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At first he tried to sit and read. But the literature of Bartledan, famed though it was throughout this sector of the Galaxy for its subtlety and grace, didn’t seem to be able to sustain his interest. The problem was that it wasn’t actually about human beings after all. It wasn’t about what human beings wanted. The people of Bartledan were remarkably like human beings to look at, but when you said ‘Good evening’ to one, he would tend to look around with a slight sense of surprise, sniff the air and say that, yes, he supposed that it probably was a goodish evening now that Arthur came to mention it.
刚开始他试着坐下读书。不过，巴忒勒丹的文学，尽管在银河系的这一区以精细高雅著称，却似乎很难让阿瑟保持兴趣。问题在于，它跟人其实扯不上什么关系。它写的不是人的需要。巴忒勒丹人，如果光看外表倒是跟地球人蛮像的，可当你对他说“晚上好”的时候，他会有点惊讶地四处看看，再嗅嗅空气，然后说，是的，经阿瑟这么一提他才注意到，这似乎的确是个挺好的晚上。
‘No, what I meant was to wish you a good evening,’ Arthur would say, or rather, used to say. He soon learned to avoid these conversations. ‘I mean that I hope you have a good evening,’ he would add.
“不，我是想祝你晚上过得好。”阿瑟会这么说——或者，更准确的讲，他曾经这么说，不过很快他就学会了避免此类谈话。“我是说我希望你今晚过得好。”他会加上一句。
More puzzlement.
更严重的迷茫。
‘Wish?’ the Bartledanian would say at last, in polite bafflement.
“希望？”最后，那个巴忒勒丹人会带着礼貌的困惑这么问。
‘Er, yes,’ Arthur would then have said. ‘I’m just expressing the hope that…’
“呃，是的。”然后阿瑟就会说，“我只是在表达一种愿望。”
‘Hope?’
“愿望？”
‘Yes.’
“是的。”
‘What is hope?’
“愿望是什么？”
Good question, thought Arthur to himself, and retreated back to his room to think about things.
好问题，阿瑟暗想，然后就退回自己房间里琢磨去了。
On the one hand he could only recognise and respect what he learnt about the Bartledanian view of the universe, which was that the universe was what the universe was, take it or leave it. On the other hand he could not help but feel that not to desire anything, not ever to wish or to hope, was just not natural.
他了解了巴忒勒丹人的宇宙观：宇宙就是宇宙，你要就要不要就不要拉倒。一方面他不得不承认并且尊重这种观念，但另一方面他又忍不住觉得，从来不渴望得到什么东西，永远没有任何希望或者愿望，这实在太不自然了。
Natural. There was a tricky word.
自然。这可是个不大好对付的字眼。
