經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》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
這間地窖非常大，天花板低矮，光線暗淡。在它的遠端大約二百碼處有一條拱道，通向另個似乎同樣的房問，那裏面同樣堆滿東西。
向下進入這間地窖後，福特長官低低吹了聲口哨。
“這太瘋狂了，”他說。
”這都是些什麼死人？搞得這麼壯觀。”阿瑟問，緊張地跟在他後面進入地窖。
“不知道，”福特說，“我們來弄清楚，行嗎？”
走近觀察，這些棺材似乎更像石棺。大約齊腰高，看上去是川白色大理石製成的，肯定是這樣——這東西看去只像一樣東西－－那就是白色大理石。頂部是半透明的，模糊地看到裏面，估計正被人懷念的死者的－－他們具有人的特徵，顯然已經把他所來自的無論哪個世界的煩惱遠遠地拋在了腦後。除此以外，瞧不出其他情況，
石棺之間繞着地面緩緩涌動着一種沉重、近乎油狀的氣體－－開始，阿瑟以爲這不過是爲了給這個地方營造一種陰森的氣氛，可後來他發覺自己的踝關節被這種氣體凍僵了。石棺本身摸上去也寒冷異常。
福特突然在他們身邊的一具石棺蹲下，從自己的小揹包裏扯出他那條毛巾的一個角，開始猛烈地擦拭什麼東西。
“瞧，這具棺材上有一塊銘牌，”他向阿瑟解釋說，“被霜矇住了。”
他把霜擦乾淨，開始辨認刻在上面的文字對阿瑟來說，這些文字簡直像一隻蜘蛛在夜晚出沒後留下的腳印，但福特堅持不懈地辨認着這種銀河系的早期書寫形式。
“上面寫着‘高爾伽弗林查姆方舟艦隊，B飛船，7號貨艙，二等電話消毒員’——然後是一組數字。”
“一個給電話消毒的人？”阿瑟說，“一個死了的電話消毒員。”
“死了的電話消毒員纔是最好的電話消毒員！”