经典科幻文学:《 基本上无害 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.

还有一个出乎大家意料的结果：自杀率出现了戏剧性的回落。在聪明呼吸独裁的黑暗时期，各种各样奋勇争先，紧张压抑的主管都只好往火车跟前跳或者拿刀往自己身上扎，现在他们可以轻而易举地爬上自己办公室的窗台，想什么时候往下跳就什么时候往下跳。然而通常的情况是，他们爬上去，四下张望了一番，花一两秒钟整理整理自己的思绪，却突然发现自己其实只是需要一点新鲜空气和一个全新的视角，或许再加上个农场，养上几只羊。

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.

另一个完全出乎意料的结果就是：福特.长官，搁浅在一座盔甲超厚的大楼十三层上，全部的装备只有一条毛巾和一张信用卡，居然可以通过一扇应该能够防导弹的窗户逃进安全地带。

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.

他让科林也进来，然后干净利落地关上窗，开始寻找那个鸟一样的东西。

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.

关于那些窗户，他想到的问题是这样的：因为它们是原本被设计成牢不可破，然后才改造成了可以开关的窗户，因此它们事实上会比那些一开始就设计成可开关的窗户要容易突破得多。

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，生活老伙计可真是有意思。福特暗自得意起来，然后他又突然发现，自己费了九牛二虎之力才钻进这间屋子，可它实在有些无趣。

He stopped in surprise.

他惊得定在原地。

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?

那个扑腾翅膀的怪东西哪儿去了？之前那好一串离奇古怪的事件，简直像个策划已久的大阴谋，最后终于把他搞进了这间同样神秘的稀奇古怪的屋子——可这儿哪有什么值得大费周章的东西？

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.

这房间跟如今大楼里其他的房间一样，也被装饰成一种挺有品位，让人恶心的灰色。墙上挂了几张图标和绘画。其中大多数在福特眼里都毫无意义，不过很快他就发现一张有意思的，看上去显然是某种海报的草图。。

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.

上头有个像鸟一样的标志，还有一条口号，“《银河系漫游指南》MK 2：宇宙中最最令人惊叹的奇观。即将在你的位面发售。”除此之外再没有其他信息了。