原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491611&idx=1&sn=4811c6b4cf82212413d7705eb1ef3439&chksm=fba3b3bcccd43aaa62ecd0e8033b2962e326e4c6e51527bc3bbf4aeef094dcb8308bf6afab78#rd
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Wind, sea and stars
风、大海和星辰
英文部分选自经济学人20200829期逝者版块
Obituary: Marvin Creamer
逝者:马文•克里默
Wind, sea and stars
风、大海和星辰
Marvin Creamer, geographer and circumnavigator, died on August 12th, aged 104
地理学家和环球航海家马文•克里默于8月12日逝世,享年104岁。
When Francis Drake rounded the globe in 1577-80, he took an astrolabe, compass and cross-staff with him. As Ferdinand Magellan, the first known circumnavigator, started out in 1519, he had at least an astrolabe and compass. But when Marvin Creamer set sail from Cape May, New Jersey in 1982, into thick overcast and a howling gale, on a voyage of 30,000 miles requiring nearly a year at sea, he carried, to his delight, no instruments at all.
弗朗西斯·德雷克在1577到1580年间从海上环行世界时,随身携带了一面星盘、一块罗盘和一把直角器。世界首位有姓名记载的环球航海家斐迪南·麦哲伦在1519年起航时,至少带上了星盘和罗盘。但是在1982年,马文•克里默从新泽西州的五月岬起航,驶入浓雾和怒号的狂风,开启一段全程三万英里、历时近一年的海上航程的时候,身上并未携带任何仪器。他对此开心不已。
Well, to be quite accurate, there were a few. He had an hourglass, the only time-keeper, to mark the watches of his small crew. Down in the bilge, in a duffel bag, were a radio, sextant, compass and clock, in case of emergency. His wife Blanche, with whom he had had months of lively discussions about this voyage—she dead against him sailing off, he, at 66, desperate to go—had insisted on this. But he had had it sealed by the navy, intending never to get those “toys” out, and never did. Lastly, there was a transmitter somewhere on the Globe Star to give the little cutter-rigged sloop’s position regularly to the coast guard. But it did not tell him where he was, and that was vital. He was going by the stars.
其实准确地说,他还是带了几件仪器。船上仅有的计时器是一台沙漏,用以记录寥寥几位船员的值班时间。在底舱有一个旅行包,装着收音机、六分仪、罗盘和时钟,以防万一。这几样东西是他的妻子布兰奇坚持让带的。布兰奇就此次航行和他激烈争论了数月——她极力反对他远航,而时年66岁的他执意出海。然而,马文•克里默让海军将装有仪器的旅行包封起来,打算永不使用这些“玩意儿”,而且他做到了。最后,在这艘名为“地球之星”的小单桅帆船上还装有一个发射台,定时将位置信息发给海岸警卫队。但是,发射台并不会把位置信息告诉马文•克里默,而这一点至关重要。他要通过观星来航行。
The ancient sailors he so admired, the Vikings and Chinese traders, as well as more modern Polynesians, had gone the same way. None of them, as far as was known, had circled the globe; but it seemed to him that they might have made predictable landfalls, setting a course and then returning again. He meant to prove, and never had much doubt—5%, perhaps—that they could also have got further. Endurance or fame were not the point of this endeavour, which even he admitted looked insane. It was the intellectual challenge of finding out how the ancients might have done it.
他非常钦佩古代的航海者,例如维京人、中国商人、以及时代更近一些的波利尼西亚人,而这些人都是以观星的方式航海的。据我们所知,古代航海者从未完成过环球航行;但是,在马文•克里默看来,那些古代航海者可能预测过要到达的登陆点,设定航线,然后又返航。古代航海者也可能已经航行到过更远的地方,马文•克里默对这点几乎不怀疑——如果有的话,也许只有一丁点怀疑——并且他还打算证明这一点。尽管承认(以这种方式环球航行)貌似有些疯狂,但他此举并非为了考验耐力或获取名声,而是将它看作一场智慧上的挑战,来弄清楚古代航海者是如何远航的。
To prepare himself he had done some hard study of oceanography and meteorology, in the gaps between teaching geography in the department he had founded at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. And he had gone seafaring: first fishing on small outboards past the barrier islands off New Jersey, where he would venture out so far that his colleagues thought him either lost, or mad, and later sailing across the Atlantic to Ireland and Africa. It was on a voyage back from the Azores in 1974, when he had taken the dark-to-daylight watch and the compass-light kept failing, that he looked up and thought: why not? All he had to do at that moment was find Polaris, the Pole Star, put his shoulder in line with the keel, and steer straight on. It worked like a dream.
为了准备环球航行,马文•克里默利用在葛拉斯堡罗州立学院(现为罗文大学)自己建立的院系教授地理学的间隙,深入研究了海洋学和气象学。不仅如此,他还进行了一系列航海活动:先是开着装有舷外马达的小艇绕过新泽西海岸的堰洲岛去钓鱼。马文•克里默的同事见他驾着小艇去那么远的地方,都以为他要么是迷了路要么是发了疯。后来,他又驾艇穿越大西洋,抵达爱尔兰和非洲。1974年,从亚速尔群岛返航途中,他负责夜班值守,期间罗盘的灯不断出故障。于是他仰望天空,寻思道:为什么不利用星辰呢?在那一刻,他只需要找到北极星,让自己肩膀与船的龙骨对齐,然后向前直行即可。这一招很奏效,像做梦一样。
Star-steering had intrigued him since childhood, when his farmer-father taught him to observe the different positions of the setting sun from the south-west corner of the barn. On his voyage, a clear view of sunset or sunrise could tell him his position; but for latitude without a sextant he needed to make a geometry of the night sky, drawing an imaginary line between Polaris and his chosen navigation-star and watching where that star made its meridian transit. Finding a fixed point in the southern hemisphere was tricky until he learned to use Acrux and Gacrux, two of the brightest stars in the Southern Cross, as pointers to the southern celestial Pole. (Delta Orionis, right over the celestial Equator, was most useful for longitude.) Both north and south of the Equator, his calculations proved so accurate that almost all the Globe Star’s landfalls, on a route from Dakar via Sydney round to Bermuda, were within 15 miles of the target, and close to the dates he’d set.
在克里默小时候,他的父亲是一名农民,会教他在谷仓的西南角观察(不同季节)太阳落山的不同位置。从那时起,他就对靠观星辨识方向很着迷。航行中,清晰的日落、日出景象能让他判断自己所在的位置;但是如果要明确纬度的时候没有六分仪,则需要对夜空做一番几何测算,在北极星和他挑中的导航星之间画出一条假想的线,观察那颗导航星在哪里越过子午线。在马文•克里默尚未学会使用南十字座中最亮的南十字二(Acrux)和南十字一(Gacrux)两颗星作为指向南方天极的指针之前,在南半球找一个固定点非常棘手。(天球赤道上方的参宿三(Delta Orionis)最利于判断经度。)无论在赤道以北还是以南,他的计算最后证明都很准确。从达喀尔绕过悉尼、再到百慕大的航程中,“地球之星”几乎所有的登陆点都在距目标登陆点15英里的范围之内,登陆日期也接近马文•克里默预先设定的日期。
注:
The Southern Cross: 南十字座,南天星座之一,是全天88个星座中最小的星座,位于半人马座(Centaurus)与苍蝇座(Musca)之间的银河内。星座中主要的亮星组成一个“十”字形,从这个“十”字形的一竖向下方一直划下去,直到约4倍于这一竖的长度的一点就是南天极。在北回归线以南的地方皆可看到整个星座。(选自《百度百科》)
天球:天文学名词,是指一个以地球质心为中心,半径为任意长度的假想球体。创建天球概念的目的是将天体沿观测者视线投影到球面上,以便于研究天体及相互关系
Yet for much of the voyage he could not see the night sky at all. Crossing the Pacific, they had five sights of the stars in 5,000 miles. To estimate latitude and direction he had to be fiercely observant in daylight, too. He watched the sea most: its deep swell, the surface interaction of new waves with old ones, and the shadows they cast; its colour, whether blue in the deep or green in plankton-filled waters, and the wake of the boat. He guessed the Globe Star’s speed from the time bubbles took to move from bow to stern. His log showed that, having veered off the Horn in fog and with no landmarks, he was unsure whether they had rounded it or not. But he thought they had because the sea had gone from a dark transparent green to a lighter green and then turned dark again—the colour, an old mariner had told him, of the Atlantic.
然而,航行中的大部分时间里根本看不到夜空。穿越太平洋时,马文•克里默和他的船员在5,000英里的路程中仅仅有五天能看到星星。为了估算纬度和方向,他在白天也必须全神贯注进行观察。大海是他观察最多的对象:海里的深涌;先形成的浪与后形成的浪在海面的交融情况;海浪投在海里的阴影;海水的颜色,无论是大海深处的湛蓝还是长满浮游生物的碧绿;还有船的尾波。他通过泡沫从船首移到船尾的时间来推测“地球之星”的速度。航海日志显示,在大雾中“地球之星”突然在合恩角转向,又没有地标,他不确定究竟是否绕过了这个陡峭的岬角。但是海水从清透的深绿色变成浅绿色,又变成深绿色(一位老水手告诉过他这是大西洋的颜色),所以他认为他们绕过去了。
注:
The Horn:Cape Horn,合恩角,智利南部合恩岛上的陡峭岬角,位于南美洲最南端,南纬55°59′、西经67°16′,南临德雷克海峡,隔德雷克海峡与南极相望,附近多岛屿。
选自https://www.meipian.cn/1rrvoivw
He guessed they had, too, from the sudden icy breath of a north wind coming off the snow-covered Andes. The wind was always a useful indicator. Leaving Cape May, he had set course south-east for Senegal by keeping the freezing north-westerly at the midpoint of the back of his neck. After days in the doldrums, floating with no direction, the sudden nail-scraping squeak of a hatch told him that a dry wind was blowing up from Antarctica. Heavy cumulus clouds indicated land; diving petrels showed, specifically, the Falklands (as did the raf fighter jets that buzzed them, so soon after the war). Red sand-streaks on the sails in the dew of morning proved they were close to the Sahara.
从白雪皑皑的安第斯山脉方向突然吹来一阵凉气逼人的北风,据此也可判断,他们已经绕过了合恩角。风通常是有效的提示。离开五月岬(Cape May)之后,他朝东南方向驶向塞内加尔,一路靠着让寒冷的西北风正面吹向他后颈中部来保持方向。驶入赤道无风带后,一连漂了几天,毫无方向。突然,舱门上响起吱吱的刮擦声,表明有一股干燥的风从南极洲吹来。天空出现厚厚的积云,预示着前方有陆地,而一群俯冲的海燕更是说明福克兰群岛近在咫尺(马岛战争一结束,吓飞这些海燕的英国皇家空军战斗机也做到了这一点)。晨露润湿的船帆上沾着一道道红沙尘,则表明撒哈拉离他们不远了。
注:
doldrums:赤道无风带
五月岬(Cape May),美国城镇,位于新泽西州最南端。
8. For him, having the time of his life, happily chewing day after day the canned hamburger which Blanche, once resigned, had nobly put up for him, all the interest and point of the circumnavigation lay in these essential observations. Of course, there were dramas. Twice they almost capsized, with the mast 45% underwater. Going through Drake Passage near the Horn broke the “indestructible” steel tiller, though he was a good enough mechanic to rig up another. More than once they nearly came to grief on rocky, unlit coasts. Passing Tasmania, in the worst weather of the trip, he had to haul down wet sails with a dislocated shoulder. A galley fire almost incinerated the boat, as well as the loaf he was baking. Frustrations, but par for the course. He was just thrilled to prove that the ancients could have undertaken serious long-distance sailing, without toys, more often than people thought.
妻子布兰奇妥协后,就义无反顾的投入,为他准备罐装汉堡。航行途中,他每天幸福地咀嚼着这些罐装汉堡,享受着他最幸福的人生。对他而言,环球航行所有的乐趣和要点就存在于对这些必不可少的观测中。当然,航行也并非一帆风顺。他们的船两次险些倾覆,桅杆将近一半都淹没在水中。穿过德雷克海峡时,号称“坚不可摧”的铁舵柄竟发生了断裂,好在他是一名足够优秀的机械师,可以再组装一个。不止一次,他们差点撞到黑暗中坚硬的岩石海岸上。途经塔斯马尼亚时,船员们遇到了航程中最糟糕的天气,他不得不吊着脱臼的肩膀拽下湿漉漉的帆。一次,船上厨房着火,差点把小船和他正在烤制的面包统统烧毁。挫折已是家常便饭,但丝毫没有影响他的目标。能证明古人不依靠任何工具,可以完成真正的长途航行,而且航行的频率比想象的要高,他就喜出望外了。
注:
1. rig up:to make or to build sth quickly, using whatever materials are available(用现有的材料)匆匆做成
2. incinerate:to burn sth until it is completely destroyed把...烧成灰烬
3. (be) par for the course: to be just what you would expect to happen or expect sb to do in a particular situation 不出所料,果不其然
Naturally he wrote a book about it. But publishers showed no interest. No one had mutinied in this story, or been lost overboard; it was academic rather than tragic. Besides, there were lots of sailing books, and circumnavigations were increasing. That was all true; but then again, how many of those sailors had estimated latitude by watching yager gulls, or knew they were approaching home when a housefly settled in the cabin?
自然而然地,他把这段经历写成了一本书。但出版商对此却毫无兴趣。整个故事既没有人叛变,也没有人迷失,学术性太强,悲剧色彩不够。并且市面上已有很多关于航海的书籍,环球航行的次数也在不断增加。事实的确如此。不过,话说回来,那些航海者有几个是通过观察海鸥来估算纬度呢?又有几个看见家蝇落在船舱时,就知道已离家不远了呢?
翻译组:
Alex,不务正业的理工男
Lucia,英语专业学生,经济学人爱好者
Lixia,女,爱爬山的健身小白,美食狂人
校对组:
Mona,悦读悦译,以译会友
Nikolai,热爱想象的小双鱼,蒙特雷候补生,AKB49
Rachel Zhang,学理工科,爱跳芭蕾,热爱文艺的非典型翻译
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观点|评论|思考
本次感想
Kemay,决心练好笔译的未来口译员
曾在阅读中看到一位老妇人原本想要去一个距家30公里的城市,因为一味相信导航,跨越了900多公里跑到了另一个国家。很久之前我们的先人正是通过四季更替、二十四节气、斗转星移之间发现了在闰年的存在,可以通过飞禽走兽不寻常的行为判断出千里之外的地震,更有甚者可以观天象洞悉未来。其中的一些我们找到了依据,并用更精确的仪器进行替代,称其为科学。也正是这些科学造就了如今的人类文明,让我们发展。然而不知何时,我们开始过度依赖科学仪器,忘却了这些仪器背后的自然万象,非但不尊重,反而开始诋毁、轻视。殊不知我们的文明正是建立在这些抽象、主观之上。克里默之所以值得我们尊重正是因为他能够在众多精确仪器的诱惑之下,坚持从自然中寻找答案,是为数不多可以在星辰中寻找方向,凭借水波驶向远方的人儿。
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愿景
小组
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