震惊！疑被外星人绑架第一人，有迹可循 | 经济学人讣告

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2023-03-04 03:03

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Robert Taylor

罗伯特·泰勒

英文部分选自经济学人2070329讣告

Robert Taylor

罗伯特·泰勒

Robert Taylor, a possible victim of alien abduction, died on March 14th, aged 88

罗伯特·泰勒，疑为外星人绑架的受害者，于三月十四日逝世，享年88岁

WHAT was it about Bob Taylor? He was an unassuming man, steady, phlegmatic, with a thick brush of white hair and a craggy outdoorsman's face. He liked a pint, and a dram too, but not when he was working. He smoked, but not too many. In his house at the edge of Dechmont Woods near Livingston in West Lothian, where he had worked all his life as a forester, there were very few books. And certainly there was none that could explain what happened to him on November 9th 1979, and why his trousers, of thick navy serge like a policeman's and with useful pockets in the sides, should have ended up in the archives of the British UFO Research Association.

罗伯特·泰勒是个什么样的人？他为人谦逊、踏实冷静，有着一头浓密粗齐的银发，因常年在户外劳作，一张脸生得粗犷分明。不工作的时候，他喜欢喝上几口，有时轻酌少许威士忌，有时能豪饮一品脱的啤酒。他也抽烟，但是抽得不多。他在德切芒特森林（靠近西洛锡安的利文斯顿）当了一辈子的护林员，并把房子安设在林地边上。家里藏书很少，当然更没有一本书能解释1979年11月9日发生在他身上的事，以及为何他那条警察制服般、左右缝有实用侧袋的海军蓝哔叽料厚裤子——最终陈列在了英国不明飞行物研究协会的档案馆里。

Mr Taylor set off that morning, with his red setter Lara, to check the woods on Dechmont Law for stray sheep and cattle. It was a damp day and, after he had parked the van and set off down the forest track, even the noise of the Edinburgh-Glasgow motorway was muffled by thick, dark fir trees. The dog ran, and Mr Taylor's trudging wellingtons made the only sound. Then he turned a corner into a clearing filled with light, and saw it.

那天早上，泰勒带着自己的红色猎犬莱拉进入德切芒特山的森林去寻找走丢的羊群和牛群。那天天气潮湿，他停好面包车后，便动身沿着林中小路渐行渐深，周遭浓密阴森的冷杉树盖住了爱丁堡·格拉斯哥高速路上的喧嚣。猎犬跑在前头，而泰勒步履沉重地前行，周围只有他的长靴发出的声音。然后他转过一个弯，进入了一片光线明亮的空地，随即看到了它。

It was a “flying dome”, 20 feet wide, hovering above the grass. No sound came from the object, and it did not move. It seemed to be made of grey metal, shiny but rough, like emery paper. About half-way down it had a circular platform, like the brim of a hat, set with small propellers. There were darker areas on it that might have been portholes, but the strangest thing was that the dome would be solid one moment, transparent the next, so that Mr Taylor could see the fir trees through it, as if it was trying to camouflage itself.

那是一个“飞行着的穹顶”，宽20英尺（约6米）。它就这样悬停在草地上方，没有声音，也没有位移。它看上去像是由某种灰色的金属做成的，光泽中带着粗糙，像砂纸一般。它离地大概一半处有一个圆形的平台，像是帽檐，上面装有小螺旋桨。平台上有一些较暗的区域，可能是舷窗。最奇怪的是，这个“穹顶”时而实心，时而透明，因此泰勒可以透过它看到后面的冷杉树——它似乎在努力伪装自己。

Both he and the dog stood stock-still with surprise. But then, suddenly, two smaller spheres dropped out of the dome and came trundling across the grass, one to his right, one to his left. They were covered in long spikes, like navy mines, that made a ghastly sucking sound as they dug in and out of the mud. They grabbed his trousers, one on the right leg, one on the left, ripping right through to his winter long johns, and giving off a foul choking smell like burning brakes. Mr Taylor felt himself being pulled towards the craft; then he blacked out. When he came to, the visitors had gone.

他和狗都惊讶地站在原地一动也不动。但突然，两个小球从穹顶里掉了出来，在草地上缓慢移动，一个到他右边，一个到他左边。它们布满了长长的尖刺，像海军的水雷一样，在泥里戳进戳出时发出令人毛骨悚然的吞吸声。它们抓住他的裤腿儿，一个抓住他的右腿，一个抓住他的左腿，直接撕开了他的冬季秋裤，期间散发出一股刹车烧焦般呛人的恶臭。泰勒觉得自己正被拽向飞行物，然后他就昏过去了。等他苏醒过来，这些不速之客已经难觅踪影了。

So far, so impressive a story to explain a dishevelled homecoming on a Saturday night. But it was in mid-week and at midday that Mr Taylor crawled home, with the dog but without the van, with a graze on his chin and his trousers torn, covered in mud and with a thumping headache. His wife called a doctor and the police. Mr Taylor felt no need for the doctor, and after two days of a wild, craving thirst and the weird brake smell, he felt fine. But he took the police to the scene.

至此，要是说一个男人在周六晚上衣衫不整地回家，这样一个令人印象深刻的故事足以成为理由。但泰勒先生是在周中的中午匍匐着回家的，狗还在身边，但车落下了，下巴擦伤，裤子被撕裂，浑身是泥，而且头痛得厉害。他的妻子找来了医生和警察。泰勒觉得不需要看医生，而后两天极度口渴，还一直能闻到奇怪的刹车气味，不过之后他感觉身体没事了。但他带警察去了现场。

And there was the evidence. A large circle and inner “ladder” marks, which had flattened the grass but not dented the ground, as if a heavy craft had hovered but not landed. Forty little round holes, leaving the circle clockwise and anticlockwise, as if spiky “mines” had indeed rolled out of it. But no track entering or leaving the clearing, making the machine's arrival impossible unless it was a helicopter or something dropped by a mobile crane; and nothing of that sort had been seen in the area that day or the day before.

现场证据就在眼前。地上留有一个大圆圈和圈里“梯子”的痕迹，草被压平，但地面没有凹陷，就像一个沉重的飞行物在空中悬停，但没有着陆。另外有四十个小圆洞顺时针和逆时针地分布在圆圈外围，仿佛长满尖刺的“水雷”的确从飞行物里面滚了出来。但是周围没有任何机器进出空地的痕迹，所以说它不可能到访过森林，除非它是一架直升机或由移动式起重机投下的东西；而在那天或前一天，在该地区都没有发现任何类似的物体。

Lights over Livingston

利文斯顿上空的光线

The detective sergeant in charge of the case did not believe in space visitors. Mr Taylor's boss at the Forestry Department did not believe either, and thought it was probably some secret device being tested by the government. UFO debunkers thought Mr Taylor might have seen a magnified image of Venus distorted by the earth's atmosphere, which had made him fall down in an epileptic fit. The press came; and by the time the story reached Edinburgh, it was “small furry creatures” that had poured from the spacecraft to attack him. “I know what I saw,” said Mr Taylor. So doughtily and drily did he stick to his tale (and kept a camera with him ever after, to take the aliens' pictures if they ever came for him again) that the police opened a criminal investigation for assault, the only one in Britain to arise from a UFO “sighting”. It remains open.

负责调查此案的警长不相信天外来客这回事，泰勒在林业部的上级也不相信，他认为大概率是政府在测试某种秘密设备。UFO打假人认为，可能是金星被地球大气层扭曲而放大的映像让泰勒癫痫发作、瘫倒在地。各路媒体闻声而来，等到爱丁堡的媒体报道时，故事已经变成：“一群毛茸茸的小东西”涌出飞船，袭击了泰勒。“我知道我看见了什么。”泰勒说。他无比坚定地捍卫自己的故事，并从那之后随身携带相机，如果外星人再次找上门来，他会准备随时拍下照片。因而，警方定此为袭击案并展开刑事调查。这是英国警方调查过的唯一一起UFO目击案件，目前仍未结案。

Mr Taylor's neighbours proving much more sceptical, he eventually moved away to an undisclosed address. But he also became the most famous “witness” to aliens in Britain. His trousers were taken to spiritualist meetings to be analysed by psychics (“I feel pain from these trousers”), and on anniversaries of the sighting UFO-spotters would gather in the clearing, just on the off-chance.

泰勒的邻居们更是不买账，后来，他干脆搬了家，没人知道他住哪。但同时，他也成了英国最有名的外星人“目击证人”。在一个灵修集会上，灵媒在他那条裤子上一通分析，说“我能从裤子上感受到痛苦”。而每年恰逢目击事件纪念日，UFO爱好者会在那片空地集合，碰一碰运气。

The aliens, meanwhile, did not give up. Since that November day they have filled the skies of West Lothian with glimmering discs, strange lights and bouncing balls of fire. The “Falkirk Triangle” now registers more UFO sightings, around 300 a year, than any other spot on Earth. A good many happen outside the Forge restaurant in Bonnybridge, where fireballs sail over the trees and “wingless planes” are seen in the fields. Some experts say West Lothian may be a “thin place”, offering a window from the Earth into another dimension; others say the sightings are linked to the lack of jobs locally, and cheap liquor. But some know the aliens are just looking for Bob Taylor, or his dog, or his van, in the place where they last saw him, suddenly amazing them in a clearing among the trees.

另一边，外星人并没有就此消失。11月9日之后，西洛锡安的天空便经常出现圆盘状的光环、怪异的光线和跃动的火球。如今，“福尔柯克三角区”成了全球UFO目击事件数量最多的地方，每年大约300起。其中很多起都发生在邦尼布利茨镇的福奇餐厅外，有人看到火球越过树丛，田地里出现“无翼飞机”。有些专家认为，西洛锡安这个地方比较“薄弱”，就像一扇从地球轻易通往另一个维度的窗口；还有人说，出现这么多目击事件，是因为当地就业率和酒价都低。但是也有人相信，这些外星人还在之前的树林空地里寻找罗伯特·泰勒，或者在找他的狗和面包车，等着哪天再次来访，泰勒就会把它们吓一跳。

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观点|评论|思考

本次感想

Qianna，对语言有点敏感，对逻辑十分执拗，对摇滚太过着迷

我最近被人架着“见”了回外星人。事情是这样的：我在一个国际聊天室跟小伙伴们玩故事接龙，欢声笑语间，我非常幸(ke)运(lian)地被编排进了故事里；起初剧情还很惬意，把我搁这儿溜达放那儿转悠的；直到一姑娘安排我午睡，接着一哥们安排我做梦，还让我在梦里遇到了外星人。

然后编排轮到我了。要怎么编呢？就还挺突然的，我从未设想过自己遇到外星人的场景。不过在夜深人静、塞上耳机听歌时（这种情境最容易让人思考“人类的孤独”了），我倒是郑重地想象过这些遥远的生命。比如听着天文色彩浓厚的Astronomy Domine，我会好奇歌者Barrett这么特立独行的人，是否是想在外太空里找寻知音？看着Unknown Pleasures专封上心电图般的脉冲星波形图，我会疑惑这遥远的脉冲星是否也承载着鲜活生命的脉搏？还有几年前跟着特斯拉搭乘飞船的Space Oddity，它有没有如愿找到地球以外的听众呢？孤独的艺术家、求索的科学家、勇猛往前的技术极客，引领了我们对异球人的向往。

但当黑夜散去、现实袭来，我的思考又变成：此球人跟彼球人，就一定能相处得好吗？异球人，不过也就是异国人或异族人换了个字而已。地球人自己异国异族的相处都谈不上和谐：离我们不远，被称作“帝国坟场”的阿国，命途多舛，见证兴衰；再隔不远，被三族围攻的库族，饱经沧桑，悲情无奈；再隔不远，战争还在打，人类多方，各怀鬼胎。地球人相处都已经这么复杂了，再把外面星球的住客加进来，人跟人的利益纷争想必是会更可怕。

所以，实在不想看人扯皮的我，果断把外星人剧情淡化了。

最后透露一下，那个让我见外星人的哥们，让我见的是——灭霸。啊这，剧情必须得转啊。星际相遇的美好，还是让它留着、留在深夜的想象里吧。

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