經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第9章10

‘Damn,’ he said. ‘Excuse me!’ he called out to the old man again, who was now straight in front of him and forty feet away. ‘Got lost. Be with you in a minute.’ Down he went again, getting very hot and bothered.

“見鬼。”他說，“抱歉！”他對老頭喊道。對方如今在他正前方大約四十尺遠的地方。“迷路了。馬上就來。”他又爬下去，搞的自己又累又煩。

When he arrived, panting and sweating, at the top of the pole that he knew for certain was the right one he realised that the man was, somehow or other, mucking him about.

這次他記準了目標，然後汗流浹背，氣喘吁吁地爬上去，眼前卻還是空空如也。這時候他意識到，雖然不知道爲什麼，但那人是在耍自己玩兒。

‘What do you want?’ shouted the old man crossly at him. He was now sitting on top of the pole that Arthur recognised was the one that he had been on himself when eating his sandwich.

“你想幹嘛？”老頭好不耐煩地衝他嚷。阿瑟認出了他現在坐的那根杆子——就是自己先前吃三明治的那一根。

‘How did you get over there?’ called Arthur in bewilderment.

“你怎麼過去的？”阿瑟滿臉困惑。

‘You think I’m going to tell you just like that what it took me forty springs, summers and autumns of sitting on top of a pole to work out?’

“你以爲我會隨隨便便告訴你？我可是在杆子上坐了四十個春天，夏天和秋天纔想出來的！”

‘What about winter?’

“那冬天呢？”

‘What about winter?’

“冬天怎麼了？”

‘Don’t you sit on the pole in the winter?’

“冬天你不坐在杆子上嗎？”

‘Just because I sit up a pole for most of my life,’ said the man, ‘doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I go south in the winter. Got a beach house. Sit on the chimney stack.’

“就算我在杆子上坐了大半輩子，”那人說，“這也不代表我是個傻子。冬天去南方。海邊的小屋。坐在高煙囪上。”

‘Do you have any advice for a traveller?’

“你能給旅行的人提些建議嗎？”

‘Yes. Get a beach house.’

“當然，買棟海濱小屋。”

‘I see.’

“哦。”