經典科幻文學:《銀河系漫遊指南》第8章 Part 5

They both sat on the pavement and watched with a certain unease as huge children bounced heavily along the sand and wild horses thundered through the sky taking fresh supplies of reinforced railings to the Uncertain Areas.
"You know," said Arthur with a slight cough, "if this is Southend, there's something very odd about it ..."
"You mean the way the sea stays steady and the buildings keep washing up and down?" said Ford. "Yes I thought that was odd too. In fact," he continued as with a huge bang Southend split itself into six equal segments which danced and span giddily round each other in lewd and licentious formation, "there is something altogether very strange going on."
Wild yowling noises of pipes and strings seared through the wind, hot doughnuts popped out of the road for ten pence each, horrid fish stormed out of the sky and Arthur and Ford decided to make a run for it.
They plunged through heavy walls of sound, mountains of archaic thought, valleys of mood music, bad shoe sessions and footling bats and suddenly heard a girl's voice.
It sounded quite a sensible voice, but it just said, "Two to the power of one hundred thousand to one against and falling," and that was all.
Ford skidded down a beam of light and span round trying to find a source for the voice but could see nothing he could seriously believe in.
"What was that voice?" shouted Arthur.

他倆坐在人行道上，帶着某種不安看着個子很大的小孩子在沙灘上跳躍，望着野馬挾着風雷掠過天空。
“你瞧，”阿瑟輕咳一聲，“如果這裏是南角的話，有些東西可太怪異了……”
“你是指這海面一動不動地像塊岩石，這些建築卻來來回回晃個不停？”福特說，“是的，事實上我也覺得很奇怪。”他繼續道。正在這時，隨着一聲巨響，紹森德裂成了大小相等的6塊，都以一種淫靡而放肆的形式舞動着、旋轉着，令人眼花繚亂，“看來，有些東西越來越奇怪了。”
風中傳來銅管和絲絃狂野的嚎叫聲，熱氣騰騰的烤麪包圈從路中間蹦出來，才10便士一個，受驚的魚羣出現在天空中。這些景象使阿瑟和福特決定逃跑。
他們衝過聲音的幕牆、古老思想的山峯和背景音樂的峽谷，突然間聽到一個女孩兒的聲音。
這聲音聽上去相當清晰，卻只是反覆說着同一句話：“2的，00，000次方比1，正在下降。”這就是全部的內容。
福特停下身來，藉着一束光想找出這聲音的來源，但卻看不到任何他真正能夠相信的東西。
“那是什麼聲音？”阿瑟叫道。