经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第23章1

Chapter 23
The vault was low ceilinged, dimly lit and gigantic. At the far end, about three hundred yards away an archway let through to what appeared to be a similar chamber, similarly occupied.
Ford Prefect let out a low whistle as he stepped down on to the floor of the vault.
“Wild,” he said.
“What’s so great about dead people?” asked Arthur, nervously stepping down after him.
“Dunno,” said Ford, “Let’s find out shall we?”
On closer inspection the coffins seemed to be more like sarcophagi. They stood about waist high and were constructed of what appeared to be white marble, which is almost certainly what it was – something that only appeared to be white marble. The tops were semi-translucent, and through them could dimly be perceived the features of their late and presumably lamented occupants. They were humanoid, and had clearly left the troubles of whatever world it was they came from far behind them, but beyond that little else could be discerned.
Rolling slowly round the floor between the sarcophagi was a heavy, oily white gas which Arthur at first thought might be there to give the place a little atmosphere until he discovered that it also froze his ankles. The sarcophagi too were intensely cold to the touch.
Ford suddenly crouched down beside one of them. He pulled a corner of his towel out of his satchel and started to rub furiously at something.
“Look, there’s a plaque on this one,” he explained to Arthur, “It’s frosted over.”
He rubbed the frost clear and examined the engraved characters. To Arthur they looked like the footprints of a spider that had had one too many of whatever it is that spiders have on a night out, but Ford instantly recognized an early form of Galactic Eezeereed.
“It says ‘Golgafrincham Ark Fleet, Ship B, Hold Seven, Telephone Sanitizer Second Class’ – and a serial number.”
“A telephone sanitizer?” said Arthur, “a dead telephone sanitizer?”
“Best kind.”

第二十三章
这间地窖非常大，天花板低矮，光线暗淡。在它的远端大约二百码处有一条拱道，通向另个似乎同样的房问，那里面同样堆满东西。
向下进入这间地窖后，福特长官低低吹了声口哨。
“这太疯狂了，”他说。
”这都是些什么死人？搞得这么壮观。”阿瑟问，紧张地跟在他后面进入地窖。
“不知道，”福特说，“我们来弄清楚，行吗？”
走近观察，这些棺材似乎更像石棺。大约齐腰高，看上去是川白色大理石制成的，肯定是这样——这东西看去只像一样东西－－那就是白色大理石。顶部是半透明的，模糊地看到里面，估计正被人怀念的死者的－－他们具有人的特征，显然已经把他所来自的无论哪个世界的烦恼远远地抛在了脑后。除此以外，瞧不出其他情况，
石棺之间绕着地面缓缓涌动着一种沉重、近乎油状的气体－－开始，阿瑟以为这不过是为了给这个地方营造一种阴森的气氛，可后来他发觉自己的踝关节被这种气体冻僵了。石棺本身摸上去也寒冷异常。
福特突然在他们身边的一具石棺蹲下，从自己的小背包里扯出他那条毛巾的一个角，开始猛烈地擦拭什么东西。
“瞧，这具棺材上有一块铭牌，”他向阿瑟解释说，“被霜蒙住了。”
他把霜擦干净，开始辨认刻在上面的文字对阿瑟来说，这些文字简直像一只蜘蛛在夜晚出没后留下的脚印，但福特坚持不懈地辨认着这种银河系的早期书写形式。
“上面写着‘高尔伽弗林查姆方舟舰队，B飞船，7号货舱，二等电话消毒员’——然后是一组数字。”
“一个给电话消毒的人？”阿瑟说，“一个死了的电话消毒员。”
“死了的电话消毒员才是最好的电话消毒员！”