2019年经济学人 太空行走第一人阿里克谢·列昂诺夫(4)

 

Six years later, during a brief thaw¹ in the cold war, he found himself training in Houston with Americans, larking² around in a Stetson like a cowboy. On the joint³ Soyuz-Apollo Test Project that followed he and Tom Stafford bear-hugged in the docking tunnel between their craft, the first international handshake in space.

六年后，在冷战时一个短暂的缓和时期，列昂诺夫在休斯顿和美国人一块训练，像个牛仔一样，他戴着斯泰森毡帽到处闲逛。在随后的联盟-阿波罗联合测试项目中，列昂诺夫和汤姆·斯塔福德·比尔在飞船对接隧道中拥抱，这是首次在太空中的国际性握手。

Later he and his new friends, whom he kept for life, drank each other's health in borscht which he had led them to believe was vodka. Space was not a place where men should be anything but brothers. Whenever he had time, from his first training into his retirement⁴, he painted at his easel. Two subjects in particular he kept returning to. One was the air crash in 1968 that killed Gagarin, which he later officially investigated. He had been among the first to get to that awful scene of wreckage⁵ and snow, with the tops of the birch trees torn off by the impact. He had had to identify his friend's body. Death had never seemed closer, or so terrible.

后来列昂诺夫和他的新朋友们用罗宋汤为彼此的健康干杯，他误导他们说这是伏特加。后来他们成为一生之友。太空应该是一个人们可以称兄道弟的地方。他一有时间就在画架上作画，从第一次训练到退休都是如此。他尤其经常回忆两件事。其中之一是1968年导致加加林死亡的空难，他后来对此进行了正式调查。他是第一批到达那片废墟和积雪的可怕景象的人之一，白桦树的树顶被撞得支离破碎。他不得不去辨认朋友的尸体。死亡从来没有如此接近，如此糟糕。

Yet so far as there could be comfort, it came from his other constant subject, his walk in space. Beside the lovingly rendered module⁶ he floated again, sometimes with his hands out like an explorer, sometimes simply swimming, with his tether slack around him. Beyond him the sun blazed, a spotlight⁷ with a star's red aura round it; behind and below him lay Earth's blue. It was straight-out-of-the-tube blue, improbably bright. But that was what he had seen—and seen directly, out in empty space.

但是现在有一些安慰，它来自列昂诺夫的其它的连续项目，太空行走。在可爱的船舱旁边，他又浮了起来，有时伸出双手，像个探索者，有时就是简单的游泳，身上的绳子放松开来。在列昂诺夫的身后，太阳闪耀着光芒，似一个带着红色光环的聚光灯；在他的后面和下面是地球的蓝色。那是一种地道的蓝色，亮得令人难以置信。但这就是他所看到的——而且是直接在空荡的空间里看到的。

1 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

2 larking   

v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的现在分词 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了

参考例句：

• Stop larking about and get on with your work. 不要只贪玩，去做你的工作。 来自辞典例句
• The boys are larking about behind the house. 男孩们在屋子后面嬉耍。 来自辞典例句

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

5 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

6 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

7 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。