刘慈欣原著《流浪地球》英文版，为何让人如此激动？

　　

　　开头部分

　　我没见过黑夜，我没见过星星，我没见过春天、秋天和冬天。我出生在刹车时代结束的时候，那时地球刚刚停止转动。

　　I have never seen the night. I have never seen the stars. I have never seen spring, fall, or winter. I was born as the Braking Era ended, just as the Earth stopped turning.

　　地球自转刹车用了四十二年，比联合政府的计划长了三年。妈妈给我讲过我们全家看最后一个日落的情景，太阳落得很慢，仿佛在地平线上停住了，用了三天三夜才落下去。当然，以后没有“天”也没有“夜”了，东半球在相当长的一段时间里（有十几年吧）将处于永远的黄昏中，因为太阳在地平线下并没落深，还在半边天上映出它的光芒。就在那次漫长的日落中，我出生了。

　　It had taken forty-two years to halt Earth’s rotation, three years longer than the Coalition had planned. My mother told me about the time our family watched the last sunset. The sun sank very slowly, as if stuck on the horizon. It took three days and three nights to set all the way. Of course, afterward there was no more “day” or “night”. The Eastern hemisphere was shrouded in perpetual dusk for a long time, maybe a decade or so. The sun lay just below the horizon, and its glow filled half the sky. And during that endless sunset, I was born.

　　黄昏并不意味着昏暗，地球发动机把整个北半球照得通明。地球发动机安装在亚洲和美洲大陆上，因为只有这两个大陆完整坚实的板块结构才能承受发动机对地球巨大的推力。地球发动机共有一万二千台，分布在亚洲和美洲大陆的各个平原上。

　　Dusk did not mean darkness. The Earth Engines brightly illuminated the whole Northern hemisphere. They had been installed all across Asia and North America—only the solid plate structure of these two continents could withstand the enormous thrust they exerted. In total, there were 12,000 engines scattered across the Eurasian and North American plains.

　　从我住的地方，可以看到几百台发动机喷出的等离子体光柱。你想像一个巨大的宫殿，有雅典卫城上的神殿那么大，殿中有无数根顶天立地的巨柱，每根柱子像一根巨大的日光灯管那样发出蓝白色的强光。而你，是那巨大宫殿地板上的一个细菌，这样，你就可以想像到我所在的世界是什么样子了。

　　From where I lived, I could see the bright plasma beams of hundreds of engines. Imagine an enormous palace, as big as the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Inside the palace, countless massive columns rise up to the vaulted ceiling, each one blazing with the blue-white light of a fluorescent tube. And you, you are just a germ on the palace’s floor. That was the world I lived in.

　　

　　将要来临的氦闪爆发

　　终于，我们看到了那令人胆寒的火焰，开始时只是天水连线上的一个亮点，很快增大，渐渐显示出了圆弧的形状。这时，我感到自己的喉咙被什么东西掐住了，恐惧使我窒息，脚下的甲板仿佛突然消失，我在向海的深渊坠下去，坠下去……和我一起下坠的还有灵儿，她那蛛丝般柔弱的小身躯紧贴着我颤抖着；还有其他孩子，其他的所有人，整个世界，都在下坠。这时我又想起了那个谜语，我曾问过哲学老师，那堵墙是什么颜色的，他说应该是黑色的。我觉得不对，我想像中的死亡之墙应该是雪亮的，这就是为什么那道等离子体墙让我想起了它。这个时代，死亡不再是黑色的，它是闪电的颜色，当那最后的闪电到来时，世界将在瞬间变成蒸汽。

　　Finally, we glimpsed the gut-chilling flame. At first, it was just a point of light on the horizon, but it quickly grew into a blazing arc. I felt my throat close up in terror. It seemed as if the deck beneath my feet had suddenly vanished. I was falling into the blackness of the sea, falling... Linger fell with me, her spindly frame quivering against mine. Our classmates, everyone else, even the entire world fell into the abyss. Then I remembered the riddle. I had asked our philosophy teacher what color the wall was. He told me that it was black. I thought he was wrong. I always imagined the wall of death would be bright as fresh snow. That was why I had remembered it when I saw the wall of plasma. In this era, death was no longer black. It was the color of lightning, and when that final bolt struck, the world would be vaporized in an instant.

　　三个多世纪前，天体物理学家们就发现这太阳内部氢转化为氦的速度突然加快，于是他们发射了上万个探测器穿过太阳，最终建立了这颗恒星完整精确的数学模型。

　　Over three centuries ago, astrophysicists discovered the conversion rate of hydrogen to helium in the interior of the Sun was accelerating. They launched thousands of probes straight into the Sun to investigate, and eventually developed a precise mathematical model of the star.

　　

　　逃亡计划

　　人类的逃亡分为五步：第一步，用地球发动机使地球停止转动，使发动机喷口固定在地球运行的反方向；第二步，全功率开动地球发动机，使地球加速到逃逸速度，飞出太阳系；第三步，在外太空继续加速，飞向比邻星；第四步，在中途使地球重新自转，掉转发动机方向，开始减速；第五步，地球泊入比邻星轨道，成为这颗恒星的卫星。人们把这五步分别称为刹车时代、逃逸时代、流浪时代Ⅰ（加速）、流浪时代Ⅱ（减速）、新太阳时代。

　　Humanity’s escape was a five-step process. First, the Earth Engines would generate thrust in the opposite direction of Earth’s movement, halting its rotation. Second, operating at full capacity, the engines would accelerate Earth until it reached escape velocity, flinging it from the solar system. Third, Earth would continue to accelerate as it flew through outer space toward Proxima Centauri. Fourth, the engines would reverse direction, restarting Earth’s rotation and decelerating gradually. Fifth, Earth would enter into orbit around Proxima Centauri, becoming its satellite. People called these five steps the “Braking Era”, the “Deserting Era”, the “First Wandering Era” (during acceleration), the “Second Wandering Era” (during deceleration), and the “Neosolar Era”.

　　整个移民过程将延续两千五百年时间，一百代人。

　　The entire migration process was projected to last 2,500 years, over one hundred generations.

　　

　　太阳危机下的人类疏散

　　升降梯的载运量很小，要把这座城市的36万人运出去需要很长时间，但也没有必要去争夺生存的机会，联合政府的危急法把一切都安排好了。

　　The carrying capacity of the lifts was very limited. It would take ages to move all three hundred and sixty thousand residents to safety, but there was no need to scramble for a place on the lifts. The Coalition’s Emergency Act had made all necessary arrangements for the evacuation.

　　古代曾有过一个伦理学问题：当洪水到来时，一个只能救走一个人的男人，是去救他的父亲呢，还是去救他的儿子？在这个时代的人看来，提出这个问题很不可理解。

　　Past generations once grappled with an ethical dilemma. A man is faced by rising floodwaters and can only save one other person. In this situation, should he save his father or his son? In this day and age, it was unbelievable that the question had ever been raised at all.

　　当我到达中心广场时，看到人们已按年龄排起了长长的队。最靠近电梯口的是由机器人保育员抱着的婴儿，然后是幼儿园的孩子，再往后是小学生……我排在队伍中间靠前的部分。爸爸现在在近地轨道值班，城里只有我和妈妈，我现在看不到妈妈，就顺着长长的队伍跑，没跑多远就被士兵拦住了。我知道她在最后一段。

　　When I arrived in the plaza, I saw that people had already begun to arrange themselves in a long line according to age. At the front of the line, closest to the lifts, stood robotic nurses, each cradling an infant. Then came the kindergartners, followed by the primary school students. My place was in the middle of the line, still rather close to the front. My father was on duty in low-Earth orbit, leaving only my mother and myself in the city. Unable to see her, I began to run along the unending line of people, but I had not run far before I was stopped by soldiers. I knew she stood at the very back.

　　（来源：中国日报双语新闻）

　　海伦多兰英语