02 The World Is Round, for I've Been Round It
02世界是圓的,我圍著它繞了一圈
Did you ever run away from home? I did—once upon a time—when I was younger than you are.I wanted to see the World.My Mother had told me the World was a huge ball and that if I kept on, straight ahead, following my nose, I would go round the ball and come back to where I started. So early one morning, without telling any one, I set out to go around the World. But I didn't get very far before night came on, and a big kind policeman brought me back home.
你曾離家出走過嗎?我有過,有一次在我比你還小的時候。我想要去看這個世界。媽媽告訴我世界是個大球,只要我一直向前走,跟著我鼻子所指的方向,我會環繞這個大球一圈,回到我出發的地方。于是一天清早我沒有告訴任何人就開始出發去環繞世界了。但是我還沒走多遠天就黑了,一個個子高高的好心的警察把我送回了家。
When I was grown up and had no home, I started out once again to go around the World. This time I got on a train headed toward the setting sun. Night came on, but no big, kind policeman brought me back home; so I kept on and on, day after day, week after week, month after month—sometimes on trains, sometimes on boats, sometimes in automobiles, sometimes on the backs of animals—but always toward the side of the world where the sun sets, the side which the people call “the west.”
當我長大后,還沒成家的時候,我開始再次出發去環游世界。這次我坐上了一列開往太陽落山方向的火車。夜晚降臨了,但是沒有個子高高的好心的警察帶我回家;于是我一直向前行,一天又一天,一周又一周,一月又一月,有時在火車 上,有時在船上,有時在汽車上,有時騎著牲畜,但始終朝向太陽下山的方向,也就是人們稱“西方”的那一邊。
I passed broad fields and thick forests, small towns and big cities—I went over bridges, round hills, and through holes in mountains—I reached a great ocean and sailed across it on a big ship to another continent—I came to strange lands where people dressed in strange clothes, lived in strange houses, and spoke strange languages; I saw strange animals, trees, and flowers; I crossed another great ocean and at last after many, many months, always going in the same direction, I came back here to the exact spot from which I had started. So I knew the World was round, for I had been round it—but it was not round and smooth like a tennis ball but humpty and bumpety, and so huge that it didn't seem like a ball at all.
我跨過了遼闊的田地,穿過茂密的森林,走過小鄉鎮和大城市—我跨過橋,繞過山,鉆過山洞—我到達一片海洋,坐上一艘大輪船橫越海洋抵達另一個大陸;我到了一些奇怪的地方,人們穿著奇怪的衣服,住在奇怪的房子里,說著奇怪的語言;我見到了奇怪的動物、樹木和花草;我跨越了另一個海洋,最終在朝著同一方向旅行了好多好多月之后,我準確地回到了我開始出發的那個地點。所以我知道世界是圓的,因為我已經圍著它繞了一圈。但世界并不是像網球那樣又圓又光滑, 而是像個蛋形矮胖子,而且它太大了,看起來根本不像個球。
It took me nearly half a year to go round the world— that seems like a long time, but then it was a long way— over twenty-five times a thousand miles. But others have been around the world in much faster time. The airship Graf Zeppelin flew around the World in three weeks. Two flyers took less than nine days to circle the globe in their airplane and return to their starting point, New York. An American Air Force plane flew around the world without stopping in less than four days.
我花了將近半年的時間環繞世界一周—看起來是很長的一段時間,但更是很長的一段路程—超過25個1000英里那么長。但是有人以更快的時間環繞過世界?!褒R柏林飛艇”只要三個星期時間就能圍繞世界飛一圈。兩名飛行員用了不到九天的時間駕駛飛機環繞地球一周,最終回到他們的出發點—紐約。一架美國空軍飛機連續不停地飛了不到四天環繞世界一周。