It was night. For a moment she saw the coast of Sumatra edged by the phosphorescence of waves, and crowned by lighthouses, still sending forth their disregarded beams.

那是夜里，有一会儿功夫，她看到了同那闪着粼光的波浪相邻的撒马特拉海岸，上面散布的那些灯塔依然在放出它们的微光。

These also vanished, and only the stars distracted her.

然后这些也消失不见了，只有那些星星分散了她的注意力。

They were not motionless, but swayed to and fro above her head, thronging out of one sky-light into another, as if the universe and not the air-ship was careening.

它们不是静止的，而是在她头上来来去去摆动着，从一个天窗拥出又进到另一个天窗中去，竟好象是宇宙而不是飞艇在倾斜地疾驰着。

And, as often happens on clear nights, they seemed now to be in perspective, now on a plane; now piled tier beyond tier into the infinite heavens, now concealing infinity, a roof limiting for ever the visions of men.

正像在万里晴空之夜所常见到的那样，星星一会儿好像分成层次，一会儿又像在一个平面上，一会儿是一层一层堆成无限的天宇，一会儿又象是要把无限隐蔽起来。一个屋顶永远限制着人们的视线。

In either case they seemed intolerable.

不论是哪种情形，都是令人难以忍受的。

"Are we to travel in the dark?" called the passengers angrily, and the attendant, who had been careless, generated the light, and pulled down the blinds of pliable metal.

“我们是不是非要在黑暗中旅行不可呢？”旅客们气忿地大声叫喊着，于是那一直毫不经意的服务员给了光，随后拉下了那些柔韧的金属挡板。

When the air-ships had been built, the desire to look direct at things still lingered in the world.

在制造飞艇的那个时候，想要直接看看各样东西的迫切愿望，在世界上还缕缕未绝。

Hence the extraordinary number of skylights and windows, and the proportionate discomfort to those who were civilized and refined.

这样，对于文明的和过于考究的人们来说，天窗和窗口的数目便太多了，产生了不舒适感。

Even in Vashti's cabin one star peeped through a flaw in the blind, and after a few hours' uneasy slumber, she was disturbed by an unfamiliar glow, which was the dawn.

甚至于在瓦西蒂的房舱里，也有一颗星从挡板的一条裂缝窥进，在她睡了几个小时不安稳的觉以后，她被一种不习惯的光所扰醒，那就是黎明。

Quick as the ship had sped westwards, the earth had rolled eastwards quicker still, and had dragged back Vashti and her companions towards the sun.

因为飞艇向西疾飞着，地球更加迅速地向东滚着，这既使瓦西蒂和她的旅伴们从太阳后面去追赶太阳。

Science could prolong the night, but only for a little, and those high hopes of neutralizing the earth's diurnal revolution had passed, together with hopes that were possibly higher.

科学能够延长夜晚，不过只能延长一点点，那些想要抵消地球的每日转动的太高的希望，已经同那些可能还要更高的希望一起逝去了。

To "keep pace with the sun," or even to outstrip it, had been the aim of the civilization preceding this.

要“跟太阳齐步”或甚至超过它，曾经是在这以前的文明的目标。

Racing aeroplanes had been built for the purpose, capable of enormous speed, and steered by the greatest intellects of the epoch.

为了达到这一目标，曾经制造过飞速极高的竞赛飞机，由那个时代最伟大的天才所驾驶。

Round the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round, amidst humanity's applause. In vain.

他们环绕着地球飞行，在人类热烈欢呼的掌声中向西绕呀绕呀，结果失败了。

The globe went eastward quicker still, horrible accidents occurred, and the Committee of the Machine, at the time rising into prominence, declared the pursuit illegal, unmechanical, and punishable by Homelessness.

仍然是地球向东转得快些。一些可怕的意外事件发生了，于是大机器委员会在这个时候上升到至高无上的地位，宣布这种追求是不合法的，不合机理的，并给以无家可归的处分。

Of Homelessness more will be said later.

关于无家可归的事，以后还要细说。

Doubtless the Committee was right.

毫无疑问，这个委员会是正确无误的。

Yet the attempt to "defeat the sun" aroused the last common interest that our race experienced about the heavenly bodies, or indeed about anything.

不过要“击败太阳”这个企图却引起了那最后共同的兴趣，那就是我们这个种族对于那些天体，或任何事物的感受。

It was the last time that men were compacted by thinking of a power outside the world.

这是人们最后一次由于想到在世界之外有一种力量而被紧密结合在一起。

The sun had conquered, yet it was the end of his spiritual dominion.

太阳战胜了，不过这却是他的精神统治的结束。

Dawn, midday, twilight, the zodiacal path, touched neither men's lives not their hearts, and science retreated into the ground, to concentrate herself upon problems that she was certain of solving.

黎明、中午、黄昏和黄道，既接触不到人们的生命，也接触不到他们的内心，而科学引退到了地下，集中在她确实能够解决的那些问题上。