經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章5

Within minutes of setting out he had gone back again and equipped himself with a lamp. Not an electric one. The only electric light in the place was the one that Random had brought with her. This was a kind of dim hurricane lamp: a perforated metal canister from Strinder’s forge, which contained a reservoir of inflammable fish oil, a wick of knotted dried grass and was wrapped in a translucent film made from dried membranes from the gut of a Perfectly Normal Beast.

他衝出村子沒幾分鐘就折了回去，給自己裝備上一盞燈。不是電燈，這地方唯一靠電發光的就是蘭登的手電筒。阿瑟拿的是某種光線暗淡的馬燈：斯林德的鐵匠鋪里弄的，一個鑿了孔的金屬罐頭，裏頭裝着一小筒可供燃燒的魚油和一根乾草擰成的燈芯，再把絕對正常獸的腸子曬乾，做成半透明的薄膜，把燈包裹起來。

It had now gone out.

現在它已經熄滅了。

Arthur jiggled around with it in a thoroughly pointless kind of a way for a few seconds. There was clearly no way he was going to get the thing suddenly to burst into flame again in the middle of a rainstorm, but it’s impossible not to make a token effort. Reluctantly he threw the thing aside.

阿瑟拿着它，以一種全無意義的方式晃了好幾秒。很顯然，他無論如何也不可能讓這東西在暴風雨裏自己重新亮起來，不過象徵性的努力不能沒有。最後他不情不願地把它丟到了一邊。

What to do? This was hopeless. He was absolutely sodden, his clothes heavy and billowing with the rain, and now he was lost in the dark as well.

怎麼辦？這簡直毫無希望。他渾身淋得溼透，衣服沉甸甸的，隨着雨水翻滾，現在他還在黑暗裏迷了路。

For a brief second he was lost in the blinding light, and then he was lost in the dark again.

有一瞬間他被刺眼的光芒籠罩，然後又重新陷入了黑暗。

The sheet of lightning had at least shown him that he was very close to the brow of the hill. Once he had breasted that he would… well, he wasn’t certain what he would do. He’d have to work that out when he got there.

不過先前的閃電至少告訴他，原來自己離山脊已經很近了。一旦翻過山去他就……好吧，他不大清楚他該怎麼辦。這個問題等到了那兒再想吧。

He limped forward and upwards.

他一瘸一拐地往前走，往上走。

A few minutes later he knew that he was standing panting at the top. There was some kind of dim glow in the distance below him. He had no idea what it was, and indeed he hardly liked to think. It was the only thing he had to make towards, though, so he started to make his way, stumbling, lost and frightened towards it.

幾分鐘之後他發現自己已經到了山頂。山腳下遠遠能看見些亮光，他不知道是什麼東西，事實上他連想都不大願意去想。不過反正他也沒有別的什麼目標可以前進，於是他朝着它跌跌撞撞地走過去，完全不知道自己身在何處，心裏還怕得要死。

The flash of lethal light passed straight through Random and, about two seconds later, so did the man who had shot it. Other than that he paid her no attention whatsoever. He had shot someone standing behind her, and when she turned to look, he was kneeling over the body and going through its pockets.

那道致命的光束穿透了蘭登的身體，然後，大約兩秒鐘後，開槍的那個男人也從她身上穿了過去。除此之外他連看也沒看她一眼。他打的是她背後的什麼人，蘭登轉身一看，發現他正跪在屍體旁邊搜它的口袋。

The tableau froze and vanished. It was replaced a second later by a giant pair of teeth framed by immense and perfectly glossed red lips. A huge blue brush appeared out of nowhere and started foamily to scrub at the teeth, which continued to hang there gleaming in the shimmering curtain of rain.

這個畫面凝固了，消失了。一秒鐘後，一對門牙取代了它，牙齒外是一張巨大的紅脣，口紅抹得無懈可擊，在雨簾中閃閃發光。然後一把超大號牙刷突然現身，帶着豐富的泡泡刷起牙來。

Random blinked at it twice before she got it.

蘭登對着它眨巴了兩次眼睛，終於弄明白這是怎麼回事。