他的直覺要他尋找最初的特徵，並且接近它。

Way off in some indistinguishable distance – was it a mile or a million or a mote in his eye? – was a stunning peak that overarched the sky, climbed and climbed and spread out in flowering aigrettes , agglomerates , and archimandrites .

在遠得沒法分辨的地方——也不知究竟是一里還是一百萬裏，當然也可能是他眼睛裏的一粒灰——有座讓人目瞪口呆的高山直入雲霄，最後散成了鷺羽，集塊巖和修院長。

He weltered towards it, hooling and thurling, and at last reached it in a meaninglessly long umthingth of time.

他朝它掙扎過去，又是衝又是擠，終於在一段虛無含混，長的沒有意義的時間之後到了它跟前。

He clung to it, arms outspread, gripping tightly on to its roughly gnarled and pitted surface. Once he was certain that he was secure he made the hideous mistake of looking down.

他緊緊地貼上它，兩臂張開，用力抱住它凹凸不平的粗糙表面。他確定自己已經安全了，於是犯了個醜陋的錯誤——他往下看了一眼。

While he had been weltering, hooling and thurling, the distance beneath him had not bothered him unduly, but now that he was gripping, the distance made his heart wilt and his brain bend. His fingers were white with pain and tension. His teeth were grinding and twisting against each other beyond his control. His eyes turned inwards with waves from the willowing extremities of nausea.

當他在掙扎，在衝在擠地時候，腳下的距離並沒有故意跑來搗亂，可等他現在抓緊了，這高度卻讓他的精神和大腦都萎靡屈服。他的手指因爲疼痛和緊張變得煞白。他的牙齒完全不聽號令，擠在一起又咬又扭。他的眼睛因爲一波接一波洶涌澎湃的噁心使勁往眼眶裏鑽。

With an immense effort of will and faith he simply let go and pushed.

憑藉着無比的意志和信念，他乾脆放開了雙手，用力一推。

He felt himself float. Away. And then, counter-intuitively, upwards. And upwards.

他感到自己在飄，往外飄。然後又——這簡直完全違背常識——往上，再往上。

He threw his shoulders back, let his arms drop, gazed upwards and let himself be drawn loosely, higher and higher.

他挺起胸膛，任兩隻胳膊落下，眼睛盯着天上，任自己往上升，越來越高，越來越高。

Before long, insofar as such terms had any meaning in this virtual universe, a ledge loomed up ahead of him on which he could grip and on to which he could clamber.

不久之後——儘管在這個虛擬的宇宙裏時間的意義實在很難說——前面出現了一塊突出的岩石，他可以抓住它，還可以爬上去。

He rose, he gripped, he clambered.

他立起來，他抓住它，他爬了上去。