經典科幻文學:《生命 宇宙及一切》第3章

Chapter 3
Important facts from Galactic history, number one:
(Reproduced from the Siderial Daily Mentioner’s Book of popular Galactic History.)
The night sky over the planet Krikkit is the least interesting sight in the entire Universe.
It was a charming and delightful day at Lord’s as Ford and Arthur tumbled haphazardly out of a space-time anomaly and hit the immaculate turf rather hard.
The applause of the crowd was tremendous. It wasn’t for them, but instinctively they bowed anyway, which was fortunate because the small red heavy ball which the crowd actually had been applauding whistled mere millimetres over Arthur’s head. In the crowd a man collapsed.
They threw themselves back to the ground which seemed to spin hideously around them.
What was that? hissed Arthur.
Something red, hissed Ford back at him.
Where are we?
Er, somewhere green.
Shapes, muttered Arthur. I need shapes.
The applause of the crowd had been rapidly succeeded by gasps of astonishment, and the awkward titters of hundreds of people who could not yet make up their minds about whether to believe what they had just seen or not.
This your sofa? said a voice.
What was that? whispered Ford.
Arthur looked up.

第三章
銀河系史上一些重要事實之一：
（轉載自恆星每日評論出版社的《通俗銀河史》）
“版求”①這顆行星的夜空，是全宇宙最無趣的景色。
這是羅德球場明媚快樂的一天，福特與阿瑟恰好從反常的時空裏掉出來，狠狠地摔在漂亮而堅硬的草地上。
人羣爆發出熱烈的掌聲，並不是爲他們鼓的，但他們本能地彎腰致謝。於是很幸運地，那顆紅色的、硬梆梆的小球——正是觀衆們實際所鼓掌的對象——呼嘯着從阿瑟頭上幾毫米的地方擦了過去。人羣裏有個傢伙倒下了。
他倆又趴回地面。地面好象在他們周圍旋轉，令人想吐。
“那是什麼？”阿瑟嘶嘶地問道。
“紅色的什麼東西。”福特嘶嘶地答道。
“我們在哪？”
“嗯……綠色的什麼地方。”
“形狀呢，”阿瑟喃喃地說，“告訴我形狀。”
人羣的掌聲很快被震驚的吸氣聲所代替，因爲這幾百個剛纔還在傻笑的人不知該不該相信他們所看到的一切。
“這是你們的沙發嗎？”一個聲音說。
“那是什麼？”福特低語道。
阿瑟向上看了看。