TWO
第二章 飛碟的出現
一
Ilse von Jacobi, a journalist living in Munich who wrote frequently about metaphysics and the paranormal, had read about Eduard Meier in a newsletter printed and circulated by a self-study group in Munich in the summer of 1975. Interested, she contacted the young man who edited the newsletter and, through him, began to monitor developments in the Meier story as reported by witnesses. A few months later, after seeing photographs Meier had taken, she decided to interview him for publication.
伊斯．馮．雅科比（Ilse von Jacobi）是一位住在慕尼黑（Munich）的新聞工作者，經常寫一些超自然現象的文章。1975 年夏天，她在《時事通訊》及業餘研究團體間流傳的資料中，讀到愛德華．邁爾的有關資料，她非常感興趣，隨後便聯絡了《時事通訊》的主編，並透過他來監視整個邁爾故事的發展。過了幾個月，在看過邁爾所提供的照片後，她決定和邁爾見面，並打算將訪問的結果發表出來。
When von Jacobi arrived in Hinwil in December 1975, she found herself one of about eighteen people who had come to the Meier home to listen to the man speak. She stayed for two days.
1975 年 12 月，馮．雅科比到達了欣維爾鎮，此時她發現自己只是到邁爾家聽他講述經驗的十八人之一。她在欣維爾鎮停留了兩天。
"I was impressed," she recalled. "I was convinced that he had had the experiences he talked about. The facts he gave me, the pictures, the personal impression he created, there was nothing wrong. I wanted to make him known and to put his story in the papers because it was real. But something made him mad, and he told me I should not publish anything about him, so I left. But it was for his own good that he become known."
“我印象非常深刻，”她回憶說，“我確實相信他所說的經驗，他所提供的照片及個人的觀點都沒有任何瑕疵錯誤。我要讓別人瞭解他並且將他的故事發表出來，因為那些事情都是真的。但是邁爾有所顧慮，他不讓我發表任何有關他的事情，所以我就離開了。但我仍然認為發表後對他很有利，那會使他成為注目的焦點。”
Von Jacobi took her article to Quick magazine, one of the two largest slicks published weekly in Germany, with circulation in Switzerland and Austria as well. Hesitant to run such a story without verification, the magazine editors assigned a staff member to Hinwil to interview Meier. When the writer returned with substantially the same information von Jacobi had given to them, the editors set the article for publication on July 8, 1976.
馮．雅科比將她的報導拿到了《速登雜誌》（Quick magazine）發表，這本雜誌是德國兩大通俗週刊之一，在瑞士及澳洲等地也有發行。雜誌主編對這篇未經證實的故事抱持懷疑的態度，所以指定了一些記者到欣維爾鎮去採訪邁爾。這些記者所獲得的資料和馮．雅科比所提供的大致相同，於是主編將這篇文章在 1976 年 7 月 8 日刊登了出來。
The magazine circulated rapidly through the town of Hinwil, carrying a story that astonished Meier's neighbors. For nearly a year and a half, they had observed and disapproved of his constant comings and goings at all hours of the day and night, but not one had confronted Meier about his purpose or attended one of the meetings at his home. The reason he now gave for his behavior made them angry and made them laugh all at once: Meier claimed that he had been telepathically contacted by alien beings from a planet in a star cluster known as the Pleiades. Through telepathy, said the article, the Pleiadians frequently had directed Meier to remote locations near Hinwil, where they landed a seven-meter silvery beamship, disembarked, and met with him face-to-face. Most of Meier's contacts were with a female named Semjase for the Pleiadians, according to Meier, had found that females seemed to be far less intimidating to earth humans. Meier met with her often, and she allowed him to photograph her beamship as it approached for landing and again, as it ascended.
這份雜誌很快就流傳到欣維爾鎮，有關邁爾的報導使鄰居驚訝不已。近一年半以來，他們觀察到他日夜不停地來來去去，他們對他這種行為都很不以為然，也沒有人願意面對邁爾跟他談談他的想法或參加在他家召開的任何一次討論會。他對於自己這些行為所提出的理由有時會令人生氣，有時也會令人大笑。邁爾聲稱他曾經和外星人發生精神感應方面的接觸，而這些外星人是從「昴宿星團」（Pleiades）中的一個星球到達地球的。透過精神感應力，「昴宿星人」（Pleiadians）經常命令邁爾到欣維爾鎮旁一個人跡罕至的地方，那個地方降落著一個直徑 7 公尺的銀色太空船，外星人會走下來與他面對面接觸。大部分與邁爾接觸的外星人是一個叫作Semjase的女子，根據他的描述，那個外星女子相當友善，邁爾常常與她見面，她還允許邁爾拍下太空船的照片，即使要拍降落或離去的情形也可以。
［中文編輯者註：本書中所稱之「昴宿星團」（Pleiades），在正式的《接觸報告》（Contact Report）中（例如於《Sfath的解說》中的第 140~143 句）有特別聲明正確的稱呼是：Plejares 星系，而來自該星系的外星人稱為Plejarens（但為尊重英文作者與原創中文譯者，在本修正版中均未加更改；仍先沿用中文「昴宿星團」與「昴宿星人」等用詞）；這些名稱（正確的外星星系與相關的人與地）未翻譯成中文，主要原因是：原文有個別的特殊含意，不適合翻譯成中文（詳請參閱《第 475次接觸報告》）。因此，本書中所有出現的其他外星人名地名等（例如：Semjase，原翻譯成「西米斯」、Erra星，原翻譯成「伊柔星」等。）現全部都改為引用原文，望讀者諒察！］
Many people laughed. But others seemed awed by the clear, color daylight photographs of the beamships and captivated by the thought of space beings alighting on earth in a gentle and peaceful fashion. The July article in Quick led to a series of articles in various European magazines that appeared throughout the summer and fall of 1976. Il Giornale die Misteri, in Italy, published von Jacobi's original piece on Meier in August; then, in September, the largest tabloid in Switzerland, Blick, ran the front-page title "Zurcher verbluffte Erich von Daniken"-"Zurich Man Amazed Erich von Daniken." More articles followed in the German magazines Echo der Frau, in October and Neue Welt, in November. One of Meier's neighbors had a son living in South Africa who even read of Meier in a newspaper there.
這件事很多人聽了會大笑，也有些人對這些清楚又發出多種彩光的太空船照片充滿了敬畏，並為外星人友善和平地光臨地球的作風深深吸引。《速登雜誌》7 月的報導，為 1976 年夏秋兩季的各式歐洲雜誌系列報導揭開了序幕。例如義大利《神秘體雜誌》（Il Giornale die Misteri）在 8 月轉載了馮．雅科比所寫有關邁爾的報導；接著 9 月瑞士最大的畫報《伯力克雜誌》（Blick），頭版標題是《蘇黎世人的恐懼》（Zurich Man Amazed Erich von Daniken）；往後有更多相關的報導，連續登載在兩份德文雜誌，一份是 10 月號的《迴響雜誌》（Echo der Frau），另一份是 11 月號的《新威雜誌》（Neue Welt）。邁爾的一位鄰居的兒子住在南非，他在南非報紙上也讀到了有關邁爾的新聞。
The neighbors scoffed at the articles, certain that Meier somehow had perpetrated a hoax with his strange and seemingly purposeless perambulations about the countryside. But for those who visited the Hinwil house to investigate the claims further, Meier presented evidence that looked convincing. He showed scores of bright color photographs of Semjase's ship hovering just above a jagged line of evergreens or edged into the branches of a giant leafless birch. In his journal, he had recorded each of his meetings with the Pleiadians - detailed conversations, some thirty minutes, some longer than an hour. The journal now consumed several hundred pages and continued to grow rapidly.
鄰居們對這些報導譏為笑談，他們認為邁爾所說在村莊旁發生的事是奇怪而無意義的，甚至只是一場惡作劇。而那些特地到欣維爾鎮來想要調查清楚的人，邁爾也為他們拿出了各種證據，使他們更加相信了。他拿出很多Semjase五彩明亮的太空船照片，照片上的太空船在常青樹區或樺樹光禿的枝頭末端成鋸齒狀飛翔，他還拿出他的那本記事本，裡面記錄了每一次和昴宿星人的對話，有時半小時，有時甚至長達一小時．記事本已經用了幾百頁了，而且資料還在迅速地增加當中。
One afternoon, at their request, Meier took a small group into a meadow completely surrounded by tall evergreens. He told them that several nights earlier, he had met with the Pleiadians in the same meadow and that he and Semjase had sat in the grass by the trees and talked for an hour. The people imagined the scene-a glowing, almost weightless craft suddenly descending upon the meadow, the luminescence from its shell pulsating against the wall of darkened trees; then, the alighting of a lithesome and humanlike creature, gentle in approach, and filled with wisdom.
有一天下午，邁爾答應他們的要求，帶了一小群人到一個由高大常青樹圍繞的草地上。他告訴他們先前有幾個夜晚，他曾在這片草地上會見昴宿星人，他和Semjase 也曾坐在樹旁的草地上一談就是一小時。這些人開始想像這樣的情景 —— 一部灼熱的、幾乎沒有重量的太空船，突然降落在這片草地上，太空船律動的外殼所發出的閃爍冷光照亮了黑暗的森林，然後出現了一個輕盈、外形與人類相似的生命，她全身散發著文雅及智慧。
And there, on the ground where the people now stood with Meier in the daylight, they saw three large circles, each equidistant to the others, peculiar, flattened swirls six feet across, perfectly symmetrical, perfectly rendered in the tall grass.
大白天的常青樹區，在那些人和邁爾站立的那塊草地上，他們看見草地上有 3 個大圓圈，每個圓圈彼此都保持著相同的距離，圓圈內有奇特且扁平的漩渦，直徑為 6 英尺，極為對稱完美。
Those who heard Meier speak on Saturday afternoons in his home and who read parts of his journal found the writings beautifully conceived, far more complex and sophisticated than a man of Meier's station would be capable of imagining. Semjase, said Meier, had told him of life elsewhere in the galaxy, the history of her people, and that of the earth. She had taught him to understand earth humankind's place in the galaxy. Order exists in the universe, she said, more advanced civilizations teach the less advanced, and spiritual evolution must parallel technological progress.
那些星期六下午在邁爾家聽他敘述外星人事件的人，以及那些讀了部分記事本所敘述美麗景象的人，都一致認為其中的複雜和詭異遠遠超過邁爾所能想像。外星人Semjase告訴邁爾有關銀河系中的生命現象、她的族群的歷史以及地球的相關事務，她還教導他瞭解人類居住的地球在銀河系的位置。她說宇宙存在著規律，這規律是高度文明的生物要教化低文明的生物，而心靈進化必須伴隨科技進步一起發展。
"We, too, are still far removed from perfection and have to evolve constantly," she explained to Meier. "When we choose to come in contact with an earth human, we do so because we feel an obligation to the developing universe and to life which is already existing throughout the universe. We are not missionaries or teachers, but we endeavor to keep order throughout all areas of space. Now and then, we begin contacts with inhabitants of different worlds by searching out individuals whom we feel can accept our existence. We then impart information to those contacts but only when their race has developed and begins to think. Then, slowly, we and others prepare them for the truth that they are not the only thinking beings in the universe."
“我們自己同樣也需要不斷進化。”她解釋道，“我們選擇了到地球與人類接觸，是因為我們肩負促進宇宙進化及宇宙所有生命進化的義務。我們不是傳教士，也不是老師，但我們努力維護著宇宙的規律。我們開始時常接觸那些事先被選定的物件，他們散居世界各地，而且我們認為這些人最有可能接受我們存在的這一事實。然後我們教導一些知識給我們所選定的接觸者，直到他的同類逐漸進步，並且開始思考，最後讓該種生物完全瞭解他們不是宇宙中唯一會思考的存在體。”
二
Meier claimed that he continued to meet with the Pleiadians in the forests of eastern Switzerland and that the telepathic signals warning him of an impending contact could come at any time of the day or night.
邁爾又說在瑞士東部的樹林裡，他持續地和昴宿星人見面，不論白天或晚上，心靈感應的信號隨時通知他來到此地。
"It happens like a shot," he explained. "Like a cool wind going across your forehead, very, very weak, though." Following that came vibrations inside his head that produced symbols. "On the one hand, it is like pictures which appear, and on the other hand, it is like a voice. There are no words for it... it is as if you heard a voice in the symbols."
“心靈感應的現象就像被子彈打到似的，”他解釋著，“像一道冷風從你的額頭通過，這感覺非常非常微弱。”然後在腦中震動，這時感應信號就出現了。“它可以說像一幅即將出現的景象，也可以說像一種聲音。這種感覺無法用任何字來形容，總之，它就是一種有資訊的聲音。”
Meier could be in a room full of people when, suddenly, his eyes would close, his skin would grow pale, and he would begin to perspire faintly. He would then go to his room and dress in boots and a jacket if the air was cool or a gray leather coat if the weather turned bitter. Popi had made him a warm hat like those worn in the mountains of the Middle East, and she would fix him coffee; but if the coffee was not ready in five minutes, he would leave without it. He could be gone a half hour or half a day.
邁爾隨時都會離開，即使滿屋子都是客人也不例外。只見他突然閉上雙眼，皮膚變得有些蒼白，而且開始冒汗。接著他走回自己的房間穿上長靴，如果天氣冷，他會穿夾克；更冷，他就會穿灰色皮大衣。波比為他做了一頂如中東山裡人戴的那種溫暖的帽子，她遞上帽子，並準備為他沖一壺咖啡帶著，但若五分鐘內沒沖好他就不等了，他又將要消失半小時或半天。
One afternoon, Meier told his wife that he was about to have a contact and that she and the children were to come with him. Also allowed would be two others who happened to be at the house, one of whom was Hans Schutzbach, a man in his late twenties. Skeptical of Meier from the beginning and watching him closely, Schutzbach had studied every photograph Meier had taken of the beamships and had helped him to catalogue the photos. He also had driven Meier on many of his night contacts. Although a few witnesses, including Schutzbach, had seen strange lights at night that could have been beamships, no one except Meier had seen one in daylight.
有一天下午，邁爾告訴他太太，他有個接觸，這次她和孩子們都要和他一起去，並且他同意多帶另兩位訪客，其中之一是漢斯．休士伯（Hans Schutzbach），此人將近三十歲。
漢斯仔細研究過每一張邁爾拍攝的太空船照片，並幫助他將這些照片編目，並且有好幾次是他幫邁爾開車趕夜晚的接觸。雖然有幾個證人（包括漢斯在內）在晚上看過可能是太空船發出的奇特光芒、但沒有一個人像邁爾一樣曾經在白天看過。
"I put everybody in my car as usual," recalled Schutzbach, "and Billy went ahead on his moped, empty-handed. He told us to just follow him, and he went every which way. Outside Hinwil, we finally came to a little hill filled with trees. It was very exciting."
“我的車照常載了一些人，”漢斯回憶說，“而邁爾空著手坐在他的小摩托車上帶領我們，他要我們跟隨著他。出了欣維爾鎮我們終於到了長滿了樹的小山丘上，那真是太令人興奮了。”
Meier told them, "All of you wait here." Then he drove off.
邁爾告訴他們說：“你們大家都在這兒等。”然後就騎著摩托車走了。
"I don't remember how long we were standing there," said Popi, "when all of a sudden, Atlantis jumped up and screamed, 'Look, Mommy, over there!' We all got up and there was the ship about a thousand meters away. It was big and circular. We wanted to see more, but the ship soon disappeared."
“我不記得我們在那裡等了多久。”波比說道，“突然，亞特藍提斯跳了起來，大叫：‘媽咪，看那邊！’幾公里外有艘太空船在那裡，它又大又圓。我們想再看清楚些，但太空船一下子就飛走了。”
When the child screamed, Schutzbach jumped up and saw something rising out of the forest into the air.
當孩子大叫時，漢斯跳起來看見某個東西從樹林裡升起，飛向空中。
"I presume it might have been a balloon," he said later, "but I have no proof of that." He tried to take a picture, but he was so nervous that at first he forgot, and then, he shook so badly he jerked the camera. "That's why the picture is not sharp," he explained. "All you see is a little dot."
“我推測它可能是氣球，”他後來說道，“但是我無法證明。”他曾試著拍下來，但因為太緊張，剛開始時他竟忘了按快門，接著又在極度震驚下按下快門。“這就是照片為何不很清晰的原因，”他不好意思地解釋說，“我們所能看到的只是一個小黑點罷了。”
The neighbors were certain Meier was crazy. "No one took him seriously," one of them said later. The mayor of a nearby village said that Meier's stories were pure fantasy because he, the mayor, had never seen a UFO in the vicinity. People in Hinwil laughed at the mention of Meier.
鄰居們都堅信邁爾瘋了，“沒有人將他的話當作一回事。”其中一人隨即說道。鄰村的村長也認為邁爾的故事只是他個人的幻想罷了，這個村長從來沒有在附近看見過 UFO。一提到邁爾，欣維爾鎮居民都譏笑以對。
"He is a Spinner," they would say, one who is nuts. Or they called him "Verruckte," a lunatic.
“他是一台紡織機（Spinner）。”他們說，這就是“怪人”的意思。或者他們叫他“瘋子”。
"Are we blind," asked one couple, "or are we stupid because we don't see these things and he does?"
“我們都是瞎子嗎？”一對夫婦問道，“或者我們都是呆子，因為我們都沒有看見，而他卻看見了。”
Now when they watched him searching the night sky with binoculars, the neighbors would snicker and say, "He is looking for his lady from the galaxies."
現在，每當他們看見他用望遠鏡在夜空中搜尋，鄰居都會竊笑著說；“他在尋找來自銀河的淑女。”
But the articles that, by now, had appeared in several European countries attracted dozens of curious people from all over the continent. They came to talk to Meier about the messages from the Pleiadians. To the surprise of the neighbors, these people appeared to be well-to-do, most of them driving Mercedes, many all the way from northern Germany. The neighbors could not understand how such people could be so taken in.
由於歐洲許多國家都刊載了有關邁爾的報導，因此各地好奇的人們蜂擁而至，他們紛紛來和邁爾談論昴宿星人傳達的訊息。令鄰居更驚訝的是這些人看起來都蠻富裕的，因為他們大部分都開賓士汽車，而且大都來自德國北部。鄰居們實在無法理解，怎麼有這麼多人對這件事情有興趣呢？
"For us and everybody else in the neighborhood," said Franz Hansler, who lived in an apartment overlooking the farmhouse, "it was a very questionable situation. We all thought he was a 'fantasist.' The whole house was a strange affair."
法蘭斯．海斯拉（Franz Hansler）住在一間可以俯瞰農莊的公寓裡，他說：“對我們和居住在附近的每個人而言，整個情況都非常可疑，大家都認為他是一個‘怪人’，甚至他整個屋子也是個奇怪的地方。”
Marie Hansler often spoke to Popi, the only neighbor who did. She bought eggs from Popi and considered her "a very, very nice lady. But," she added, "I wanted nothing to do with her husband!" Often Popi came to her crying, and Hansler would teach her to sew and knit.
瑪莉．海斯拉（Marie Hansler）經常和波比談話，她也是唯一會和波比談話的鄰居之一。她常到波比那裡買雞蛋，並且認為波比是“非常非常好的女人。”她說：“但我不知道她先生所做的任何事情。”波比經常到她那裡哭訴，但是她只能教她一些編織的技巧。
"She was not a woman to be envied," said Hansler. "She suffered."
“她不是一個令人羡慕的女人，”瑪莉接著說，“她是個苦命的女子。”
Meier himself did nothing directly to offend the neighbors. But his teachings, his telling of fantastic stories that they felt were untrue, would "aggravate" them. And sometimes, so many cars trailed from the Meier driveway into the street that they blocked traffic. One of the town administrators, Rudolf Ruegg, thought that all of Meier's stories were "imagined, invented. I think he invented it all." Ruegg received many calls from neighbors near No. 10 Wihaldenstrasse, most of them complaints about the presence of so many cars. Once, a worried mother called town officials because her daughter had gone to the Meier home.
邁爾並沒有直接冒犯鄰居，但是他所說的那些人們無法相信的奇怪故事，卻很容易“激怒”他們。另外，有時這麼多的車子來拜訪邁爾，造成交通阻塞，也打擾了鄰居。有一個鎮公所官員認為：“邁爾的故事都是想像及捏造的，我想他捏造了所有的事。”這官員接到過好多通維哈爾登大街 10 號鄰居打來的電話，大部分都抱怨來了太多的車子。有一次居然有一位母親因為女兒跑到邁爾家，就急得打電話報警。
In the beginning, Popi tried to talk to some of the neighbors. "But I noticed they didn't believe me," she said, "and I started to ignore them. At that time, I had my own problems."
剛開始時，波比曾嘗試告訴鄰居某些事，“但當我發現他們都不相信我時，”她說道，“我就開始不理會他們，我認為這是我們自己的事。”
One Saturday morning, as she walked in the village with her two sons, she saw two elderly women in front of the town hall. "I didn't know them," she said later. "The children knew them, I think, from kindergarten. So they started to play with the children. Then they asked, 'What's your name?' Bashenko could not yet say his name so he always said Baschel. Then they asked, 'And your last name?' 'Meier.' One of the women made a long face, and the other one asked me if I was the wife of that Meier. And I said, 'Yes.' And she said, 'Are you as crazy as he is?'
一個星期六的早上，波比帶著兩個兒子在村中走著，她看到兩個年長的女人站在鎮公所前面。“我不認識她們，”波比說，“孩子們玩了起來，我想可能是在幼稚園認識的。接著她們問：‘什麼名字啊？’巴遜科還未回答，她們又問我：‘你尊姓大名？’我說‘邁爾’，其中一個女人立刻拉下臉來，另一個問我是不是‘那位’邁爾太太，當我說是時。她立刻說；‘你和你先生一樣瘋了嗎？’”
"The children even had problems in school," continued Popi, "because the parents of the other children did not believe in all this. Atlantis went to kindergarten and the children always made fun of him. They called him 'UFO' Meier. He came home crying so many times. I told him to go to the teacher, but the teacher didn't believe in all this either. He told me that my husband and I were doing weird things with UFOs and that this wouldn't be the best influence for the kids. I told Billy it would have been better if none of this had happened."
“孩子們在學校也有相同的難題，”波比接著說，“其它孩子的父母並不相信這些事情有，幼稚園裡的小朋友或是一起玩的孩子都叫亞特藍提斯‘飛碟邁爾’，弄得他好多次回家都一直哭。我告訴他去和老師說，但是老師也不相信這些事情，並且告訴我說，我和先生都做和飛碟有關的古怪事情，這對孩子而言，並不是正面的影響。我告訴邁爾，如果沒有發生這些怪事那該多好。”
三
That summer, 1976, just before all of the publicity on Meier's alleged contacts with the Pleiadians, Hans Schutzbach had accompanied Meier one afternoon to a secluded meadow not far from Hinwil. There, in the presence of Schutzbach, Meier held out a tape recorder and captured the sounds made by one of the beamships. The sound, an eerie and grating noise, like a high-pitched cross between a jet engine and a chain saw, thought Schutzbach, seemed to emanate from a point in open air about thirty feet above Meier. When Meier raised his hand and circled it, the sound increased; when he lowered his hand, the sound softened. Then the two, loud and soft, interlaced in an ethereal resonance. Suddenly Meier made an angry gesture and the sounds stopped altogether. Schutzbach turned and saw a game warden and a policeman, one with binoculars, plus another policeman with a dog and two men on motorcycles.
1976 年夏天，在邁爾公開和昴宿星人接觸之事後，某天下午，漢斯（Hans Schutzbach）陪邁爾到一個離欣維爾鎮不太遠的隱密草地。在那裡，邁爾拿出一個錄音機，並錄下了一架太空船的聲音。那聲音是種令人毛骨悚然且音調很高的雜音，漢斯認為就像介於噴射機引擎和電鋸所發出的尖銳聲音。聲音似乎來自邁爾頭頂上方 30 英尺處的空中。當邁爾舉手並畫著圓時，那聲音就更大了。當他放低他的手，聲音就舒緩下來，來回兩次，大聲小聲、大聲小聲在天上共鳴並交織著。突然邁爾作了一個非常強而有力的手勢，聲音全都停止下來。此時漢斯回頭看見一個場區管理員和一個員警，管理員拿著望遠鏡，員警牽著一條狗，兩人都騎在摩托車上。
Before Schutzbach left the scene, he had "a real good look around," combing the nearby landscape, walking to the few trees dotting the meadow and examining their branches. He saw no speakers, cables, or balloons, nothing.
漢斯離開現場之前仔細地檢視了一番，包括附近的草地、樹枝及所有的景觀，他沒有看見任何喇叭、電線、氣球，什麼都沒有。
Two days later Schutzbach secretly returned to the same meadow with two friends, and the three of them tried to re-create the sounds using the tape he had made with Meier. They hung speakers high in the trees and used amplifiers, but the apparatus was obvious and the sound weak and distant.
兩天後漢斯和兩位朋友偷偷地返回那塊草地，他們三人試圖製造那些奇怪的聲音，並使用和邁爾相同的錄音機來錄音。他們在樹林中高架起喇叭，又裝上擴音器，但試驗的結果，聲音還是非常的微弱且遙遠。
Hans Schutzbach drove Meier to perhaps twenty of his contacts in the forests outside Hinwil, many of them on cold, damp nights. A self-proclaimed nosy person, he watched Meier closely, but never saw him make anything or handle any materials that could have been used to fabricate the sounds or the photographs. Schutzbach's biggest problem, though, was the strange landing tracks. Whenever the beamships left them in the tall grass, he would help Meier measure and photograph them. Schutzbach thought about them often. He saw many people try to prove Meier a fraud by duplicating the tracks, but they always looked much different. "The tracks made by Billy were perfect," Schutzbach said, "The ones by other people were a bad copy."
這是一個又冷又濕的晚上，漢斯載著邁爾到欣維爾鎮外的樹林中，此地是邁爾和外星人有過 20 次接觸的地方。漢斯自認是個好管閒事的人，他密切地注意邁爾的一舉一動，但自始至終都沒有看見邁爾做任何事或處理任何東西可以用來捏造聲音和照片；而最令漢斯困惑的仍是那些奇怪的降落痕跡，在樹林中每逢太空船離開後，他都會幫邁爾測量這些痕跡並照相，漢斯經常思考這個問題，他看見太多人試圖重制痕跡來證明邁爾是騙人的，但他們做的看起來總是不像，“邁爾做的這些痕跡比較好，”漢斯開玩笑地說，“其它人的都是非常壞的複製品。”
On the night of June 13, 1976, several people accompanied Meier to a clearing in the forest where he was to have a contact with the Pleiadians. It was 2 a.m. when they arrived. Meier told them that to demonstrate the Pleiadians' existence, Semjase had consented to a light display where the ships would take on color and fly in erratic patterns. Among those who waited was Guido Moosbrugger, the principal of a small school in Austria.
1976 年 6 月 13 日晚上，一些人陪著邁爾到了樹林中的一塊空地，此處是他和昴宿星人接觸過的地方。到達時已是清晨兩點，邁爾將向他們展示昴宿星人存在的證據，這是Semjase 同意的，她同意表演一下，太空船將出現並發出彩光、作飛行表演。此時他們在等一位來自澳洲的小學校長，吉多．摩斯伯格（Guido Moosbrugger）。
Moosbrugger had first come in contact with Meier a few months earlier when he traveled to Munich to attend a series of monthly lectures on UFOs. At one of the lectures, Meier had been invited to speak and to show some of his photographs. "I was so fascinated by those pictures," recalled Moosbrugger, "I sent a letter immediately to him in Hinwil and asked him whether I might visit him." Meier had consented and Moosbrugger visited Hinwil in mid-May 1976. During his stay, Moosbrugger had followed Meier to a contact, Meier on his moped, Moosbrugger and Schutzbach in a car. The three men had driven along a dirt path through a field until Meier signaled for them to stop. Then, he had told Schutzbach and Moosbrugger to wait there.
摩斯伯格幾個月前首次和邁爾接觸，當時他到慕尼黑參加一糸列有關 UFO 的演講，其中有一場演講是邁爾受邀來談論及展示他的照片。“我被那些照片深深地吸引著，”摩斯伯格回憶說，“我立刻寫了一封信到欣維爾鎮給他，問他我是否能來拜訪他。”邁爾答應了。於是，1976 年 5 月中旬摩斯伯格來到了欣維爾鎮。停留期間，他和漢斯開著車隨著邁爾的摩托車到了接觸現場。他們三人沿著泥濘的小路通過一片田野，直到邁爾示意他們停下來，然後邁爾告訴漢斯和摩斯伯格在此地等他。
"He took off on his motorbike to where the contact would take place," remembered Moosbrugger. "After he left, I thought to myself, I wonder what would happen if I would follow him to see where he went. When he came back from the contact he said that Semjase had welcomed him with the words, 'You brought two men with you. Mr. Moosbrugger had a thought for a short moment what would happen if he would follow you. It didn't concern me though; that was just his honest interest.'"
“他下了摩托車往接觸現場走去，”摩斯伯格回憶著說，“他離開後我腦海中忽然有個念頭，如果我跟著去那兒，也許會有令我驚訝的事情發生。邁爾回來後說道，Semjase 說了些歡迎他的客套話，並說：‘你帶了兩個人一起來，摩斯伯格先生有個短暫的念頭，他想跟你來，這表示他有濃厚的興趣。’”
The two men had sat in the car waiting for Meier to return when high above the tree line two miles away they saw a fire-red disk "as big as the headlights from a distance of one hundred meters." The red disk moved back and forth, then suddenly disappeared. After a few seconds, a rotating silver ball spun into view, then two smaller silver spheres appeared beneath the first, also spinning. At the base of the central and largest of the spinning spheres, a large drop formed and hung lower and lower until it broke free and plummeted, disappearing in two or three seconds. Suddenly all of the lights had disappeared.
這兩個人坐在車上等邁爾回來，當時在樹緣上方兩英里處，他們看見火紅似的碟子，“它的大小像一個約 100 公尺遠照過來的車前燈。”這個紅碟子忽前忽後移動著，然後突然就消失了。幾秒鐘後，一個旋轉著的銀色球體進入他們的視線，接著兩個較小的銀色球出現在第一顆銀球的下方，同時也在旋轉著。在降落現場的中央，最大的旋轉球則掛在空中，從懸浮到慢慢地降落，接著迅速地下墜，然後在兩、三秒鐘之內它就消失了，突然間所有的彩光都消失了。
"After another pause," Moosbrugger explained later, "the very same disk appeared again, became bigger and bigger, and we thought it flew toward us. Then it shrank and disappeared."
“又停頓了一會兒之後，”摩斯伯格隨後解釋說，“一個非常類似的碟子又出現了，越來越大，我覺得它朝我們飛來，接著它又縮小，最後消失了。”
Moosbrugger had seen exotic fireworks displays before, but what he saw that night seemed more solid and vivid, like a color cartoon taking place in the blackened Swiss sky; not little explosions of gunpowder, but more the brilliant illumination of strangely behaving physical objects. Later he wrote, "Of course, I cannot be angry if somebody does not believe this story, if they cannot or do not want to accept it as reality. I don't mind if people call me crazy or say I have lots of imagination, but I do not want to be called a liar."
摩斯伯格曾經看過外國的煙火表演，但是那天晚上他所看見的情景那麼地清晰且真實，像是瑞士夜空一場五彩繽紛的卡通表演，不像一般的爆炸，也不像煙火表演，倒像某種發出古怪亮光的實體。後來他說道，“當然，如果別人不相信這件事，我也不會感到生氣。如果人們說我是瘋子，或說這是一連串幻影，我也不介意，但我不希望被稱為‘撒謊者’。”
Moosbrugger knew nothing about using a 35mm single lens reflex camera, but he would not return to Hinwil without one. From a friend he borrowed a Pentax, a tripod, and a telephoto lens and had his friend load film into the camera for him, and set the adjustments for nighttime exposures. Three weeks later, Moosbrugger had returned to Hinwil, and he now stood in the dark beneath tall pines at the edge of the clearing, his Pentax and his telephoto lens mounted on the tripod. Out of his sight, Hans Schutzbach and his brother, Konrad, also had positioned themselves in the woods, each with a camera. Nearby, the rest of the group ate cake, sipped hot coffee, and watched the dark sky from a knoll. Suddenly, over the forest, they saw first a red disk, then a silver disk. The lights hovered, then grew, then just as suddenly disappeared. Moosbrugger got the red disk on film. He then bent over his tripod to adjust the angle of his camera when a third disk-shaped object appeared, this one alternating brilliant colors. When Moosbrugger looked up again, this disk had gone, but immediately, very high in the sky, he saw another silver disk edge on, a bar of intense light, with a "glittering rain of fire falling straight down." Moosbrugger captured this last disk on film, an image that looked like a huge brilliant jellyfish with tentacles drifting across the sky. Before and after Moosbrugger photographed the disk, the intense yellow-white bar changed its form several times, then softened to a glow, and the observers on the ground saw the luminous ball fly slowly away until it was only a bright red speck in the distance. Then, it ascended rapidly and disappeared. Meier had had his fifty-fifth contact.
摩斯伯格對於使用 35 釐米單鏡頭相機毫無所知，但是現在他亟須一台帶到欣維爾鎮去。他從朋友那兒借到了一架「賓得士」相機、一個三角架及一個望遠鏡，並請他的朋友裝好底片，調整好夜間曝光設定。三個星期後，也就是 6 月 13 日晚上這一天，摩斯伯格再度回到欣維爾鎮，黑夜中他站在高大松樹下的空地邊緣，把賓得士相機及望遠鏡架在三角架上。另一邊漢斯和他弟弟康納德也在樹林中各自占了一個位置，每個人手上都拿著相機等候。其餘的人就在小山丘附近吃蛋糕，喝咖啡，看著夜空。突然間，在樹林的上方，他們先看見一個紅色的碟子，接著是一個銀色的碟子。這些彩光在空中飛翔，光度慢慢加強，而後突然間就全消失了。摩斯伯格對著紅碟子拍了照片。當第三個碟狀物體出現時，他必須壓下三角架調整相機的角度以利拍攝，這個碟狀物交錯著巨大的彩光。但當摩斯伯格再度仰望尋找時，它又消失子。忽然他在天際非常高的地方隱約看見另一個銀色碟子的邊緣，從那兒有一道強光，如同“閃耀的雨幕，筆直地撒落下來。”摩斯伯格在相機中捕捉到這最後一個飛碟，這情景看起來像一個巨大的閃亮水母，它的觸手在天空中飄浮著。黃白強光不斷地變換，而後再逐漸變成熾紅色，地面的觀測者可以看見發光體慢慢飛走，一直到只剩下一個小光點，然後小光點又快速地上升直至消失不見。這是邁爾第 55 次的接觸。
四
The articles released in the summer and fall of 1976 persuaded more and more people to travel to Hinwil to see Meier. Every weekend, visitors came to the house, sometimes as many as twenty, some of them familiar, some of them new. All of them wanted to see Meier's photographs of the beamships and to hear about life elsewhere in the universe. What is the Pleiadian culture like? Their government? Their society? How advanced is their technology? How do they communicate with Meier? What do they look like? Are their intentions peaceful?
1976 年夏末那篇文章刊出後，越來越多的人到欣維爾鎮來看邁爾。每個週末都有訪客到他家，有時多至 20 人，也有闔家光臨的，有些則是新面孔。這些人都想要看看邁爾擁有的太空船照片，聽聽他講述有關宇宙的知識。昴宿星人的文明到底是什麼呢？他們有政府嗎？他們的社會是如何的呢？他們的科技到底進步到什麼程度？他們如何跟邁爾溝通呢？他們的長相如何？他們是否愛好和平呢？
According to Meier, the Pleiadians lived to be one thousand years old; Semjase herself was comparatively young, 330. Her home planet, Erra, was only slightly smaller than Earth, yet was populated by far fewer people, less than 500 million. Upon discovering Erra's hospitable but young environment, the Pleiadians themselves had engineered the planet to support life, and today its landscape looked much like the countryside found on Earth, with hills, grass, trees, and running water. They located production and processing facilities in remote regions, away from the population, and utilized nearby uninhabited planets for mining. The Pleiadians told Meier that were he to travel to Erra, he would find species similar to the horse, cow, rabbit, and fish.
根據邁爾的說法，昴宿星人一般有一千年的壽命，Semjase算是相當年輕的，只有 330 歲。她的家鄉， Erra 星，僅比地球小一些，但上面住的居民卻少多了，大約只有 5 億。初期的 Erra 星是寬廣又未開發的．昴宿星人建設了這個星球，以便提供生存之所需，如今，它的景物和地球的鄉間差不多，有小山、草地、樹木和河流。昴宿星人將製造和生產的設施集中設置在較為遙遠的區域內。如此可以遠離人們，並可充分開發鄰近且無人居住的星球。昴宿星人告訴邁爾，如果他到 Erra 星去旅行，他將可找到類似馬、牛、兔子、魚等的物種。
Robots and androids performed most physical labor on Erra. The androids looked and acted so human that the only way to distinguish them from humans was by their dress. Each wore a uniform, the color indicating the job the android was assigned to perform. They appeared unusually lifelike because their skin was made of living protoplasm, and their brain, too, was an organism capable of natural responses and conversation.
機械手和機器人在 Erra 星上負責大部分的勞動工作。機器人的外形和動作非常像 Erra 星人，只有從衣著上才可以將它們和 Erra 星人區分出來。它們的穿著是制式的，衣服的顏色代表著機器人所必須工作的種類。它們看起來非常逼真，這是因為它們的皮膚和頭腦是由有生命的原生質構成，它們甚至還能產生自然反應，並具備會話的能力。
Families not only existed on Erra, but they were purportedly tight and caring. Though sexually mature in their early teens, Pleiadians did not marry until after they had completed their education, a process that began when they were four years old and lasted until they reached seventy. By that time they would have acquired specific skills in fifteen or sixteen disciplines, or, in the case of Semjase, as many as thirty.
Erra 星上不但有家庭的組織，而且他們彼此之間緊密相連、互相照顧。雖然他們十幾歲時性生理就已成熟，但是昴宿星人在教育尚未完成前是不會結婚的，他們的教育由 4 歲開始，最晚到 70 歲，直到他們至少學會了十五、六項特殊技能。像 Semjase 已學會了 30 種之多。
There was no government.
那個地方沒有政府。
"They have, what you call here, 'spiritual leaders,'" Meier told those who came to see him. "And the highest form that they have for their leadership they call Horralft. It's a form of life that's not hard face and body, and not a real spiritual form. It's a middling between both of them. If you put your hand into them, it will go through. The Horralft will not give out orders. They give out something else, what we call 'suggestions.' And then, each one on the planet, by his own wisdom in evolution, tries to do his best out of this."
“他們只有類似在地球上稱為‘精神領袖’的人。”邁爾將這些告訴來訪的客人，“他們的領導者中最高的形式稱為 Horralft，他只是一種生命形式，並沒有具體的面貌與形體，但也不僅是靈體的形式，他是介於兩者之間，就好像是透明人一樣，如果你向他伸出手，你的手會穿透他的身體。Horralft 並不下達任何命令，他只會給他們‘建議’，然後星球上的每個人就憑自己的智慧來判斷並進化，且盡力做得最好。”
五
With all of the people coming to her home, to see her husband, taking up his time, Popi felt as alienated as she had when she first moved to Switzerland. When she was only seventeen, Popi had met Meier on Christmas Day, 1965, in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Meier was then nearly twenty-nine. Only a few months earlier he had lost his left arm. A month after they met, Meier had asked Popi to marry him, and when the girl's mother would not consent, the two of them fled to a small town where they were married on February 13, 1966. For four years afterward they had traveled from Switzerland to India and back again, working and living in Pakistan, on the Isle of Crete, in the mountains of the Middle East, and in India. When they returned to Switzerland, Popi understood little of the Swiss German spoken in her husband's country. A few years later, when the contacts began, she communicated better in Swiss German, but she still knew so little High German that she found her husband's writings about the contacts difficult to read. "I tried to read them," she remembered, "but I just didn't understand anything. So I made myself a wrong picture of all this.
訪客一到波比家，看見她先生就開始和他討論，波比覺得現在比初遷到瑞士更寂寞了。1965 年耶誕節，在希臘希賽羅尼克（Thessaloniki）市波比初遇邁爾，當時波比 17 歲，邁爾 29 歲，就在幾個月前邁爾失去了他的左臂。他們相遇後一個月，邁爾問波比是否願意嫁給他，當時波比的母親並不同意，於是他們倆私奔到一個小鎮，他們在那裡結婚了，當時是 1966 年 2 月 13 日。婚後他們從瑞士到印度旅遊，回程時，他們曾在巴基斯坦、地中海的克裡特（Crete）島、中東的山區及印度工作和生活。四年後他們回到瑞士，在她先生的國家裡波比僅能聽懂一些瑞士腔的德國話。幾年後，當接觸事件開始時，波比才因語言的進步改善了她和別人的溝通關係，但是她所知仍然有限。她覺得她先生寫的有關接觸的記錄是如此難以瞭解。“我試著讀它，”她回憶說，“但是我無法完全瞭解，以致我對整個事件產生了誤解。”
"It got bad," she continued, "when all these people began coming to Hinwil to see my husband. Most of them were women, and he used to take many of them to the contact sites. I was very jealous at that time. Not that I was thinking he would see another woman. It's just that nobody ever said they would watch my children so I could go with him. They just came to him and said, 'Let's go!' So I was very angry."
“其實我不想這麼做，”她接著說，“當這些人開始到欣維爾鎮拜訪我先生的時候，他們大部分是女性，他習慣帶她們去看接觸外星人的現場。當時我非常嫉妒。我認為他又要去看別的女人了，為什麼沒有人願意來照顧我的孩子呢，那樣我就可以跟他一起去了。她們僅是來看他，並且說：“‘我們走吧！’所以我非常生氣。”
One of those who now attended the meetings regularly was Bernadette Brand, a computer technician. In July 1976, she was riding the train home from work one evening, reading Quick magazine, when she saw the article on Meier.
"I remember saying to my colleague," she later recalled, "'Another crazy who says he is having contact with extraterrestrials.' He asked me whether I believe that baloney. I said, 'Of course extraterrestrials exist, but why would they come here? If they went anywhere it would be to a place where they could learn something, but not here.' I thought it was awful that somebody said he was having 'contact' and fooling people. You should put them behind bars. All of them."
她們其中之一到現在還定期出席討論會，此人名叫伯納德．白蘭（Bernadette Brand），她是一位電腦工程師。1976 年 7 月的一個黃昏，當她在《速登雜誌》上看到有關邁爾的報導後，她立刻就坐火車來到他家。她回憶說：“我記得我是這樣告訴同事的：‘有一個瘋子說他和外星人接觸過。’同事問我是否相信這些瘋話，我說：‘外星人當然存在，但是為什麼他們要到這裡來呢？他們應該到一個可以學習某些事情的地方，但不應該是在這兒啊！’我當時覺得這是不得了的事，因為有人謊稱‘接觸過’，並以此愚弄大眾，你應該在這種人頭上打一棒，敲醒他。”
Brand knew the Schutzbach brothers, Hans and Konrad. When they told her about an invalid they knew who claimed to have contact with beings from another star system, she failed to connect their story with the article she had seen in Quick. She said to them, "Another crazy around here!"
白蘭認識休士伯（Schutzbach）兄弟—漢斯（Hans）和康納德（Konrad）。當他們告訴她，他們知道有人曾經和其它星球的生物接觸過，當時她並沒有將這件事和《速登雜誌》的報導聯想在一起。她只說：“你們簡直瘋了！”
Konrad tried to tell Bernadette about Meier, but she would not listen. "Don't be so stupid," she said.
康納德試著告訴白蘭有關邁爾的事情，但她總是不想聽，她說道：“不要這麼笨嘛！”
"You don't understand," said Konrad, "you have no idea."
And the two of them argued about Meier for the rest of the summer.
One Saturday evening in the fall, Konrad brought his friend Jakobus Bertschinger to Bernadette's apartment for dinner. "The whole time," remembered Bernadette, "they were talking about some woman, like, 'Don't take her seriously. When she's jealous she makes everybody crazy.'"
“你不瞭解，”康納德說，“你太沒概念了。”之後整個夏天，他們兩個常常為了邁爾的事辯論。那年秋天的一個星期六晚上，康納德帶著他的朋友傑卡布到白蘭的公寓晚餐。白蘭說：“整個晚上，他們談論著某個女人，他們說‘不要太苛責她’，‘她嫉妒時會使每個人瘋狂’等等。”
After dinner the three of them drove to Hinwil to see a "friend" of Konrad's who lived in an old farmhouse in the middle of several apartment buildings. He did not tell her the friend was Eduard Meier, though as they turned off Wihaldenstrasse onto the long alleyway, Bernadette guessed who lived there. By now she was willing to meet the man.
晚餐後，他們三人開車到欣維爾鎮去看一個康納德的“朋友”，他就住在公寓圍繞的者農莊裡。他沒告訴她這個朋友就是邁爾。他們朝維哈爾登大街的小巷駛去，白蘭心裡猜想著是誰住在這兒，現在她即將見到這個人了。
A woman met them at the front door and said, "Wait here. You can't come in yet." Then she whispered to Konrad. When they finally entered the house, Konrad told Bernadette, "We can't go into the living room; there is a discussion going on in there."
有個女人開了門，看見他們後，她說：“請等一下，你們現在還不能進來。”然後她對康納德耳語。當他們終於被允許進入屋內後，康納德告訴白蘭：“我們不能到客廳去，因為那兒正進行一場‘討論’。”
In the kitchen, Bernadette brewed coffee for the people in the living room, and while the coffee percolated, a woman ran though carrying a large container of water swirling with coal dust. Most households kept this especially fine grade of coal dust for emergencies, to induce vomiting in children. Bernadette wondered, has someone tried to commit suicide?
白蘭在廚房為客廳裡的人煮咖啡，正當過濾咖啡時，一個女人跑了進來，手上拿著一個裝滿水的大水壺，弄了一些煤渣摻在水裡。多數家庭主婦都會準備這種品質上好的煤渣，作為孩子需要催吐時的急需之用。白蘭正在納悶，莫非有人要自殺？
Then, Meier himself walked into the kitchen and told Bernadette to come into the living room with the coffee. Immediately, she saw a woman with long dark hair slumped over in a chair, and another woman washing her arms and forehead with cold water and patting her on her cheeks to keep her awake. But the woman in the chair was "white, like snow," her head drooping. Popi had swallowed close to fifty sleeping pills. A second woman replaced the first, continuing to bathe her in cool water and pat her on the cheeks. Bernadette thought, if these people keep on doing it this way, this woman is going to die.
接著邁爾親自到廚房，請白蘭帶著咖啡到客廳，頓時她看見一名長髮女子癱坐在椅子上，而另一個女人正幫她用冷水擦洗手臂與額頭，並不斷拍著她的臉頰好讓她保持清醒。但是那名女子依然面色慘白，垂著頭一動也不動，她就是波比，剛剛吞下將近 50 顆安眠藥。第二個女人來接手，繼續用冷水擦洗並拍她的臉頰。依白蘭看，如果這些人再這樣搞下去，波比是活不成了。
When the second woman complained of being tired, Bernadette offered to take her place. She was not as gentle as the other two. She slapped the woman across the face as hard as she could. Then she slapped her again and again. The woman started to whimper and said to stop hitting her; her teeth hurt so bad.
當第二個女人抱怨太累，白蘭就接過手來繼續。她不像前面兩位那樣客氣，而是用盡力氣拍打波比的臉。打了一次又一次，波比開始啜泣的說別再打了，打的她牙好痛。
"If you keep your eyes open," said Bernadette, "I won't hit you anymore."
But the woman again nodded off, and Bernadette slapped her face hard. She wanted to make her angry. For three hours, Bernadette slapped the woman's face.
白蘭說：“如果妳張開你的眼睛，我就不再打妳”。但是波比又昏睡過去，於是白蘭又用力打她的臉，想要藉此激怒她，如此方式一直下去，白蘭打了她三個小時的臉。
Then suddenly, the woman leaped out of the chair, grabbed Bernadette, and knocked her to the floor. The woman, though slight, was unbelievably strong, and tossed the 160-pound Bernadette around the living room until Meier stepped in and helped Bernadette subdue her. Then, Meier wrestled his wife into a bed and told her if she fell asleep she would have to come back into the living room. But she closed her eyes again, and Bernadette slapped her across the face. The woman hit her back, screaming and cursing her husband. Using only one hand, Meier whipped off his belt, got it around her wrists, wrapped it quickly around the back of her knees, and fastened her to a chair. Popi continued to curse him and the others, then closed her eyes and started to nod off again. Bernadette slapped her. Then again and again. Suddenly, Popi strained against the leather belt and broke it, but just as suddenly, she seemed to calm down. It was almost 6 a.m. She had last vomited at midnight, and the toxicology center had told them to keep her awake for six hours after she had emptied her stomach of the remaining pills. Bernadette quit, and the other two women went back to washing the woman's face and limbs in cold water.
突然間，波比從椅子上跳起來抓住白蘭並將她撞倒。雖看似瘦弱，但是波比卻以不可思議的力氣將 160 磅的白蘭在客廳摔的團團轉，直到邁爾進來幫忙一起制服她。接著，邁爾用力抱住波比讓她躺在床上，並告訴她如果她再想睡，就必須回到客廳去。但波比還是又再閉起眼，白蘭就去打她的臉，波比還手打她，並尖叫咒罵她的丈夫。邁爾單手抽出他的腰帶，快速綁起波比手腕並繞到她的膝蓋後面，最後將她牢綁在椅子上。波比繼續咒罵邁爾與其他人，並再度閉起眼睛打起瞌睡。白蘭又去打她的巴掌，一次又一次，直到波比用力掙脫皮帶；不過就在同時，波比似乎平靜下來，這時已接近早上六點。波比在半夜一直嘔吐，醫生告訴他們，要波比在吐出藥丸後還要保持六個小時的清醒。大家通力合作總算熬過了六小時，於是白蘭離開了，另兩個女人回來用冷水擦拭波比的臉和四肢。
One Saturday afternoon, a few weeks after Popi's attempted suicide, Bernadette accompanied Konrad to a meeting at the Hinwil house with about fifty other people. Though she had expected to despise Meier, she found him gentle and honest, not the Schwindler she had imagined him to be. And this caused confusion because what the man said of his contacts and his trips into outer space still sounded crazy to her. In a short while, she was coming often to the Hinwil house. And late one night, after she had been to see Meier, she was driving home from Hinwil alone.
在波比企圖自殺後幾個星期的一個週六下午，白蘭偕同康納德一起左參加在欣維爾鎮討討論會，大約有 60 人參加。雖然她有點瞧不起邁爾，但她發現他是溫和而誠懇的，並不是一個自大狂，她對他有了新的印象。她說：“我完全被迷惑了，這位男人所說他到外太空旅行與接觸的經驗，實在太不可思議了。”於是她常常到欣維爾鎮來。有一天晚上，她和邁爾談過後，獨自從欣維爾鎮開車回家。
"As I was driving, I got this feeling all of a sudden that I had to stop. I thought, you are crazy. All these ships and stuff make you crazy. So I drove on. But that feeling came again, a very strong feeling that I had to stop, so I stopped the car and stayed inside, locking all the doors. Then, I waited in the dark, curious what would happen.
“我正在開車時，突然有種念頭要我停車，我想大概是這些 UFO 的事使我有些神經質，於是我又繼續開車，但是這感覺又再度湧上心頭，一種非常強烈的感覺要我停車，於是我停下來繼續留在車內並將所有的車門鎖上。我在黑暗中沉思，怎麼會發生這麼奇怪的事。
"I was looking out the window from my side when I saw a light rise above the forest. It was snow-white, about the width of my hand from where I sat. It stopped for a moment, then went back down, and when it sank back, it was fire-red. I thought somebody was playing with fireworks, but this was so precise. Rockets don't do that. I waited awhile and after one or two minutes, it rose again. Then, all of a sudden, it was gone.
“我從身旁的窗戶向外看，在樹林上方我看見一個光點升起。光是雪白的，大約有我的手掌那麼寬。它定住一會兒，然後逐漸下移，並發出紅光。我心想是不是有人在玩煙火，但它是那麼地清晰且單一，火箭也不可能產生那樣的景象。我等了一會兒，大約一、兩分鐘後它又升起來，然後突然間消失無蹤。
"I thought: should I drive on? No, wait a little longer. And indeed a little farther away, it is hard to estimate, maybe five or six hundred meters, an orange light rose, again from behind the forest. It rose very slowly, and it was very big. I would say it was a quarter the size of the moon. This orange light rose and then looked like it was going up stairs, zigzag, and then very quietly it flew away. I could see if for about twenty minutes. From that area, you are able to see the Alps, and I saw it disappear in the Alps. It got smaller and smaller."
“我在想，我要不要把車開走呢？不，我要再等一會兒。等了一陣子，大約五、六百公尺遠的地方，從樹林後方再次升起一個橙光。它上升得非常慢，而且非常大，我認為有四分之一個月亮那麼大。橙光升起時，它行進得像鋸齒狀，類似上樓梯的樣子，而後靜悄悄地飛離了。整個過程大約持續了二十分鐘。從那兒我可以清楚看到阿爾卑斯山，而那光點正越來越小並消失於阿爾卑斯山中。”
（第二章 結束）
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