◎內文節錄
It was morning and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.
清晨旭日在微波蕩漾的海面上,灑下閃閃金光。離海岸一哩遠的地方,有艘漁船在佈餌捕魚。這個消息馬上被一群早餐團傳開,旋後,成千的海鷗飛來搶啄食物。又一個忙碌的日子開始了。But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one…single…more…inch…of…curve. …Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.
只有海鷗岳納珊‧李文斯敦遠離漁船和海岸,獨自在遠處練習飛行。在凌空一百呎處,他垂低蹼足、翹起尖喙、忍著痛楚,極力把雙翼彎成弧形,因為弧形才能使他慢慢的飛翔。現在他放慢速度,直到風如一陣耳語拂過他的臉,底下的海洋也靜止不動。他聚精會神的瞇細眼睛,屏住呼吸,使勁把弧形……再……收緊……一…… 吋。突然間,他的羽毛凌亂,他失速掉了下來。
Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.人們都知道,海鷗絕不畏縮,絕不失速。生為海鷗,在半空中失速不僅丟臉,而且可恥。
But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve…slowing, slowing, and stalling once more…was no ordinary bird.但岳納珊不是平凡的海鷗,他並不感到羞愧,反而重新振翼,再彎成顫抖不穩的弧形--放慢速度、再放慢,又失速墜落。
Most gulls don\’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight…how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.
大多數海鷗只學最簡單的飛行技術--如何從岸上飛到有食物的地方,然後再飛回來。他們只在乎吃,不在乎飛行,可是岳納珊認為要緊的不是吃,而是飛行。他熱愛飛行,遠勝於一切。 This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one掇 self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.
他發現這種想法使自己在鳥群中不受歡迎,連他的雙親都大為恐慌,因為他整日獨自苦練,不折不撓地練習低飛滑翔。 He didn\’t know why, for instance, but when he flew at altitudes less than half his wingspan above the water, he could stay in the air longer, with less effort. His glides ended not with the usual feet-down splash into the sea, but with a long flat wake as he touched the surface with his feet tightly streamlined against his body. When he began sliding in to feet-up landings on the beach, then pacing the length of his slide in the sand, his parents were very much dismayed indeed.
有些事他不明白,譬如說,離海面不到半翼幅的高度飛翔時,就能在空中停留久一點,而且也比較不費力。當他滑翔到觸及海面,他不像一般海鷗靠雙腳來降落,濺得水花四起;而是把兩腳緊貼身體,保持流線型,跨過水面時,只留下一條長長的淺紋。當他收著雙腳滑上沙灘,然後步測自己在沙上的擦痕長度時,他的雙親真的是驚駭萬分。
”Why, Jon, Why?” his mother asked. ”Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can\’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don\’t you eat? Son, you\’re bone and feathers!”
「為什麼,岳納珊,為什麼?」他母親問道。「難道和別的海鷗一樣真的那麼困難嗎?為什麼你就不能把低飛的玩意讓給鵜鶘或信天翁去專美呢?兒子,你為什麼不吃點東西?你已經瘦成羽包骨頭啦!」 ”I don\’t mind being bone and feathers, mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can\’t, that\’s all. I just want to know.”
「媽,瘦一點我不在乎,我只想知道自己在空中能做什麼,不能做什,就只是想知道而已!」”See here, Jonathan,” said his father, not unkindly. ”Winter isn\’t far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can\’t eat a glide, you know. Don\’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat.”
「聽著,岳納珊,」他父親溫和地說,「冬天快到了,船隻會更少,魚兒會潛入深海。如果你想研究,就該研究食物,以及如何獲得食物。飛行當然是件好事,但是,你要知道,滑翔不能當飯吃。不要忘記,你飛行就是為了吃。」Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn\’t make it work.
岳納珊順服地點點頭。在往後幾天,他試著使自己的一舉一動和其他海鷗無異。他試著在碼頭和漁船附近跟群鷗尖叫、打架、爭食小魚和麵包屑,他真的試過了,然而他實在沒辦法這樣混下去。 It\’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There\’s so much to learn!
多麼無意義呀!他一邊想著,一邊故意把辛苦搶來的鯷魚拋給在後面追逐的饑餓老海鷗。我大可利用這些時間來學習飛行,該學的東西太多了! It wasn\’t long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning.
不久,岳納珊又落單了,他飛到遙遠的海上,飢餓卻快樂地學習飛翔。 The subject was speed, and in a week practice he learned more about speed than the fastest gull alive.
第一個課題是速度,經過一個星期的練習,他的速度已經比任何海鷗都快了。From a thousand feet, flapping his wings as hard as he could, he pushed over into a blazing steep dive toward the waves, and learned why seagulls don\’t make blazing steep power-dives. In just six seconds he was moving seventy miles per hour, the speed at which one\’s wing goes unstable on the upstroke.
他從一千呎的空中,盡力拍著翅膀,以筆直的角度向海浪俯衝,並領悟到何以海鷗不用高速筆直全力俯衝。原來,在短短六秒鐘內,他的時速已達到七十哩,在這樣的速度下,翅膀一往上提就會搖晃不穩。Time after time it happened. Careful as he was, working at the very peak of his ability, he lost control at high speed.
一次又一次,屢試不爽。他雖然很小心,竭盡最大的努力,還是在高速時失去了控制。 Climb to a thousand feet. Full power straight ahead first, then push over, flapping, to a vertical dive. Then, every time, his left wing stalled on an upstroke, he\’d roll violently left, stall his right wing recovering, and flick like fire into a wild tumbling spin to the right.
爬高到一千呎,全速向前直飛,然後低頭向下、鼓翼、垂直俯衝。然而每次要往上揚起時,左翼就不能動,身體猛烈地向左翻轉,他於是把右翼停下來恢復平衡,接著就像一團火狂野地向右旋轉。 He couldn\’t be careful enough on that upstroke. Ten times he tried, and all ten times, as he passed through seventy miles per hour, he burst into a churning mass of feathers, out of control, crashing down into the water.
他揚起翅膀時,真是夠小心的了。他試了十次,每次時速達七十哩時,全身就變成一團凌亂的羽毛,失去控制,跌入海裡。The key, he thought at last, dripping wet, must be to hold the wings still at high speeds-----to flap up to fifty and then hold the wings still.
他變成了一隻落湯鷗,但終於抓到了竅門,就是在高速時翅膀必須保持靜止狀態--鼓翼加速到五十哩,然後雙翼保持靜止不動。 From two thousand feet he tried again, rolling into his dive, beak straight down, wings full out and stable from the moment he passed fifty miles per hour. It took tremendous strength, but it worked. In ten seconds he had blurred through ninety miles per hour. Jonathan had set a world speed record for seagulls!
他又在二千呎的高空試了一次,一等時速超過五十哩,他就翻身俯衝,尖喙筆直朝下,翅膀全部張開,穩住不動。這樣做相當費力,但成功了。在十秒鐘內,他的速度突破九十哩。岳納珊為海鷗締造了一項世界性的速度紀錄! But victory was short-lived. The instant he began his pullout, the instant he changed the angle of his wings, he snapped into that same terrible uncontrolled disaster, and at ninety miles per hour it hit him like dynamite. Jonathan Seagull exploded in midair and smashed down into a brick-hard sea.
但是,勝利卻如曇花一現。當他開始平飛,改變雙翼角度的那一剎那,他再度遭遇了失控的災難。他在時速九十哩的高速中失去了控制,猶如被炸藥擊中。海鷗岳納珊在空中爆炸,摔落硬如磚頭的海中。
李察•巴哈(Richard Bach, 1936∼)
飛行員及作家李察•巴哈,他在飛行雜誌及一般性的刊物上都發表過不少文章與小說,曾任美國空軍戰鬥機飛行員的他,熱愛飛行,身邊至少備有一架飛機,以便心血來潮時,做特技飛行及越野飛行之用。其他作品有《沒有一個地方叫遠方》、《跨越永恆之橋》、《幻影》等。
唯一真正的法律是倡导自由的,除此之外,别无其他。
——引自第87页
大多数海鸥都不愿意自找麻烦去学更多的飞翔技巧,只满足于简单地飞到岸边觅取食物,然后再飞去。他们并不在乎飞翔,在乎的只是吃。然而,对于这只海鸥,飞翔远比吃重要。
——引自第4页
就像慕布里奇在一百多年前独自面对一个裸女、一位骑手、一个婴儿或是一只手,一次次按下快门线,写下一首首轻盈的循环短诗,影像写作者将以自己的孤独还“光体”最初的纯洁...
迟子建,女,1964年生于漠河。1983年开始写作,已发表以小说为主的文学作品六百余万字,出版有百部单行本。主要作品有:长篇小说《伪满洲国》《越过云层的晴朗》《...
Emi1981 年生,居住在日本兵库县。关西学院毕业后,作为室内装饰及收纳的买方设计,就职于大型邮购直销公司。2008 年,开通博客“OURHOME”,以两个孩...
水文化大众读本 本书特色 本书用了较大篇幅介绍大力加强水文化建设的重要意义、总体要求、主要任务及保障措施。为了突出水文化建设,使中华水文化走出国门,扩大中华水文...
郭初阳,男,杭州人,毕业于杭州师范大学,被业界称为中学语文界新生代领军教师,当今语文教育界的新锐。杭州越读馆语文教学负责人。曾就职于杭州外国语学校。认为语文课堂...
SincethecollapseofcommunisminEasternEurope,thevalidityofMarxismandMarxisttheoryh...
张自豪清华大学苏世民学者、达沃斯全球杰出青年、「植物标签」创始人、托福中国青年品牌大使。22岁考入清华大学苏世民书院并获得硕士全额奖学金。23岁获选“达沃斯全球...
你知道丑小鸭为什么被欺负?因为他周围都是鸭子!一再被你践踏濒死的自尊,好象要变成魔鬼了。如果你不再阻止我,我就要把魔鬼吞下去了。低着头,他的心倾向我。特别的人,...
◎重现罗马文明之荣耀古代地中海世界之图景1300年罗马盛衰史,8个文化领域,地中海10大区域,25座古城遗址,400+珍贵图片圆脊精装,超感纸全彩印刷★罗马盛衰...
There are no underground bunkers of supercomputers at the heart of the Uber mira...
刘军宁,1961年生,安徽人。北京大学政治学博士。曾任中国社科院政治学所研究员,哈佛大学费正清研究中心访问学者,现为文化部中国文化研究所研究员。作为年轻一代政治...
刘健,笔名吕哲,天津人。现就读于天津师范大学历史文化学院历史学系。中国通俗文艺研究会会员、中国科普作家协会会员。著有长篇小说《带我回地球看流星》。另有小说、评论...
脉理探邃 内容简介 本书是在中医传统脉学基础上,汇集研究之大成,探索脉理之深邃秘奥。全书共11章。1~8章阐述脉学源流、脉学整体观,对脉中胃、神、根在生命活动中...
《效率人生》内容简介:这是一本让你迅速实现效率人生的实用指南。本书将深入浅出地告诉你,要找到人生的着力点,运用不同的杠杆工
内分泌病理学 本书特色 本书按照WH0*新分类系统,参考近年国内外有关文献,编撰而成。该书详细论述了垂体、甲状腺、甲状旁腺、肾上腺、胰腺内分泌肿瘤和瘤样病变、神...
石晓庆,多年企业产品与研发管理咨询项目经验,主导和参与20多个产品创新及管理变革项目。在华为公司历任研发工程师、研发项目经理、产品测试经理、PQA、质量改进委员...
美国立国先驱,思想家、作家、政治活动家。生于英国诺福克郡,曾做过裁缝、教员、税吏,屡遭失业和饥饿的威胁。移居英属北美殖民地后,积极号召并躬身参加美国独立运动,为...
ThisbookisacollectionofpapersfromTheAmericanCeramicSocietys35thInternationalConf...
精彩摘录1、华为打海外市场的四拨人:第一拨,是最早做海外市场的那一拨人。从1996年开始,他们到国外各个市场走走看看,了解当
中医防治医源性疾病 内容简介 本书客观的阐明了中华医学早已重视医源性疾病的防治及对当今临床上中西医所致医源性疾病的防治。中医防治医源性疾病 目录 上篇中医重视医...