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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，有一會兒功夫，她看到了同那閃著粼光的波浪相鄰的撒馬特拉海岸，上面散布的那些燈塔依然在放出它們的微光。
These also vanished, and only the stars distracted her.
然后這些也消失不見了，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.
它們不是靜止的，而是在她頭上來來去去擺動著，從一個天窗擁出又進到另一個天窗中去，竟好象是宇宙而不是飛艇在傾斜地疾馳著。
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.
正像在萬里晴空之夜所常見到的那樣，星星一會兒好像分成層次，一會兒又像在一個平面上，一會兒是一層一層堆成無限的天宇，一會兒又象是要把無限隱蔽起來。一個屋頂永遠限制著人們的視線。
In either case they seemed intolerable.
不論是哪種情形，都是令人難以忍受的。
"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.
“我們是不是非要在黑暗中旅行不可呢？”旅客們氣忿地大聲叫喊著，于是那一直毫不經(jīng)意的服務員給了光，隨后拉下了那些柔韌的金屬擋板。
When the air-ships had been built, the desire to look direct at things still lingered in the world.
在制造飛艇的那個時候，想要直接看看各樣東西的迫切愿望，在世界上還縷縷未絕。
Hence the extraordinary number of skylights and windows, and the proportionate discomfort to those who were civilized and refined.
這樣，對于文明的和過于考究的人們來說，天窗和窗口的數(shù)目便太多了，產(chǎn)生了不舒適感。
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艙里，也有一顆星從擋板的一條裂縫窺進，在她睡了幾個小時不安穩(wěn)的覺以后，她被一種不習慣的光所擾醒，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.
因為飛艇向西疾飛著，地球更加迅速地向東滾著，這既使瓦西蒂和她的旅伴們從太陽后面去追趕太陽。
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.
科學能夠延長夜晚，不過只能延長一點點，那些想要抵消地球的每日轉動的太高的希望，已經(jīng)同那些可能還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“跟太陽齊步”或甚至超過它，曾經(jīng)是在這以前的文明的目標。
Racing aeroplanes had been built for the purpose, capable of enormous speed, and steered by the greatest intellects of the epoch.
為了達到這一目標，曾經(jīng)制造過飛速極高的競賽飛機，由那個時代最偉大的天才所駕駛。
Round the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round, amidst humanity's applause. In vain.
他們環(huán)繞著地球飛行，在人類熱烈歡呼的掌聲中向西繞呀繞呀，結果失敗了。
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.
仍然是地球向東轉得快些。一些可怕的意外事件發(fā)生了，于是大機器委員會在這個時候上升到至高無上的地位，宣布這種追求是不合法的，不合機理的，并給以無家可歸的處分。
Of Homelessness more will be said later.
關于無家可歸的事，以后還要細說。
Doubtless the Committee was right.
毫無疑問，這個委員會是正確無誤的。
Yet the attempt to "defeat the sun" aroused the last common interest that our race experienced about the heavenly bodies, or indeed about anything.
不過要“擊敗太陽”這個企圖卻引起了那最后共同的興趣，那就是我們這個種族對于那些天體，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.
這是人們最后一次由于想到在世界之外有一種力量而被緊密結合在一起。
The sun had conquered, yet it was the end of his spiritual dominion.
太陽戰(zhàn)勝了，不過這卻是他的精神統(tǒng)治的結束。
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、黃昏和黃道，既接觸不到人們的生命，也接觸不到他們的內(nèi)心，而科學引退到了地下，集中在她確實能夠解決的那些問題上。
