经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第20章5

"I think they're just strange symbols of some kind," said Zaphod, hardly glancing back.
Trillian shrugged and hurried after him.
From time to time a doorway led either to the left or right into smallish chambers which Ford discovered to be full of derelict computer equipment. He dragged Zaphod into one to have a look. Trillian followed.
"Look," said Ford, "you reckon this is Magrathea ..."
"Yeah," said Zaphod, "and we heard the voice, right?"
"OK, so I've bought the fact that it's Magrathea — for the moment. What you have so far said nothing about is how in the Galaxy you found it. You didn't just look it up in a star atlas, that's for sure."
"Research. Government archives. Detective work. Few lucky guesses. Easy."
"And then you stole the Heart of Gold to come and look for it with?"
"I stole it to look for a lot of things."
"A lot of things?" said Ford in surprise. "Like what?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"I don't know what I'm looking for."
"Why not?"
"Because ... because ... I think it might be because if I knew I wouldn't be able to look for them."
"What, are you crazy?"
"It's a possibility I haven't ruled out yet," said Zaphod quietly. "I only know as much about myself as my mind can work out under its current conditions. And its current conditions are not good."
For a long time nobody said anything as Ford gazed at Zaphod with a mind suddenly full of worry.
"Listen old friend, if you want to ..." started Ford eventually.

“我想它们只是某种奇怪的符号。”赞福德说，甚至没有回过头来看一眼。
崔莉恩耸了耸肩，快步跟上他。
通道左右两侧不时会出现一些通往小房间的门，福特发现里面满是被遗弃的电脑设备。他把赞福德拖进其中一间，想仔细看一看。崔莉恩跟在后面。
“你瞧，”福特说，“你推测这里就是曼格拉斯……”
“是啊，”赞福德说，“那个录音我们不都听到了吗？”
“是的，所以我才接受了这个推断——只是在当时。可你几乎从没说过你在偌大一个银河系中是如何找到它的。不会仅仅依靠星际地图吧，这是肯定的。”
“研究、政府档案、侦察工作，再加上一点儿碰巧的猜测。其实很简单。”
“然后你就偷了黄金之心号来找？”
“我偷它是为了寻找许多东西。”
“许多东西？”福特吃惊地说，“比如什么？”
“我也不知道。”
“什么？”
“我也不知道我在寻找些什么。”
“怎么会不知道呢？”
“因为……因为……我想，如果知道的话，我就用不着去寻找了。”
“什么，你疯了吗？”
“这倒真是我还没有排除的一种可能。”赞福德平静地说，“我对自己的了解只能局限于我自己的脑子在当前情况下的实际工作状况，我想它当前的情况并不太好。”
很长一段时间都没有人开口，福特则盯着赞福德，心里突然间充满忧虑。
“听着，老朋友，如果你想……”最后还是福特打破了沉默。