英国语文第五册(双语):云层之上(2)
For half an hour we must toil on and on through this winding-sheet of gloom; perpetually on the same upward way, but strong in faith and hope of what must in the end be presented to our eyes; on still, and up higher, when suddenly a momentary break appears overhead, and a portion of sky is seen—oh, so blue!—but it is lost again.
我们艰难地行进了半小时，并穿过阴暗处，一如既往地向上，但我们心中有强烈信念，希望一定到达我们目之所及之处，一直向上。突然，在我们头顶上方突然有了一个短暂的突破，一块天空如此之蓝，但它马上又消失了。
In a few minutes, however, another opening, another blue patch is seen; and then another, and another. Before three minutes more are passed, all the hurrying clouds seem blown on one side. Fair sky is everywhere above and around, a brilliant sun is shining, and there, there below us, is the upper surface of the clouds, extending far and wide, like a level plain, shutting out lowland and city and sea all from view, and in their place substituting brilliant reflections of solar light, which make the surface of this new mist-country look whiter than snow! Yes, indeed, we are now "above the clouds;" and this view that we have attempted to describe is the first example of the heightened, the advanced, the glorified appearance of even Earth's sombre fog-banks to those who are privileged for a time to look on them from the heavenward side.
几分钟之后，另外一片蓝色天空被我们发现，再接着又是另一片、另一片。。。在近乎三分钟之前，所有云似乎都炸开了。到处是晴朗的天空，太阳明亮地照耀着，同时，在我们之下是云层的上表面，又悠远又宽广，像平坦的平原，低地、城市、海从视野中消失，取而代之的是极光明亮的反射，这使得这个新的薄雾的国家看上去比雪还要雪白！是的，我们的的确确现在身处“云层之上”了。而我们试图描述的景色是高深的，美妙的，就像那些拥有特权可以从天外看地球雾蒙蒙的地表一样的景象。
"Above the clouds!"—not only no rain, no mist, no dew, but a scorching sun, and an air, both by day and by night, dry to almost an alarming degree. The further we advance, and the higher we ascend, the drier becomes the air; while at the same time the strength of the north-east trade-wind is continually decreasing, and at the height of about six or seven thousand feet has completely died away.
“云层之上”——不仅仅没有雨、雾、水珠，而且有极热的太阳和大气，二者日日夜夜地干燥到警戒线的程度。我们越是向前、向上，空气就变得越干燥，与此同时，东北信风的强度越弱，在6000或者7000尺的高度，几乎全是干的。
Not that it has ceased elsewhere as well, for the driving clouds below show that it is still in its accustomed violence there. The distant movements of those rollers of white cloud betray that it must yet be raging down there in all its strength, tearing the mist piecemeal, and bowing down the heads of suffering palm-trees, and lashing the sea into foam-crested waves. Heaven grant that no cry of shipwrecked mariners be borne on the breeze; and, more still, that no evil thoughts be engendering in the cities of men.
云层并无停止之意，下方猛烈的云表明它们只是如往常一样猛烈而已。白云下远处那些移动的浪泄露出它们一定要足够强烈，把薄雾撕碎，压弯棕榈树，鞭打海洋成只剩泡沫的浪，上天认可在微风中失事的水手不会哭泣，同样地，在城市人中不会有邪恶的想法。
It was when our party on the mountain were in the fullest enjoyment of their daily and nightly views of the heavens, that their friends in the towns of Teneriffe near the sea-coast wrote to them most sympathizingly: "Oh! what dreadful weather you must have been suffering! Down here we have had for three weeks the most frightful continuance of storms—constant clouds, rain, and howling winds; and if that was the case with us, what must it not have been with you at the greater height!"
当队伍在山上为看见日夜的天空而十分喜悦之时，他们在特里芬的近海岸的朋友们同情地写到：“哦！你们必须忍受多么可怕的天气啊！在这之下我们已经三个星期来极度害怕风暴了——不断的云、雨和呼号的风；如果这是我们的情况的话，那么你们的环境肯定不一样！”
Yet at the greater height, at that very time, the air was tranquil and serene, the sky clear, and bad weather entirely confined to that lower depth in the atmosphere beneath "the grosser clouds."
在更高的高度，此时的空气是宁静的，天空是澄澈的，坏天气完全限于总的云层中更低的大气深度中。恶劣天气完全被限制在那个较低的深度在大气下面的“恶心的云。”
