(单词翻译:单击)
中英文本
Obituary: Michael Collins
讣告:迈克尔·柯林斯
The third man
第三人
Michael Collins, astronaut, died on April 28th, aged 90
宇航员迈克尔·柯林斯,于4月28日离世,享年90岁
The moon that filled the window of the spacecraft Columbia was not one Michael Collins had ever seen before. It was absolutely three-dimensional, its belly bulging out towards him. Cascading sunlight formed a halo round it. The lighter parts were a lot lighter than usual, the jagged mountains darker. It was electrifying. Then the feeling passed. “Hello Moon!” he quipped. “How’s the old backside?”
迈克尔·柯林斯(Michael Collins)从没见过这般景象:“哥伦比亚号”指挥舱窗外被月亮填满,如此立体、圆鼓鼓地凸向他
This was the closest he had come, as the Apollo 11 crew on July 19th 1969 scouted out their best landing place. But he knew all about the Moon: dry, lifeless, rough as a corncob. Sometimes it looked like a sun-seared peach pit, sometimes like smallpox. What it never looked was interesting. He would certainly much rather have flown off to Mars.
这是他距月球最近的一次
It was therefore no hardship, when his colleagues Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the lunar module Eagle down to the surface and clumped about on it, for him to stay for 27 hours in orbit in Columbia. Someone had to get them home. Besides, he loved Columbia, finest of ships, commodious and a friend. It pained him to think of Neil and Buzz trailing their grimy moon-goo into it. On his previous spaceflight, the Gemini 10 mission with John Young in 1966 to practise manoeuvering in Earth orbit, the two of them had squashed into a cabin the size of the front seat of a Volkswagen. By contrast Columbia almost reminded him, if you took the centre couch out, of Washington National Cathedral. When he later became director of the new National Air and Space Museum, planning and completing it on time and under budget, she had a place of honour, right by Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis.
所以,当同事尼尔·阿姆斯特朗(Neil Armstrong)和巴兹·奥尔德林(Buzz Aldrin)将“鹰”号登月舱降落在月球表面、费劲力气踏上月球时,“哥伦比亚”号指挥舱的柯林斯在飞船轨道停留了27个小时,这于他而言并非难事
Ensconced in Columbia he could dine in splendour on tubes of his favourite cream-of-chicken soup, drink fairly hot coffee, listen to music and crank up the thermostat to 76 degrees. For 48 minutes in each of 14 orbits, as he passed the Moon’s meteor-battered backside, it was a joy to get Mission Control to shut up for a while. So when the press called him the loneliest man in history, or at least since Adam, 65 miles above his comrades, 250,000 miles from home, that was ridiculous. Occasionally forgotten, perhaps.
在“哥伦比亚号”里坐定后,他可以美美地享用鸡肉奶油汤,喝点热咖啡,听听音乐,把恒温器调高到24.4度
。每飞行48分钟,他就变换到14条轨道的其中一条,经过被陨石撞击的月球背面时,他会暂时关闭任务控制系统,静静地享受这段时间 。所以,当媒体称他为史上最孤独的人时(或者至少自亚当以来),想想他正处于同事头顶65英里、距家25万英里,多么不可思议 。只是,有时候他也许会被遗忘 。译文由可可原创,仅供学习交流使用,未经许可请勿转载 。
重点讲解
1.scout out 寻找
We went ahead to scout out the lie of the land.
我们先走一步,去侦察地形
。2.shut up 关闭;闭嘴
Did you whine until they just wanted you to shut up?
你是不是一直在抱怨直到他们让你闭嘴?
3.for a while 暂时;一段时间
I think you'd better lay off fatty foods for a while.
我认为你最好暂时别吃高脂食物
。