经典科幻文学:《生命 宇宙及一切》第21章1

The sensation, when he allowed himself to be aware of it, was so quietly ecstatic that he could not bear the thought of losing it, perhaps for ever. With this worry in mind he bobbed upwards a little again, just to try the feel of it, the surprising and effortless movement of it. He bobbed, he floated. He tried a little swoop.
The swoop was terrific. With his arms spread out in front of him, his hair and dressing gown streaming out behind him, he dived down out of the sky, bellied along a body of air about two feet from the ground and swung back up again, catching himself at the top of the swing and holding. Just holding. He stayed there.
It was wonderful. And that, he realized, was the way of picking up the bag. He would swoop down and catch hold of it just at the point of the upswing. He would carry it on up with him. He might wobble a bit, but he was certain that he could hold it.
He tried one or two more practice swoops, and they got better and better. The air on his face, the bounce and woof of his body, all combined to make him feel an intoxication of the spirit that he hadn’t felt since, since well as far as he could work out, since he was born. He drifted away on the breeze and surveyed the countryside, which was, he discovered, pretty nasty. It had a wasted ravaged look. He decided not to look at it any more. He would just pick up the bag and then… he didn’t know what he was going to do after he had picked up the bag. He decided he would just pick up the bag and see where things went from there.
He judged himself against the wind, pushed up against it and turned around. He floated on its body. He didn’t realize, but his body was willoming at this point. He ducked down under the airstream, dipped and dived. The air threw itself past him, he thrilled through it. The ground wobbled uncertainly, straightened its ideas out and rose smoothly up to meet him, offering the bag, its cracked plastic handles up towards him.
Halfway down there was a sudden dangerous moment when he could no longer believe he was doing this, and therefore he very nearly wasn’t, but he recovered himself in time, skimmed over the ground, slipped an arm smoothly through the handles of the bag, and began to climb back up, couldn’t make it and all of a sudden collapsed, bruised, scratched and shaking in the stony ground. He staggered instantly to his feet and swayed hopelessly around, swinging the bag round him in agony of grief and disappointment.
Ten minutes later, drifting idly through a cloud, he got a large and extremely disreputable cocktail party in the small of the back.

他提醒自己别再想下去，但这念头始终挥之不去。也许他将永远不能再飞。他脑子里满是忧思，所以又向上浮了一点点。他想记住这种感觉，这种惊人的、轻软无力的动作。他漂啊浮啊，还试了试俯冲。
俯冲很成功。他两手往前一划，头发和睡袍都向后扬起，他便从空中潜回地面。划出了一条弧线，又滑向了天空。在上滑的途中轻轻一刹，便停住了滑翔。刹住了。他浮在那儿了。
非常好。他想。这就是捡起它的办法。只要向下俯冲，再在顺势向上滑之前、抓住它就行。这样就能把它带走了。也许会飞偏一点儿，但他肯定自己能抓住。
他又试冲了几次，动作完成得越来越好。拂过脸庞的风，身体的跃动，让他感到了灵魂的沉醉——自从——嗯，就他能表达的而言，自从他出生以后——头一次这般沉醉。他在清风中飘荡，眺望四野，这里的景色——非常难看，一片破败景象。他便不再想看了，现在只求捡回旅行包，然后……他也不知然后怎样，总之捡了再说吧。他御风而行，随风浮起，顺势转身。阿瑟也许没有意识到，他此时正是在“沩拉”呢。
他迎着风儿。他在气流中弯了弯腰，试了试“水”，然后纵身潜了下去。轻风拂过身体，他打了个寒噤。地面像是摇晃了一下，随后平静下来，慢慢朝他迎上来——带着那个旅行包迎上来，带着它那开裂的塑料把手迎上来。潜到一半的时候，他突然生出一个危险的念头——不相信自己真的在飞。果然，他立刻往下掉了。他竭尽全力驱逐此念，轻瞥地面，伸手一捞，穿过把手，试图再浮上去——却终于失败，猛地摔了下来。舯了肉，伤了皮，倒在坚硬的岩石上痛苦挣扎。
他踉跄着爬起来，急得跳脚，把旅行包抡来抡去，伤心，绝望。他的双脚，突然又变回以前那样，紧紧粘住地面。他的躯体，像一袋笨重的土豆，在地上跌跌撞撞；他的心，更好似灌了铅一般，沉到了最底下。阿瑟无力地垂下头，摇着头，浑身酸痛，痛得脑袋发昏。他想跑起来，可双腿瘫软无力。他绊了一下，快要跌下去时，正好想起——包里不仅有罐希腊橄榄油，还有一瓶免税的松香葡萄酒。欣喜之下，他走神了大约十秒钟，回过神来时，已经又在飞行了。
十分钟后，他悠闲地穿过云层时，即将迎来的将是一场盛大而臭名昭著的鸡尾酒派对。