经典科幻文学:《 基本上无害 Mostly Harmless》 第12章14

‘Perfectly Normal Beast. It’s a bit like a cow, or rather a bull. Kind of like a buffalo in fact. Large, charging sort of animal.’

“绝对正常兽。模样有点像母牛，或者更像公牛。事实上有点像水牛。大块头，喜欢冲刺。”

‘So what’s odd about it?’

“那他有什么古怪的？”

‘Nothing, it’s Perfectly Normal.’

“什么也没有。超级正常。”

‘I see.’

“原来如此。”

‘It’s just a bit odd where it comes from.’

“只不过它的来历有点怪。”

Tricia frowned, and stopped chewing.

崔茜卡皱起眉头不嚼了。

‘Where does it come from?’ she asked with her mouth full. She wasn’t going to swallow until she knew.

“从哪儿来的？”她从塞得满满当当的嘴里挤出这几个字。水落石出之前她才不要把这东西咽下去。

‘Well it’s not just a matter of where it comes from, it’s also where it goes to. It’s all right, it’s perfectly safe to swallow. I’ve eaten tons of it. It’s great. Very succulent. Very tender. Slightly sweet flavour with a long dark finish.’

“唔，问题不只是它从哪儿来，还包括它去了哪儿。没关系的，你可以把它咽下去，非常安全。我吃过不知多少了。味道很棒，鲜嫩多汁，口感细腻，稍稍带点甜，余味浓烈悠长。”

Trillian still hadn’t swallowed.

崔莉恩还是没往肚里吞。

‘Where,’ she said, ‘does it come from, and where does it go to?’

“到底。”她问，“它是从哪儿来的，又去了哪儿？”

‘They come from a point just slightly to the east of the Hondo Mountains. They’re the big ones behind us here, you must have seen them as you came in, and then they sweep in their thousands across the great Anhondo plains and, er, well that’s it really. That’s where they come from. That’s where they go.’

“它们来自宏朵山稍微往东一点。就是咱们背后那些大家伙——你进来的时候肯定看见了，然后它们好几千好几千地冲过安宏朵平原，然后，基本上就这样了。它们就是从那儿来的，然后又去了那儿。”

Trillian frowned. There was something she wasn’t quite getting about this.

崔莉恩皱起眉头。这里头有些东西她没怎么弄明白。

‘I probably haven’t made it quite clear,’ said Arthur. ‘When I say they come from a point to the east of the Hondo Mountains, I mean that that’s where they suddenly appear. Then they sweep across the Anhondo plains and, well, vanish really. We have about six days to catch as many of them as we can before they disappear. In the spring they do it again only the other way round, you see.’

“也许我没讲太清楚。”阿瑟说，“它们来自宏朵山稍微往东一点，我的意思是它们突然就出现了。然后它们就冲过安宏朵平原，然后就，唔，消失了应该说是。在它们消失之前，我们有大概六天时间可以打猎。春天的时候它们又会出现，你瞧，只不过换个方向。”

Reluctantly, Trillian swallowed. It was either that or spit it out, and it did in fact taste pretty good.

崔莉恩犹犹豫豫地咽下三明治。问题在于，她要么咽下去要么就只好吐出来，而那味道其实真的很不错。

‘I see,’ she said, once she had reassured herself that she didn’t seem to be suffering any ill effects. ‘And why are they called Perfectly Normal Beasts?’

“明白了。”她确认自己没有任何不良反应，“那为什么还管它们叫绝对正常兽？”