經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第4章1

These two words were usually coupled together in the Old Pink Dog Bar.
I thought, gasped Ford, that this was meant to be a class establishment…
He glanced around at the motley collection of thugs, pimps and record company executives that skulked on the edges of the dim pools of light with which the dark shadows of the bar’s inner recesses were pitted. They were all very deliberately looking in any direction but his now, carefully picking up the threads of their former conversations about murders, drug rings and music publishing deals. They knew what would happen now and didn’t want to watch in case it put them off their drinks.
You gonna die, boy, the barman murmured quietly at Ford Prefect, and the evidence was on his side. The bar used to have one of those signs hanging up which said “Please don’t ask for credit as a punch in the mouth often offends,” but in the interest of strict accuracy this was altered to “Please don’t ask for credit because having your throat torn out by a savage bird while a disembodied hand smashes your head against the bar often offends.” However, this made an unreadable mess of the notice, and anyway didn’t have the same ring to it, so it was taken down again. It was felt that the story would get about of its own accord, and it had.
Lemme look at the bill again, said Ford. He picked it up and studied it thoughtfully under the malevolent gaze of the barman, and the equally malevolent gaze of the bird, which was currently gouging great furrows in the bar top with its talons.
It was a rather lengthy piece of paper.

在老粉狗酒吧，這兩個詞一般同時出現。
“我覺着，”福特喘息着，“這本來會成爲一個經典制度的。”
他環視四周形形色色的酒客，有強盜，有皮條客，還有唱片公司的主管，他們早就已經躲到檯球桌的燈光邊緣的陰影中了。他們都故意瞅着別處，把福特無視掉，然後小心地重拾關於兇殺、毒品交易和音樂市場的談話。他們心裏清楚即將發生什麼，但並不想看着那件事的發生，免得妨礙了自己喝酒。
“你死定了，孩子，”吧主對福特.普里弗克特低語，證據可在他這一邊。酒吧裏曾有個牌子掛在那兒，上面寫着：“請勿賒賬，否則您將嚐到一記老拳”，但是爲了滿足人們對於精確表達的興趣，上面的話變成了：“請勿賒賬，否則在一隻野鳥撕碎您的喉嚨的同時一隻飄忽的手將會把您的頭磕向吧檯”。然而，這又使得那提示變得一團糟，而且毫無意義，所以牌子再一次被撤下來了。
“讓我再一眼您的賬單，”福特說。他拿起單子，在吧主兇惡的注視下仔細地研讀它。同樣兇惡地注視他的還有那隻鳥，它正在用魔爪在吧檯上劃出一道道凹痕。
那賬單可是張相當長的紙。