经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第20章1

Five figures wandered slowly over the blighted land. Bits of it were dullish grey, bits of it dullish brown, the rest of it rather less interesting to look at. It was like a dried-out marsh, now barren of all vegetation and covered with a layer of dust about an inch thick. It was very cold.
Zaphod was clearly rather depressed about it. He stalked off by himself and was soon lost to sight behind a slight rise in the ground.
The wind stung Arthur's eyes and ears, and the stale thin air clasped his throat. However, the thing stung most was his mind.
"It's fantastic ..." he said, and his own voice rattled his ears. Sound carried badly in this thin atmosphere.
"Desolate hole if you ask me," said Ford. "I could have more fun in a cat litter." He felt a mounting irritation. Of all the planets in all the star systems of all the Galaxy — didn't he just have to turn up at a dump like this after fifteen years of being a castaway? Not even a hot dog stand in evidence. He stooped down and picked up a cold clot of earth, but there was nothing underneath it worth crossing thousands of light years to look at.
"No," insisted Arthur, "don't you understand, this is the first time I've actually stood on the surface of another planet ... a whole alien world ...! Pity it's such a dump though."
Trillian hugged herself, shivered and frowned. She could have sworn she saw a slight and unexpected movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she glanced in that direction all she could see was the ship, still and silent, a hundred yards or so behind them.
She was relieved when a second or so later they caught sight of Zaphod standing on top of the ridge of ground and waving to them to come and join him.
He seemed to be excited, but they couldn't clearly hear what he was saying because of the thinnish atmosphere and the wind.

一行五人缓慢地走在荒芜的土地上。这一小片是单调的灰色，那一小片是单调的褐色，余下的则根本没法让人提起兴趣多看一眼。整片土地就像一块干涸的沼泽，寸草不生，上面覆盖着足有一英寸厚的灰。气温很低。
赞福德显然对这样的景象感到很沮丧。他脱离了队伍，独自一人大步朝前走去，很快便消失在一个凸起的土丘背后。
迎面吹来的风刺痛了阿瑟的眼睛和耳朵，带着腐臭味的稀薄空气箍紧了他的喉咙。然而，受刺激最深的却是他的精神。
“真是不可思议……”他说，声音传进自己的耳朵，他自己都觉得有点儿别扭。空气太稀薄，声音传播效果很差。
“叫我说，真是个荒凉的洞窟。”福特说，“猫屎也比这儿有趣得多。”他满腹怨气。在整个银河系的所有的星系里的所有的行星中间——许多都狂野而奇异，沸腾着生命的喧嚣——难道他只能待在这样一个地方，而且还是在刚刚结束了15年被抛弃的生活之后？这里甚至连个热狗都没有！他弯下腰，翻开一块冰冷的泥土，但是下面却没有任何值得跨越几千光年的遥远路程来看一眼的东西。
“不对，”阿瑟坚持说，“你不明白。这毕竟是我第一次站在另一颗行星的表面上……另一个完全陌生的世界……虽然这里状况太糟糕了，让人有点儿遗憾。”
崔莉恩缩紧身子，颤抖着，皱起眉头。她可以发誓，自己的眼角瞟见了什么东西在移动。但当她朝那个方向望去时，看见的却只有静静停在那儿的飞船，离他们大约100码。
几秒钟后，她才稍微安心了一点儿。因为赞福德站在土丘的顶端向他们招手，要他们过去。
他看上去很兴奋，但由于这里稀薄的空气和呼啸的风，听不清楚他在喊些什么。