黯淡的蓝点

1990年2月14日，美国“旅行者1号”（voyager 1）飞船，飞到了太阳系的边缘。控制中心让它回过头，最后看一眼它出发的地球。下面这张图就是当时拍下的照片，这时，飞船距离地球大约64亿公里。请注意照片右面光束中的那个小点，它就是地球。

这张照片极为著名。美国宇航局后来评选最佳的外空观测地球照片，它排在第一位。

1994年，著名的美国科普作家卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）有感而发，写了一篇短文《黯淡的蓝点》（pale blue dot），后来成为名篇。下面是他的文章。

Look again at that dot.

再看一下这个点吧。

That's here. That's home. That's us.

它在那里。那就是我们的家，我们的一切。

On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

在它上面，有你爱的每个人、你认识的每个人、你听说过的每个人。历史上的每一个人，都在它上面度过了自己的一生。

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

所有我们的欢乐和痛苦，所有言之凿凿的宗教、意识形态和经济思想，所有猎人和强盗，所有英雄和懦夫，所有文明的创造者和毁灭者，所有的皇帝和农夫，所有热恋中的青年情侣，所有的父母、满怀希望的孩子、发明者和探索者，所有精神导师，所有腐败的政治家，所有“超级明星”，所有“最高领导人”，所有圣徒和罪人，从人类这个种族存在的第一天起——都发生在这颗悬浮在太阳光中的尘埃上。

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

地球是宇宙竞技场中的一个小舞台。

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

那些将军和帝王，那些成败和荣辱，那些血流成河，那些霸业和辉煌，不过只发生在这个点上的一部分地区，转瞬即逝。

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

想想这个小点上，一个角落的居民对另一个角落的居民，往往会表现出无限的残忍，无所不在的误解，互相残杀的热切，以及难以化解的仇恨。

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

我们故作姿态，我们自以为很重要，我们自欺欺人地认定人类在宇宙中的特权地位，这一切都被这个白光中的小点推翻了。

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

我们的星球是宇宙无边的黑暗中一颗孤独的尘埃。

In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

茫茫黑暗中，无尽的未知，我们一点都不知道，哪里可以找到帮助。

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.

地球是迄今为止，唯一的已知存在生命的地方。

There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate.

至少在可预见的将来，人类也不会找到其他可以移民的地方。

Visit, yes. Settle, not yet.

访问其他星球，可以做到。定居在那里，没有可能。

Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

不管是否接受，目前地球是我们仅有的立足之地。

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.

据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

也许这张表现我们的世界是如何渺小的照片，是人类愚蠢自负的最好证明。

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

对我来说，它更表明，我们人类之间必须友善相处，珍惜和保护这个黯淡的蓝点。它是我们唯一的家。

--Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

 

来自：http://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2008/06/pale_blue_dot.html