經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第17章5
‘Yes…’
“對……”
‘Now what do you see?’
“現在你看見了什麼？”
Just on the very edge of visibility a thin faint beam fanned out of the bird’s eyes. In the dry air beneath the overhang there was nothing to see. Where the beam hit the drops of rain as they fell through it, there was a flat sheet of light, so bright and vivid it seemed solid.
指南鳥的眼睛散發出一團微弱稀薄的光線，蘭登只剛好能看出它的存在。在有岩石遮擋的地方，空氣乾燥，看起來彷彿並沒有什麼。然後光線延伸出去，被下落的雨點穿透，在那裏出現了一片扁平的光，又明亮又鮮豔，彷彿是固體一樣。
‘Oh great. A laser show,’ said Random fractiously. ‘Never seen one of those before, of course, except at about five million rock concerts.’
“哦，棒極了。激光表演。”蘭登粗暴的說，“這輩子還從沒見過，當然了，只除了在大約五百萬個搖滾演唱會上。”
‘Tell me what you see!’
“告訴我你看見了什麼！”
‘Just a flat sheet! Stupid bird.’
“只不過是一片扁平的光！傻鳥。”
‘There’s nothing there that wasn’t there before. I’m just using light to draw your attention to certain drops at certain moments. Now what do you see?’
“那裏並沒有增加任何之前沒有的東西。我只是用光線把你的注意力吸引到幾滴雨點之上，現在你能看見什麼？”
The light shut off.
光滅了。
‘Nothing.’
“什麼也沒有。”
‘I’m doing exactly the same thing, but with ultra-violet light. You can’t see it.’
“我所做的和剛纔完全相同，只不過這次用的是紫外光。你看不見它。”
‘So what’s the point of showing me something I can’t see?’
“那麼讓我看些我看不見的東西到底是什麼意思？”
‘So that you understand that just because you see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s there. And if you don’t see something it doesn’t mean to say it’s not there, it’s only what your senses bring to your attention.’
“意思是要你明白，你看見了某些東西並不意味着它就真的存在；而即使你沒看見某些東西，那也並不說明它就不存在；問題只在於你的感官讓你注意到什麼。”
‘I’m bored with this,’ said Random, and then gasped.
“無聊。”蘭登說，然後她倒抽了一口涼氣。
Hanging in the rain was a giant and very vivid three-dimensional image of her father looking startled about something.
雨裏有一幅巨大鮮活的三維圖像，那上頭，她父親似乎被什麼東西驚呆了。
About two miles away behind Random, her father, struggling his way through the woods suddenly stopped. He was startled to see an image of himself looking startled about something hanging brightly in the rain-filled air about two miles away. About two miles away some distance to the right of the direction in which he was heading.
蘭登身後大約兩裏遠的地方，她父親本來正在林中掙扎前進，現在突然愣在了原地。讓他呆若木雞的是一幅圖像，那上頭他自己正呆呆地望着兩裏外雨幕裏的什麼東西。大約兩裏，從他現在的方向稍稍往右一點。
