評論
打印
He and his crew break away from a companion ship to forge on alone, determined to be first to find the elusive passage. For weeks the 17 men fight off polar bears that rear up from nowhere, attacking until they are slaughtered or driven away. The ship tacks endlessly and desperately to escape floating “mountains of steel”: icebergs so impenetrable that the only way through is to drill holes and pray they will split apart. By mid-September the vessel is frozen fast, and the men resign themselves to overwintering “in great cold, poverty, misery and griefe”. Poorly clad and ravaged by scurvy, they are “phenomenally unprepared” for the ordeal, Ms Pitzer observes. Yet the remains of the shelter they managed to build stood for nearly 300 years.
巴倫支和他的船員們脫離了同伴的船只獨自前行，他們下定決心第一個發現難以找到的通道。幾周來，這17個人一直在與神出鬼沒的北極熊搏斗，直到將它們屠殺或趕走。為了逃離漂浮的“鋼鐵冰山”，他們乘船無止境地拼命趕路。冰山太難穿越了，唯一的辦法就是鉆孔并祈禱它們會裂開。到了九月中旬，船被凍得嚴嚴實實，巴倫支和他的船員們只好“在極端寒冷、匱乏、苦難和悲傷中”過冬。皮澤女士表示，他們衣衫襤褸，飽受壞血病的折磨，而且對這些嚴酷的考驗“毫無準備”。然而，他們設法建造的避難所的遺跡保存了近300年。
Of the men themselves, 13 live through this long polar night—eight months of what the author neatly terms “the monotony of survival”. They dig out from continual blizzards, scavenging for fuel and Arctic foxes whose meat contains just enough vitamin C to sustain them. Still, the journey is filled with wonders: optical phenomena and mysteries unravelled, such as where European songbirds go each summer. Ms Pitzer’s descriptions of the region sing. “Bits of floating ice released tiny bubbles of air, hissing like oil in a skillet,” she writes. “The many languages of water surrounded them day and night.”
他們這群人中有13個人活著度過了這漫長的極夜，作者巧妙地將這8個月稱為“求生的單調”。他們從接連不斷的暴風雪中挖掘物資，尋找燃料和北極狐（北極狐的肉中含有足夠的維生素C來維持他們的生存）。盡管如此，這第三次的探險旅程還是充滿了奇跡：有一些光學現象和謎團被揭開，例如，他們揭秘了歐洲鳴鳥每年夏天的去處。皮澤女士對該地區的描述令人贊嘆。她寫道：“漂浮的冰塊會冒出微小的氣泡，它們嘶嘶作響，就像是煎鍋里的油?！?。“他們身邊日夜縈繞著各種各樣的水聲?！?/p>
Barents’s heroism helped make the Arctic explorer a mythically resilient figure. The fantasy that drove him, meanwhile, has nearly come to pass. Arctic ice has been shrinking for several decades, with a sharp drop-off after 2006. Human ingenuity, epitomised by expeditions like his, has in 400 years made the Dutchman’s dream a terrifying reality.
巴倫支的英雄主義使這位北極探險家成為一個具有神話般韌性的人物。與此同時，曾驅使他不斷前進的幻想幾乎實現了。幾十年來，北極冰層在不斷縮小，2006年之后急劇下降。巴倫支探險這樣的歷程充分展現了人類的足智多謀，并歷經400年將荷蘭人的夢想變成了可怕的現實。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
