经典科幻文学:《生命 宇宙及一切》第9章1

Chapter 9
Another world, another day, another dawn.
The early morning’s thinnest sliver of light appeared silently.
Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp.
There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath.
The moment passed as it regularly did on Squornshellous Zeta, without incident.
The mist clung to the surface of the marshes. The swamp trees were grey with it, the tall reeds indistinct. It hung motionless like held breath.
Nothing moved.
There was silence.
The sun struggled feebly with the mist, tried to impart a little warmth here, shed a little light there, but clearly today was going to be just another long haul across the sky.
Nothing moved.
Again, silence.
Nothing moved.
Silence.
Very often on Squornshellous Zeta, whole days would go on like this, and this was indeed going to be one of them.
Fourteen hours later the sun sank hopelessly beneath the opposite horizon with a sense of totally wasted effort.
And a few hours later it reappeared, squared its shoulders and started on up the sky again.
This time, however, something was happening. A mattress had just met a robot.
Hello, robot, said the mattress.
Bleah, said the robot and continued what it was doing, which was walking round very slowly in a very tiny circle.
Happy? said the mattress.
The robot stopped and looked at the mattress. It looked at it quizzically. It was clearly a very stupid mattress. It looked back at him with wide eyes.
After what it had calculated to ten significant decimal places as being the precise length of pause most likely to convey a general contempt for all things mattressy, the robot continued to walk round in tight circles.
We could have a conversation, said the mattress, would you like that?
It was a large mattress, and probably one of quite high quality. Very few things actually get manufactured these days, because in an infinitely large Universe such as, for instance, the one in which we live, most things one could possibly imagine, and a lot of things one would rather not, grow somewhere. A forest was discovered recently in which most of the trees grew ratchet screwdrivers as fruit. The life cycle of ratchet screwdriver fruit it quite interesting. Once picked it needs a dark dusty drawer in which it can lie undisturbed for years. Then one night it suddenly hatches, discards its outer skin which crumbles into dust, and emerges as a totally unidentifiable little metal object with flanges at both ends and a sort of ridge and a sort of hole for a screw. This, when found, will get thrown away. No one knows what it is supposed to gain from this. Nature, in her infinite wisdom, is presumably working on it.
No one really knows what mattresses are meant to gain from their lives either. They are large, friendly, pocket-sprung creatures which live quiet private lives in the marshes of Squornshellous Zeta. Many of them get caught, slaughtered, dried out, shipped out and slept on. None of them seem to mind and all of them are called Zem.
No, said Marvin.

第九章
另一个世界，另一个日子，另一个黎明。
清晨第一缕曙光静静投向大地。
多达几兆几亿吨的超高温爆炸态氢核，从地平线上冉冉升起，看着却像很小、很凉、很潮湿的样子。
这一刻，是流光溢彩的清晨，仿佛奇迹也可能发生。一切造物都屏息凝神。
和往常一样，斯科谢勒斯Ζ星上的清晨就这样过去了，没有任何意外。
雾气在沼泽上方萦绕不散。湿地树木在雾里显得灰蒙蒙的，高高的芦苇模糊不清，他们无言地矗立在那儿，仿佛在屏息凝神。
一切静止。
惟有沉寂。
太阳从浓雾中吃力地爬了上来，努力想要传递一些热量下去，散布一点光明。可惜，今天显然也只能在天上闲逛一圈罢了。
一切静止。
依然，沉寂。
一切静止。
沉寂。
斯科谢勒斯Ζ星上，日子通常都是这样过去的。今天也会是其中之一。
十四个小时之后，太阳绝望地沉到另一侧地平线之下，它知道，今天又全白费了。
几个小时之后它再次出现，挺直了肩膀，开始它新一天的空中之行。
然而这一次，有情况了。一张床垫遇上了一个机器人。
“你好，机器人。”床垫说。
“嗷。”机器人说，一边继续做它正在做的事——极其缓慢地转着极小的圈圈。
“你快乐吗？”床垫说。
机器人停下来，看着这张床垫，带着嘲弄似的目光。显然这是张愚蠢的床垫。它正一脸天真地看着机器人。
等了足够长的时间之后（这个时间是机器人所算好的、刚好能让一切床垫类事物感到被藐视的时间，精确到小数点后十位），机器人又开始绕它的小圈。
“我们也许能说说话，”床垫说，“你觉得怎么样？”
这是张很大的床垫，可能是个高档品。这年头，已经很少有人真正去制造什么东西了。在一个无限大的宇宙里（比如，我们生活的这个），不论是你能想象的东西，还是你不能想象的东西，都能在某个地方自己长出来。近来就有人发现了一座森林，里面的树上都结着棘轮螺丝刀果实。棘轮螺丝刀果实的一生非常有趣。当被摘下来以后，它需要一个黑洞洞、灰扑扑的抽屉来装自己，一装就是好几年。然后，某一天晚上，它会突然孵化，褪掉自己那快碎成渣的表皮，变成一个完全认不出来的金属物品，两头都有突起，身上有棱，还有为螺丝准备的凹槽。到达这个形态的棘轮螺丝刀果实，一旦被发现，就会马上被扔掉。没人知道这一切有什么意义。大自然，大概正以她无穷的智慧，考虑着这个问题吧。
同样，没人知道床垫的一生究竟有什么意义。他们是宽大、友好、有弹簧袋的生物，在斯科谢勒斯Ζ星的沼泽地里过着隐居生活。它们中很多会遭到捕捉、屠宰、风干、运走，最后被人躺在上面。然而他们似乎都不在意。并且，它们的名字都叫赞姆。
“不。”马文说。