N-A-M-E-R-I-C-A and S-A-M-E-R-I-C-A are two names printed in large letters across my map of North America and South America.  我有一张北美洲和南美洲的地图，从地图的一边横穿到另一边，印着用很大的英文字母拼的两个名字：N-A-M-E-R-I-C-A和S-A-M-E-R-I-C-A。

Namerica and Samerica sound like brothers: Nam and Sam Erica.  这两个名字“Namerica”和“Samerica”听起来就像一对兄弟：纳姆艾瑞卡和萨姆艾瑞卡。

They look as if the Creator had pulled them just as far apart as He could without pulling them quite in two.  从地图上看好像造物主尽可能地把这对兄弟拉开来却又没有完全分开。

They are held together by a little piece of land called Central America,  它们被一小块叫做中美洲的土地连在一起，

and the very thinnest part of Central America—the part as thin as a leaf stem—is called the Isthmus of Panama:  中美洲最细的那一部分——就像树叶的梗那么细的一块地方——叫做巴拿马地峡：

spelled “isthmus,” but sounded “ismus.”  “地峡”英语拼写是“isthmus”，但它的发音却是“ismus”。

On one side of the Isthmus is the Atlantic and on the other side the Pacific Ocean, so near to each other and yet so far.  巴拿马地峡的一面是大西洋，另一面是太平洋，两个海洋近在咫尺，却又远在天涯。

Ships that wanted to get from one ocean to the other couldn’t get across this little strip of land—they had to go the long way round,  想从一个海洋驶往另一个海洋的轮船却跨不过这一小块狭长的陆地——轮船不得不绕行很长的路，

all the way round the bottom of Samerica, thousands of miles out of the way.  一直要绕过南美洲最南端，偏离直道走数千英里的路程。

There was no way at all round the top of Namerica, for both land and ice were in the way up there.  要绕过北美洲最北端是不可能的，因为那里都被陆地和冰雪挡住了，根本无法通行。

It seemed a terribly long distance for a ship to have to go just because it couldn’t cross this little strip of land.  就是因为不能越过这小块狭长的地方轮船就得绕那么远的路，似乎太不方便了。

It was as if you were motoring and the road came to a river and there was no bridge, and a sign said “Detour 10,000 miles.”  就好像你正在路上开车，来到一条河边，却没有桥，河边牌子上写着“请绕行10000英里”。

It was the longest detour  Naturally, people tried to find a way not to make that detour.  那可是世界上要兜的最大的一个圈子。人们自然要想办法避免兜这个大圈子。

Some men suggested wheeling ships across the Isthmus.  有人提议用车把船运过地峡。

They said, “Let us lift a ship out of the water on a kind of huge elevator, then put it on a huge truck,  他们说：“我们用一种巨大的起重机把船吊出水面，然后把它放在一个巨型卡车上，

push it across the Isthmus to the other ocean, then lower it into the water again by another huge elevator.”  运到地峡另一边的海洋，再用巨大的起重机把船放到海里。”

But it seemed simpler to cut a canal across the Isthmus so that a ship might sail straight through from one ocean to the other.  但是开凿一条穿过地峡的运河似乎更简单，那样轮船就能直接从一个大洋开到另一个大洋。

On the map this looked easy enough—just a snip with the scissors or a nick with a knife;  开凿运河在地图上看起来很容易——只需要用剪刀咔嚓剪一下或者用小刀划个缺口；

but that little stem of land was over thirty miles across and there were mountains in the way too. 但是那块像树叶梗的地方足有30多英里宽，中间还有高山。

They have many earthquakes in Central America,  中美洲发生过很多次地震，

and if one of these earthquakes had only cracked the Isthmus of Panama across and broken Namerica and Samerica apart it would have been very convenient;  如果其中有一次地震能把巴拿马地峡震断，把南北美洲分开的话，就会方便很多了；

but earthquakes don’t do helpful things like that—they make cracks where you don’t want them. 但是地震不会做这样有益的事——它们偏要在你不需要它断裂的地方震出裂缝。