经典科幻文学:《生命 宇宙及一切》第9章3

Voon, said the mattress.
I expect so, said Marvin, and I also expect that you find the idea of a robot with an artificial leg pretty amusing. You should tell your friends Zem and Zem when you see them later; they’ll laugh, if I know them, which I don’t of course except insofar as I know all organic life forms, which is much better than I would wish to. Ha, but my life is but a box of wormgears.
He stomped around again in his tiny circle, around his thin steel peg-leg which revolved in the mud but seemed otherwise stuck.
But why do you just keep walking round and round? said the mattress.
Just to make the point, said Marvin, and continued, round and round.
Consider it made, my dear friend, flurbled the mattress, consider it made.
Just another million years, said Marvin, just another quick million. Then I might try it backwards. Just for the variety, you understand.
The mattress could feel deep in his innermost spring pockets that the robot dearly wished to be asked how long he had been trudging in this futile and fruitless manner, and with another quiet flurble he did so.
Oh, just over the one-point-five-million mark, just over, said Marvin airily. Ask me if I ever get bored, go on, ask me.
The mattress did.
Marvin ignored the question, he merely trudged with added emphasis.
I gave a speech once, he said suddenly, and apparently unconnectedly. You may not instantly see why I bring the subject up, but that is because my mind works so phenomenally fast, and I am at a rough estimate thirty billion times more intelligent than you. Let me give you an example. Think of a number, any number.
Er, five, said the mattress.
Wrong, said Marvin. You see?
The mattress was much impressed by this and realized that it was in the presence of a not unremarkable mind. It willomied along its entire length, sending excited little ripples through its shallow algae-covered pool.
It gupped.

“浯呢。”床垫说。
“我就知道。”马文说，“我还知道你会觉得一个装着假腿的机器人很可乐。下次和你的朋友赞姆和赞姆见面时，你应该也告诉他们。他们会大笑的——如果我认识他们的话，当然我不认识。就我迄今认识的所有有机生命体而言，大笑的反应算是相当好了。哈，我的生活不过是一盒蜗轮而已。”
他再次咚咚地转着小圆圈，以他那细小的钢铁假腿为圆心——看起来像在转圈，实际上是卡住了。
“可是你为什么老是转啊转呢？”床垫说。
“强调一下重点罢了。”马文说着，继续转啊转。
“就当它已经强调了吧，我亲爱的朋友，”床垫沽动道，“就当它已经强调了。”
“不过是另一个一百万年而已。”马文说，“一晃又是一百万年。那时我会换个方向。制造一下多样性。你懂吧。”
床垫从它的弹簧袋深处强烈地感觉到，这个机器人是多么希望有人问他、他忙于这种毫无意义的动作有多久了。床垫轻轻地沽动着问了。
“噢，刚好一点五个百万年，刚刚好。”马文轻松地说，“如果我无聊了就问我问题。继续。问吧。”
床垫照做了。
马文没理它。马文继续踏步，以便着重强调重点。
“我做过一次演讲。”他突然开口道，前言不搭后语。“你很快就会明白我为什么说起这个。那是因为我的脑子运行过于迅速了。粗略算来，我至少比你聪明三百亿倍。举个例子吧。想个数字，随便哪个。”
“嗯，五。”床垫说。
“错。”马文说，“明白了？”
床垫被深深地震撼了。它意识到，自己面前这位绝非寻常人等。它沩拉起整个身躯，使它所在的布满水藻的小池荡起兴奋的涟漪。
它沆奋了。