經典科幻文學:《生命 宇宙及一切》第9章5

Did it span the miles majestically?
It spanned the miles majestically.
Did it stretch like a silver thread far out into the invisible mist?
Yes, said Marvin. Do you want to hear this story?
I want to hear your speech, said the mattress.
This is what I said. I said, “I would like to say that it is a very great pleasure, honour and privilege for me to open this bridge, but I can’t because my lying circuits are all out of commission. I hate and despise you all. I now declare this hapless cyberstructure open to the unthinkable abuse of all who wantonly cross her.” And I plugged myself into the opening circuits.
Marvin paused, remembering the moment.
The mattress flurred and glurried. It flolloped, gupped and willomied, doing this last in a particularly floopy way.
Voon, it wurfed at last. And it was a magnificent occasion?
Reasonably magnificent. The entire thousand-mile-long bridge spontaneously folded up its glittering spans and sank weeping into the mire, taking everybody with it.
There was a sad and terrible pause at this point in the conversation during which a hundred thousand people seemed unexpectedly to say “wop” and a team of white robots descended from the sky like dandelion seeds drifting on the wind in tight military formation. For a sudden violent moment they were all there, in the swamp, wrenching Marvin’s false leg off, and then they were gone again in their ship, which said “foop”.
You see the sort of thing I have to contend with? said Marvin to the gobbering mattress.
Suddenly, a moment later, the robots were back again for another violent incident, and this time when they left, the mattress was alone in the swamp. He flolloped around in astonishment and alarm. He almost lurgled in fear. He reared himself to see over the reeds, but there was nothing to see, just more reeds. He listened, but there was no sound on the wind beyond the now familiar sound of half-crazed etymologists calling distantly to each other across the sullen mire.

“它是不是雄踞長空？”
“它是雄據長空。”
“它是不是像一條銀色絲帶，延伸到無盡的迷霧深處？”
“是的。你要不要聽故事？”
“我想聽你的演講。”牀墊說。
“我是這麼說的。我說：‘我想說，我感到極爲榮幸、愉快和自豪，能夠在此啓動這座橋。可是我不能這麼說，因爲我的說謊電路全都停止運行了。我憎恨並鄙視你們所有人。現在我宣佈這個不幸的數碼橋開通了，從此開始接受所有隻顧着通過她的人的不忍卒想的凌虐。’”然後我就按了開關。
馬文停了下來，回憶着那一刻。
牀墊又是迷漓又是格溧。它湃打着、沆奮着、潙拉着，最後變得非常凇軟。
“浯呢。”它最後渭合道，“那一定是個激動人心的時刻？”
“還算激動人心。整座長達幾千裏的橋自動合上了閃亮的橋面，流着淚沉進了泥潭，帶着所有人一起。”
談話進行到這個悲慘可怕的地方時，隨着一聲好象成百上千人突然一起說“喔”的巨響，一羣白色機器人，像蒲公英一樣，列隊從天上飄下。他們在這兒製造了很暴力的事件——在沼澤裏，扭下了馬文的假腿，然後飄回它們的飛船。飛船離開時說了一聲“呼”。
“你都看見了吧？我都得忍受些什麼事。”馬文對油泣的牀墊說道。
過了一會兒，那些機器人突然又回來了，進行了另一場暴力活動。這次他們離開後，那張牀墊發現沼澤裏就自己一個了。他震驚了，慌慌張張地到處湃打着。他都快嚇得混闕了。他立起來從蘆葦上方遠望，可是什麼也看不見，只有更多的蘆葦。他側耳傾聽，風中並無其他聲音，只有那牀墊們習以爲常的、半瘋的詞源學家們隔着噁心的泥潭互相呼喚的遙遠的聲音。