One of the extraordinary things about life is the sort of places it’s prepared to put up with living. Anywhere it can get some kind of a grip, whether it’s the intoxicating seas of Santraginus V, where the fish never seem to care whatever the heck kind of direction they swim in, the fire storms of Frastra where, they say, life begins at 40,000 degrees, or just burrowing around in the lower intestine of a rat for the sheer unadulterated hell of it, life will always find a way of hanging on in somewhere.
生命的妙处很多，其中之一就在于，它时时刻刻准备着在任何地方过活，不管那地方有多糟。比方说，在桑特拉金斯5号星毒气熏天的海里，它可以变成条没头没脑游来游去的鱼；在福拉司忒拉那据说生命从40000度开始的火焰风暴里，它也一样吃得开；甚至在耗子的小肠那种全无乐趣可言的鬼地方，它照样可以悠然自得地晃来晃去。
It will even live in New York, though it’s hard to know why. In the winter time the temperature falls well below the legal minimum, or rather it would do if anybody had the common sense to set a legal minimum. The last time anybody made a list of the top hundred character attributes of New Yorkers, common sense snuck in at number 79.
它甚至愿意待在纽约，尽管个中缘由常人实在无从揣摩。那地方，冬天温度陡降，远远低于法定最低温度——或者说，它本来准会低于法定最低温度，前提是你能找到个稍微有点常识的人来制定这么个温度。上一回有人做调查，搞了张表列举纽约人最为显著的一百个性格优点，“常识”一直等人家喊到第79号才偷偷溜了进去。
In the summer it’s too darn hot. It’s one thing to be the sort of life form that thrives on heat and finds, as the Frastrans do, that the temperature range between 40,000 and 40,004 is very equable, but it’s quite another to be the sort of animal that has to wrap itself up in lots of other animals at one point in your planet’s orbit, and then find, half an orbit later, that your skin’s bubbling.
那儿的夏天热得要命。如果你是那种越热越开心的动物，比如说像福拉司忒拉的居民那样，觉得在40000℃到40004℃之间活着最舒服，那当然是另一码事儿，可你明明不是。自己的星球转到一边的时候，你总要拿好多其他动物的皮毛把浑身裹个严严实实；而等它再转上半圈，又只能眼看着自个儿的皮肤起泡泡。你是这样的生物，竟然会愿意住到这种地方。
Spring is over-rated. A lot of the inhabitants of New York will honk on mightily about the pleasures of spring, but if they actually knew the first thing about the pleasures of spring they would know of at least five thousand nine hundred and eighty-three better places to spend it than New York, and that’s just on the same latitude.
春天同样名不副实。纽约人多半喜欢叽里呱啦地吹嘘他们的春天有多么好，可如果他们当真了解哪怕一丁点儿关于春天的好处，他们就会知道世界上还有至少五千九百八十三个地方，它们的春天全比纽约强，而且这还只是统计了同一个纬度。
Fall, though, is the worst. Few things are worse than fall in New York. Some of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats would disagree, but most of the things that live in the lower intestines of rats are highly disagreeable anyway, so their opinion can and should be discounted. When it’s fall in New York, the air smells as if someone’s been frying goats in it, and if you are keen to breathe, the best plan is to open a window and stick your head in a building.
不过呢，秋天，它绝对是最糟的。很少有什么东西能烂过纽约的秋天。住在老鼠消化道里的那些生物对此或许会有些不同意见，但对住在老鼠消化道里的东西你还能指望什么？所以它们的意见当然可以而且应该置之不理。在纽约，秋天的空气闻着就好像有人在里头油炸山羊似的；如果你非要呼吸不可，最好的办法就是打开一扇窗户，把脑袋伸进哪栋楼里——千万别直接闻外面的空气。
Tricia McMillan loved New York. She kept on telling herself this over and over again. The Upper West Side. Yeah. Mid Town. Hey, great retail. SoHo. The East Village. Clothes. Books. Sushi. Italian. Delis. Yo.
崔茜卡麦克米伦热爱纽约。她不停地这么告诉自己，说了一遍又一遍。曼哈顿西区。耶。中城。嘿，零售棒极了。休南区。东村。 衣服。书。寿司。意大利菜。熟食店。欧耶。