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| Chapter 23 | 23. |
| It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons. | Bitna je i nadaleko poznata činjenica da stvari nisu onakve kakvima se čine na prvi pogled. Na primer, na planeti Zemlji, ljudi su uvek verovali da su mnogo pametniji od delfina, jer su stvorili toliko stvari - točak, Njujork, ratove i tako dalje - dok su se delfini samo muvali po vodi i zezali se. Ali, nasuprot tome, delfini su uvek verovali da su daleko pametniji od čoveka - iz potpuno istih razloga. |
| Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending destruction of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger; but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means shortly before the Vogons arrived. | Zanimljivo je da su delfini odavno znali za uništenje koje je pretilo planeti Zemlji i da su mnogo puta pokušavali da upozore čovečanstvo na opasnost; ali njihovi pokušaji uspostavljanja kontakta uglavnom su tumačeni kao zabavni pokušaji šutiranja fudbalskih lopti ili zviždukanja da bi dobili malo hrane i zbog toga su oni najzad odustali i napustili Zemlju na sopstveni način pre nego što su stigli Vogoni. |
| The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backward somersault through a hoop while whistling the “Star-Spangled Banner,” but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish. | Poslednja poruka koja je ikada stigla od delfina pogrešno je protumačena kao iznenađujuće spretan pokušaj izvođenja dvostrukog salta unazad kroz obruč uz istovremeno zviždanje pesmice 'Zvezde gledaju na nas', ali, zapravo, poruka je glasila: Do viđenja i hvala na svim ribama. |
| In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioral research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans. | U stvari, na planeti je postojala samo jedna vrsta pametnija od delfina, a njeni pripadnici provodili su mnogo vremena po istraživačkim laboratorijama, u kojima su trčali unutar točkova i izvodili zastrašujuće elegantne i prefinjene opite na čoveku. Činjenica da su ljudi potpuno pogrešno tumačili taj odnos sasvim je odgovarala planovima tih stvorenja. |