Wednesday, December 5, 2012

He began his pullout at a thousand feet


He began his pullout at a thousand feet, wingtips thudding and blurring in that gigantic wind, the boat and the crowd of gulls tilting and growing meteor-fast, directly in his path.
他在一千英尺的高度改变飞行姿势。翼梢在狂风中噼啪直响,轮廓都模糊了;海鸥群斜着在他身旁掠过,http://www.rolexsubmarinerreplicas.com/,疾如流星迸射。

He couldn’t stop; he didn’t know yet even how to turn at that speed.
他没法停住;他还不知道在这样的速度下如何转弯。

Collision would be instant death.
撞上什么马上就是死。

And so he shut his eyes.
他闭上眼睛。

It happened that morning, then, just after sunrise, that Jonathan Livingston Seagull fired directly through the center of Breakfast Flock, ticking off two hundred twelve miles per hour, eyes closed, in a great roaring shriek of wind and feathers.
这样,在那天早晨,就在日出后不久,海鸥乔纳森闭着眼睛,以每小时二百一十二英里的高速纪录,闪电似地在进早餐的鸥群中穿过,耳边只听得呼呼的风响和群鸥的尖叫声。

The Gull of Fortune smiled upon him this once, and no one was killed.
命运之神在朝他微笑,总算没有谁死于非命。

By the time he had pulled his beak straight up into the sky he was still scorching along at a hundred and sixty miles per hour. When he had slowed to twenty and stretched his wings again at last, the boat was a crumb on the sea, four thousand feet below.
等到他抬起嘴来朝向天空时,他仍旧以时速一百六十英里的高速前进。后来他把速度一直放慢到二十英里,最后展开双翅,四千英尺下面的渔船已经变成漂在海面上的一粒面包屑了。

His thought was triumph. Terminal velocity! A seagull at two hundred fourteen miles per hour! It was a breakthrough, the greatest single moment in the history of the Flock, and in that moment a new age opened for Jonathan Gull. Flying out to his lonely practice area, folding his wings for a dive from eight thousand feet, he set himself at once to discover how to turn.
他想的是胜利。达到了最高速度!一只海鸥达到了时速二百一十四英里!真是个突破,这是海鸥史册上最伟大的时刻,这一时刻为乔纳森开创了一个新时代。飞他到单独进行训练的地区,夹起翅膀,从八千英尺的高空向下俯冲,揣摩着怎样转弯。

A single wingtip feather, he found, moved a fraction of an inch, gives a smooth sweeping curve at tremendous speed. Before he learned this, however, he found that moving more than one feather at that speed will spin you like a rifle ball... and Jonathan had flown the first aerobatics of any seagull on earth.
他发现,把翼消的一根羽毛转动那么一丝丝,就可以在高速下平平稳稳地来个急转弯。他在学到这一点之前,还发现在那样的速度下,只要转动一两根羽毛就可以像陀螺似地旋转……于是乔纳森成了世界上第一只做特技动作的海鸥。

He spared no time that day for talk with other gulls, but flew on past sunset. He discovered the loop, the slow roll, the point roll, the inverted spin,North Face Jackets, the gull bunt, the pinwheel,fake jordans for sale.
这一天,他无暇与其他海鸥攀谈,只是不停地飞,直到黄昏。他学会了翻斤斗、横滚、定点翻滚、倒转、定点回旋飞行等各种飞行特技。
乔纳森回到海滩上鸥群之中时,已是深夜。他感到头昏眼花,疲惫不堪。但他兴高采烈。

When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full night. He was dizzy and terribly tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to landing, with a snap roll just before touchdown. When they hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough,Website, they’ll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!
一个斤斗翻下来,即将着陆时还来了个快滚。他想,海鸥们得知他打破了飞行纪录,一定会欣喜若狂动。生活现在变得多么有意义啊!除了单调地围绕着渔船盘旋外,生活还有其他目的!我们能够摆脱愚昧,我们能够使自己成为有才能、有智慧、有技巧的生灵。我们能够获得自由!我们能够学会飞行!

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