SH26翻譯: 宇宙的邊疆 (卡爾·薩根)

SH26翻譯: 宇宙的邊疆 (卡爾·薩根)

Translation: The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean (CarlEdward Sagan)

(assembled by: alexcwlin; reviewed by: Adam Lam)

我索取榮譽的對象不應該是太空，而應該是我的靈魂。假如我擁有一切，我就無所用心。好大喜功則為宇宙汪洋所吞沒，開動腦筋則領悟世界。

——布菜斯?始斯卡《感想錄》

It is not from space that I must seek my dignity,but from the government of my thought. I shall have no more if I possessworlds. By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; bythought I comprehend the world.

(Source: Thoughts by Blaise Pascal)

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已知的事物是有限的，未知的事物是無窮的；我站立在茫茫無邊神秘莫測的汪洋中的一個小島上。繼續開拓是我們每一代人的職責。

——T.H.赫胥黎

The known is finite, the unknown infinite;intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.

(Source: Thomas Henry Huxley)

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宇宙現在是這樣，過去是這樣，將來也永遠是這樣。

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever willbe.

只要一想起宇宙，我們就難以平靜——我們心情激動，感嘆不己，如同回憶起許久以前的一次懸崖失足那樣令人暈眩顫慄。

Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, asif a distant memory, of falling from a height.

我們知道我們在探索最深奧的秘密。

We know we are approaching the greatest ofmysteries.

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宇宙的大小和年齡不是一般人所能理解的。

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinaryhuman understanding.

我們的小小行星只不過是無限永恆的時空中的一個有限世界。

Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity isour tiny planetary home.

從宏觀來看，大多數人類所關心的問題都可以說是無關緊要的，甚至是微不足道的。

In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seeminsignificant, even petty.

但是，我們人類朝氣蓬勃、勇敢好學、前途無量。

And yet our species is young and curious and braveand shows much promise.

幾千年來，我們對宇宙及我們在宇宙中所處的地位作出了最驚人的和出乎意料的發現。

In the last few millennia we have made the mostastonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place withinit, explorations that are exhilarating to consider.

人類對宇宙的探索，回想起來是很令人興奮的。這些探索活動提醒我們：好奇是人類的習性，理解是一種樂趣，知識是生存的先決條件。

They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder,that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival.

因為我們在這個宇宙中只不過是晨空中飛揚的一粒塵埃，所以，我們認為，人類的未來取決於我們對這個宇宙的了解程度。

I believe our future depends on how well we knowthis Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

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我們探索宇宙的時候，既要勇於懷疑，又要富於想像。

Those explorations required skepticism andimagination both.

想像經常能夠把我們帶領到嶄新的境界，

Imagination will often carry us to worlds thatnever were.

沒有想像，我們就到處碰壁。

But without it, we go nowhere.

懷疑可以使我們擺脫幻想，還可以檢驗我們的推測。

Skepticism enables us to distinguish fancy from fact,to test our speculations.

宇宙神奧非凡，它有典雅的事實，錯綜的關係，微妙的機制。

The Cosmos is rich beyond measure - in elegantfacts, in exquisite interrelationships, in the subtle machinery of awe.

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地球的表面就是宇宙汪洋之濱。

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmicocean.

我們現有的知識大部分是從地球上獲得的。

From it we have learned most of what we know.

近來，我們已經開始向大海涉足，當然，海水才剛剛沒及我們的腳趾，充其量也只不過濺濕我們的踝節。

Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enoughto dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles.

海水是迷人的。

The water seems inviting.

大海在向我們召喚。

The ocean calls.

我們的本能告訴我們，我們是在這個大海里誕生的。

Some part of our being knows this is from where wecame.

我們還鄉心切。

We long to return.

雖然我們的夙望可能會冒犯「天神」，但是我相信我們並不是在做無謂的空想。

These aspirations are not, I think, irreverent,although they may trouble whatever gods may be.

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因為宇宙遼闊無垠，所以那些我們所熟悉的適用於地球的量度單位——米、英里等等已經沒有意義。

The dimensions of the Cosmos are so large thatusing familiar units of distance, such as meters or miles, chosen for theirutility on Earth, would make little sense.

我們用光速來量度距離。

Instead, we measure distance with the speed oflight.

一束光每秒鐘傳播18.6萬英里，約30萬公里，也就是7倍於地球的周長。

In one second a beam of light travels 186,000miles, nearly 300,000 kilometers or seven times around the Earth.

一束光從太陽傳播到地球用8分鐘的時間，

In eight minutes it will travel from the Sun to theEarth.

因此我們可以說，太陽離我們8光分。

We can say the Sun is eight light-minutes away.

一束光在一年之內約穿過10萬億公里(相當於6萬億英里)的空間，

In a year, it crosses nearly ten trillionkilometers, about six trillion miles, of intervening space.

這個長度單位——光在一年裡所通過的距離——稱為一光年。

That unit of length, the distance light goes in ayear, is called a light-year.

光年不是度量時間的單位，而是度量距離的極大單位。

It measures not time but distances - enormousdistances.

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地球是宇宙中的一個地方，

The Earth is a place.

但決不是唯一的地方，

It is by no means the only place.

也不是一個典型的地方。

It is not even a typical place.

任何行星、恆星或星系都不可能是典型的，因為宇宙中的大部分是空的。

No planet or star or galaxy can be typical, becausethe Cosmos is mostly empty.

唯一典型的地方在廣袤、寒冷的宇宙真空之中，在星際空間永恆的黑夜裡。那是一個奇特而荒蕪的地方。相比之下，行星、恆星和星系就顯得特別稀罕而珍貴。

The only typical place is within the vast, cold,universal vacuum, the everlasting night of intergalactic space, a place sostrange and desolate that, by comparison, planets and stars and galaxies seemachingly rare and lovely.

假如我們被隨意擱置在宇宙之中，我們附著或旁落在一個行星上的機會只有1033分之一。(1033，在10之後接33個0)。

If we were randomly inserted into the Cosmos, thechance that we would find ourselves on or near a planet would be less than onein a billion trillion trillion (1033, a one followed by 33 zeroes).

在日常生活當中，這樣的機會是「令人羨慕的」。

In everyday life such odds are called compelling.

可見天體是多麼寶貴。

Worlds are precious.

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從一個星系際的優越地位上，我們可以看到無數模糊纖細的光須象海水的泡沫一樣遍布在空間的浪濤上，

From an intergalactic vantage point we would see,strewn like sea froth on the waves of space, innumerable faint, wispy tendrilsof light.

這些光須就是星系。

These are the galaxies.

其中有些是孤獨的徘徊者，大部分則群集在一起，擠作一團，在大宇宙的黑夜裡不停地飄蕩。

Some are solitary wanderers; most inhabit communalclusters, huddling together, drifting endlessly in the great cosmic dark.

展現在我們面前的就是我們所見到的極其宏偉壯觀的宇宙。

Before us is the Cosmos on the grandest scale weknow.

我們隸屬於這些星雲，我們所見到的星雲離地球80億光年，處在已知宇宙的中心。

We are in the realm of the nebulae, eight billionlight-years from Earth, halfway to the edge of the known universe.

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星系是由氣體、塵埃和恆星群(上千億個恆星)組成的，

A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and starsbillions upon billions of stars.

每個恆星對某人來說都可能是一個太陽。

Every star may be a sun to someone.

在星系裡有恆星、行星，也可能有生物、智能生命和宇宙間的文明。

Within a galaxy are stars and worlds and, it maybe, a proliferation of living things and intelligent beings and spacefaringcivilizations.

但是從遠處著眼，星系更多地讓人想起一堆動人的發現物——貝殼，或許是珊瑚——大自然在宇宙的汪洋里創造的永恆的產物。

But from afar, a galaxy reminds me more of acollection of lovely found objects - seashells, perhaps, or corals, theproductions of Nature laboring for aeons in the cosmic ocean.

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宇宙間有若干千億個星系。每個星系平均由1000億個恆星組成。

There are some hundred billion (1011) galaxies,each with, on the average, a hundred billion stars.

在所有星系裡，行星的數量跟恆星的總數大概一樣多，即1011*1011=1022。

In all the galaxies, there are perhaps as manyplanets as stars, 1011 x 1011 = 1022, ten billion trillion.

在這樣龐大的數量里，難道只有一個普通的恆星——太陽——是被有人居住的行星伴隨著嗎？

In the face of such overpowering numbers, what isthe likelihood that only one ordinary star, the Sun, is accompanied by aninhabited planet?

為什麼我們這些隱藏在宇宙中某個被遺忘角落裡的人類就這樣幸運呢？

Why should we, tucked away in some forgotten cornerof the Cosmos, be so fortunate?

我認為，宇宙里很可能到處都充滿著生命，

To me, it seems far more likely that the universeis brimming over with life.

只是我們人類尚未發現而已。

But we humans do not yet know.

我們的探索才剛剛開始。

We are just beginning our explorations.

80億光年以外嵌著銀河系的星系團催迫著我們去探索。探索太陽和地球就更不用說了。

From eight billion light-years away we are hardpressed to find even the cluster in which our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded,much less the Sun or the Earth.

我們確信，有人居住的這個行星只不過是一丁點兒的岩石和金屬，它靠著反射太陽光而發出微光。在這樣的大距離里，它已經消失得無影無蹤。

The only planet we are sure is inhabited is a tinyspeck of rock and metal, shining feebly by reflected sunlight, and at thisdistance utterly lost.

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但是，這個時候，我們的旅程只到達地球上的天文學所通稱的「本星系群」。

But presently our journey takes us to whatastronomers on Earth like to call the Local Group of galaxies.

本星系群寬達數百萬光年，大約由20個子星系組成，

Several million light-years across, it is composedof some twenty constituent galaxies.

是一個稀疏、模糊而又實實在在的星系團。

It is a sparse and obscure and unpretentiouscluster.

其中的一個星系是M31，從地球上看，這個星系位於仙女星座。

One of these galaxies is M31, seen from the Earthin the constellation Andromeda.

跟其他旋渦星系一樣，它是一個由恆星、氣體和塵埃組成的巨大火輪。

Like other spiral galaxies, it is a huge pinwheelof stars, gas and dust.

M31有兩個衛星，它通過引力——跟使我呆在坐椅上相同的物理學定律——將矮橢圓星系束縛在一起。

M31 has two small satellites, dwarf ellipticalgalaxies bound to it by gravity, by the identical law of physics that tends tokeep me in my chair.

整個宇畝中的自然法則都是一樣的。

The laws of nature are the same throughout theCosmos.

我們現在離地球200萬光年。

We are now two million light-years from home.

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M31 以外是另一個非常相似的星系，也就是我們自已的星系。它的旋渦臂緩慢地轉動著——每2億5千萬年旋轉一周。

Beyond M31 is another, very similar galaxy, ourown, its spiral arms turning slowly, once every quarter billion years.

現在，我們離地球4萬光年，我們正處於密集的銀河中心。

Now, forty thousand light-years from home, we findourselves falling toward the massive center of the Milky Way.

但是， 假如我們希望找到地球的話，就必須將方向扭轉到銀河系的邊遠地帶，扭轉到接近遙遠的旋渦臂邊緣的模糊的地方。

But if we wish to find the Earth, we must redirectour course to the remote outskirts of the Galaxy, to an obscure locale near theedge of a distant spiral arm.

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我們印象最深刻的是，恆星即使在兩個旋臂之間，也像流水一樣漂浮在我們的四周——氣勢磅礴的自身發光的星球，有些雖然象肥皂泡一樣脆弱，卻又大得可以容得下1萬個太陽或1萬億個地球；有些小如一座城池，但密度卻比鉛大100萬億倍。

Our overwhelming impression, even between thespiral arms, is of stars streaming by us - a vast array of exquisitelyself-luminous stars, some as flimsy as a soap bubble and so large that theycould contain ten thousand Suns or a trillion Earths; others the size of asmall town and a hundred trillion times denser than lead.

有些恆星跟太陽一樣是孤獨的；

Some stars are solitary, like the Sun.

多數恆星有伴侶，

Most have companions.

通常是成雙成對，互相環繞。

Systems are commonly double, two stars orbiting oneanother.

但是那些星團不斷地從三星系逐漸轉化成由數十個恆星組成的鬆散的星團，再轉化成由百萬個恆星組成的璀璨奪目的大球狀星團。

But there is a continuous gradation from triplesystems through loose clusters of a few dozen stars to the great globularclusters, resplendent with a million suns.

有些雙星緊靠在一起，星體物質在他們之間川流不息，

Some double stars are so close that they touch, andstar-stuff flows beneath them.

多數雙星都象木星與太陽一樣分離開來。

Most are as separated as Jupiter is from the Sun.

有些恆星——超新星——的亮度跟它們所在的整個星系的亮度一樣；有些恆星——黑洞——在幾公里以外就看不見了。

Some stars, the supernovae, are as bright as theentire galaxy that contains them; others, the black holes, are invisible from afew kilometers away.

有些恆星的光彩長年不減；有些恆星閃爍不定，或以勻稱的節奏閃爍著。

Some shine with a constant brightness; othersflicker uncertainly or blink with an unfaltering rhythm.

有些恆星穩重端莊地轉動著，有些恆星狂熱地旋轉著，弄得自己面貌全非，成了扁圓形。

Some rotate in stately elegance; others spin sofeverishly that they distort themselves to oblateness.

多數恆星主要是以可見光成紅外光放出光芒；其他恆星也是X光或射電波的光源。

Most shine mainly in visible and infrared light;others are also brilliant sources of X-rays or radio waves.

發藍光的恆星是年青的星，會發熱；發黃光的恆星是常見的星，它們已經到了中年；發紅光的恆星常常是垂亡的老年星；而發白光或黑光的恆星則已奄奄一息。

Blue stars are hot and young; yellow stars, conventionaland middle-aged; red stars, often elderly and dying; and small white or blackstars are in the final throes of death.

銀河裡大約有4千億個各種各樣的恆星，它們的運轉既複雜又巧妙。

The Milky Way contains some 400 billion stars ofall sorts moving with a complex and orderly grace.

對於所有這些恆星，地球上的居民到目前為止比較了解的卻只有一個。

Of all the stars, the inhabitants of Earth knowclose-up, so far, but one.

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每個星系都是太空中的一個島嶼，它們與其鄰居隔光年之距遙遙相望，

Each star system is an island in space, quarantinedfrom its neighbors by the light-years.

我可以想像，在無數星球上的生物對宇宙的模糊認識是如何產生的：他們在開始的時候都以為，除了他們自己小小的行星以及他們周圍的那些區區可數的恆星以外，再也沒有其他的星星了。

I can imagine creatures evolving into glimmeringsof knowledge on innumerable worlds, every one of them assuming at first theirpuny planet and paltry few suns to be all that is.

我們是在與世隔絕的情況下成長起來的，

We grow up in isolation.

我們對宇宙的正確認識是逐漸形成的。

Only slowly do we teach ourselves the Cosmos.

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有些恆星可能被數百萬個沒有生物的由岩石構成的小星球所包圍，這些小星球是在它們演化的某個初級階段凍結而成的行星系。

Some stars may be surrounded by millions oflifeless and rocky worldlets, planetary systems frozen at some early stage intheir evolution.

大概許多恆星郡有跟我們類似的行星系：在外圍具有由大氣環所包圍的行星和冰凍衛星，而在接近中心處則有溫熱的、天藍色的、覆蓋著雲的小星球。

Perhaps many stars have planetary systems ratherlike our own: at the periphery, great gaseous ringed planets and icy moons, andnearer to the center, small, warm, blue-white, cloud-covered worlds.

在一些行星上可能已經有高級動物，他們也許正在從事某種巨大的工程建設來改造他們的行星世界，

On some, intelligent life may have evolved,reworking the planetary surface in some massive engineering enterprise.

他們是我們宇宙中的兄弟姐妹。

These are our brothers and sisters in the Cosmos.

他們跟我們的差別很大嗎？

Are they very different from us?

他們的形狀、生物化學、神經生態、歷史、政治、科學、技術、藝術、音樂、宗教、哲學等方面的情況如何？

What is their form, biochemistry, neurobiology,history, politics, science, technology, art, music, religion, philosophy?

也許有一天我們會知道的。

Perhaps some day we will know them.

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我們現在已經回到了我們的後院——離地球1光年的地方。

We have now reached our own backyard, a light-yearfrom Earth.

包圍著我們的太陽的是一群巨大的雪球，這些雪球由冰塊、岩石和有機分子組成：它們就是彗核。

Surrounding our Sun is a spherical swarm of giantsnow-balls composed of ice and rock and organic molecules: the cometary nuclei.

每當恆星經過的時候都對它們產生一定的引力作用，最後迫使它們當中的一個雪球傾倒到內太陽系。

Every now and then a passing star gives a tinygravitational tug, and one of them obligingly careens into the inner solarsystem.

由於太陽熱的作用，冰塊被蒸發，於是就出現了美麗的彗尾。

There the Sun heats it, the ice is vaporized, and alovely cometary tail develops.

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我們現在來到我們星系的行星上。這些星球相當之大，它們都是太陽的俘獲物。由於重力作用，它們被迫作近似圓周運動。它們的熱量主要來自太陽。

We approach the planets of our system, largishworlds, captives of the Sun, gravitationally constrained to follow nearlycircular orbits, heated mainly by sunlight.

冥王星覆蓋著甲烷冰，它唯一的夥伴是它的巨大衛星卡戎。冥王星是被太陽照亮的，因為太陽離它很遠，從漆黑的天空中看上去，太陽只不過是一個明亮的光點。

Pluto, covered with methane ice and accompanied byits solitary giant moon Charon, is illuminated by a distant Sun, which appearsas no more than a bright point of light in a pitch-black sky.

巨大的氣體星球海王星、天王星、土星——太陽系的寶石——和木星部分別有一個冰凍衛星作伴相隨（這些行星近年均被發現有更多的衛星甚至衛星群相伴隨。——編著）。

The giant gas worlds, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn - thejewel of the solar system - and Jupiter all have an entourage of icy moons.

在氣體行星及其冰凍衛星的內側就是充滿岩石的溫暖的內太陽系。

Interior to the region of gassy planets andorbiting icebergs are the warm, rocky provinces of the inner solar system.

例如，在那裡有紅色行星——火星。在火星上有高聳的火山、巨大的裂谷、席捲火星的大沙暴，並且，完全可能還有一些初級形態的生物。

There is, for example, the red planet Mars, withsoaring volcanoes, great rift valleys, enormous planet-wide sandstorms, and,just possibly, some simple forms of life.

所有太陽系的行星都繞著太陽運轉。太陽是離我們最近的一個恆星，它是一個令人恐怖的氫氣和氦氣的熱核反應爐，它的強光照耀著整個太陽系。

All the planets orbit the Sun, the nearest star, aninferno of hydrogen and helium gas engaged in thermonuclear reactions, floodingthe solar system with light.

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經過一番漫遊之後，我們終於回到了我們這個弱小的淺藍色星球。宇宙汪洋茫無際涯，範圍之大，難以想像，

Finally, at the end of all our wanderings, wereturn to our tiny, fragile, blue-white world, lost in a cosmic ocean vastbeyond our most courageous imaginings.

而這個星球僅是其中之一，完全淹沒於宇宙汪洋之中，

It is a world among an immensity of others.

它的存在可能僅僅對我們有意義。

It may be significant only for us.

地球是我們的家，我們的母親。

The Earth is our home, our parent.

人類是在這裡誕生和成長的，

Our kind of life arose and evolved here.

是在這裡成熟起來的。

The human species is coming of age here.

正是在這個星球上，我們激發了探索宇畝的熱情。也正是在這裡，我們正在痛苦和不安之中掌握我們自己的命運。

It is on this world that we developed our passionfor exploring the Cosmos, and it is here that we are, in some pain and with noguarantees, working out our destiny.

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人類有幸來到地球這個行星上。這裡有充滿氮氣的藍天，有碧波蕩漾的海洋，有涼爽的森林，還有柔軟的草地。這無疑是一個生機勃勃的星球。

Welcome to the planet Earth - a place of bluenitrogen skies, oceans of liquid water, cool forests and soft meadows, a worldpositively rippling with life.

從整個宇宙來看，它不但景色迷人，天下稀有，

In the cosmic perspective it is, as I have said,poignantly beautiful and rare; but it is also, for the moment, unique.

而且到目前為止，在我們的行程所經歷過的所有時空當中，只有這個行星上的人類開始對宇宙進行探索。

In all our journeying through space and time, itis, so far, the only world on which we know with certainty that the matter ofthe Cosmos has become alive and aware.

必定有許多這樣的星球散布在整個宇宙空間里，但是，我們對它們的探索從這裡開始。我們有人類百萬年來用巨大的代價積累起來的豐富知識。

There must be many such worlds scattered throughspace, but our search for them begins here, with the accumulated wisdom of themen and women of our species, garnered at great cost over a million years.

我們這個世界人才濟濟，人們勤學好問。我們的時代以知識為榮。我們是很幸運的。

We are privileged to live among brilliant andpassionately inquisitive people, and in a time when the search for knowledge isgenerally prized.

人類是宇宙的產物，現在暫時居住在叫做「地球」的星球上。人類返回家園的長途旅行已經開始。

Human beings, born ultimately of the stars and nowfor a while inhabiting a world called Earth, have begun their long voyage home.

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附註：

(1) Source of English Version

The English version is from internet which I believe is the original.

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