Cruising on the Slow Boat to 1)Antarctica 船儿慢行去南极
文字难度：★★★☆
有人说:天上最难的事,是太空旅行;天下最难的事,是叩访南极。
千百年来,南极,这个亘古长眠的世界,一直吸引着人们。这个充满神奇色彩的冰雪王国究竟拥有着怎样独特而迷人的风景?这期让我们跟随作者Chris Moss一起“前往”人迹罕至的南极,尽情领略世界之南端那奇幻多变的美丽!这篇文章虽然生词较多,但用词灵活且文笔优美,大家可要耐心点品读哦!^_^ ——Maisie
You can’t rush to Antarctica. Armed with several books on travel to Antarctica, some novels and bottles of whiskey, I lay back and thought of nothing in particular. Surely the most appropriate thought when heading to the planet’s cleanest, whitest, blankest spot.
到南极去不必匆忙。随身带着几本关于南极旅行的书以及一些小说,加上几瓶威士忌酒,我躺在船上,无所用心。前往地球上最干净、最洁白、最空旷的地方之际,这么做的确是最合适的了。
After a long crossing from 2)Ushuaia heading 3)due east via the 4)Falklands, I was able to experience the beauty of Antarctica: 5)South Georgia, inside the Antarctic Circle but as green as it is white, and as interesting for its human history as for its inhuman isolation. Then, we sailed gently into the Bay of Isles. The sea was still high and 6)heaving, but the pilots decided it was safe to go in to 7)Salisbury Plain, the beach that about 40,000 8)king penguins call home.
经历了从乌斯怀亚直接向东穿越福克兰群岛的漫长航程之后,我得以体验到南极之美:南极圈内的南乔治亚岛既白雪皑皑,又郁郁葱葱,它的与世隔绝和人迹历史同样引人入胜。接着,我们缓缓驶入群岛海湾。海面上仍是风急浪高,但是领航员们判断登陆索尔兹伯里平原是安全的。这片海滩是大约40000只国王企鹅的家园。
It was a 9)Penguinopolis at rush hour. When not fishing and flapping in the surf, the tall, 10)sleek, orange-flashed birds were busy shuffling, flirting, clapping, slapping each other, 11)trumpeting (their shrill, slightly comic, calling), feeding chicks, sitting on eggs. But kings are hypersocial and too interactive to be ordinary commuters, and when I stopped and allowed them to approach—I sat down to be at their eye level and avoided intimidating them—their manner, which is half 12)swagger and half 13)coy, reminded me of nothing so much as teenagers at a youth club. They would even 14)club together to push one of their members forward so he would be closest to me, as if saying: “Go on, check him out, don’t be a 15)chicken.” One or two got close enough to have a bite at my boot. Of course, such encounters are an 16)athropomorphic delight. We imagine all sorts of emotions the birds probably don’t have at all. Some were bullies, some were shy, one couple seemed to be bent on quarrelling all the time…
正是企鹅世界的繁忙时段,这些身材高挑、皮肤光滑、映现橙色光彩的大鸟们不是在海面上捕鱼冲浪,就是在摇摇摆摆地走路,或在互相拍打调情,或是在高声尖叫(它们的尖叫声听上去有点滑稽),或是在喂养孩子或孵蛋。而国王企鹅更是社交高手,交际活跃之极,绝非等闲之辈。我停下脚步,好让企鹅靠近——我坐在地上,跟它们平视相对,尽力不吓到它们。企鹅们的举止既有点虚张声势,又有点腼腆害羞,这使我想起青年俱乐部里的那些青少年。它们甚至会挤在一起,把其中一只推到离我最近的地方,好像在说:“去,看看他是怎么回事,别像个胆小鬼。”有一两只企鹅走得很近,都可以咬到我的靴子了。当然,如此奇趣相遇是我们把企鹅拟人化所带来的愉悦,我们想象着各种企鹅大概不会有的情感。它们有些凌强欺弱,有些胆小怕事,有一对企鹅似乎在一直不停地争吵……
South Georgia was a great introduction to Antarctic wildlife and the pleasures of king penguins—which you don’t see on the Antarctic continent. Then there were the energizing delights of 17)katabatic winds, and by degrees, ice. We saw hanging 18)glaciers,19)ice fields and, then, like a 20)mirage in the distance, our first big 21)bergs.
南乔治亚岛是观察南极野生动物极好的入门之地,也给我们以观赏国王企鹅的快乐——南极大陆上没有国王企鹅。岛上有令人心旷神怡的下坡风,渐渐地,还出现了冰川。我们看见悬冰川、冰原,然后,如同出现在远方的海市蜃楼般,我们第一次看见了大冰山。
Whether grey or blue skies lay overhead, the 22)heft of the waves was always huge—sometimes rhythmic and pleasant, at others offering a waltzer of a voyage. In the dark, the sensation of wild winds spinning the vessel was heightened, but the ship pushed on like a metallic serpent across the open sea. When you sail south you don’t exactly find the Antarctic continent. Rather, it gathers round you in the shape of icebergs, islands, coves and bays. Gradually the coastlines draw closer and slowly begin to lose first the greens and ochres of mosses and 23)lichens, then the black of volcanic 24)basalt, and one morning you wake up and everything has turned brilliant white.
无论头顶上的天空是灰色还是蓝色,海上总是波涛汹涌——有时海浪富有节奏感而令人愉悦,有时我们的船就像在海浪上跳华尔兹。在黑暗中,把船吹得直打转的劲风更猛烈了,但是航船像一条铁蛇向前推进,穿越无边的海洋。当船只朝南航行时,你不会很确切地发现南极大陆,而是看见四周有冰山、岛屿、小海岬和海湾。渐渐地,海岸线越来越近,先是绿色和赭色的青苔和地衣慢慢消失了,接着黑色的火山岩也消失了;然后,某天早上你醒来时,周围的一切已经变成了一片亮白。
I first caught sight of what looked like sheer cliffs of ice—classic Antarctica—on a stretch of the voyage that took us from the flooded volcano of Deception Island in the 25)South Shetlands to Charlotte Bay on 26)Graham Land. I should probably have been observing the 27)humpback whales that were 28)breaching alongside the Vavilov, or 29)gawping at the 30)albatrosses and 31)petrels, or studying the maps to make sense of the chaos of peninsulas, islets, bays and capes that make up the Antarctic Peninsula. But whiteness is 32)enigmatic—and because a cruise is so far from being an overland expedition, you feel an urge to get off the boat and walk on the big slab of ice.
从南雪特兰群岛上由喷涌的火山形成的梦幻岛前往格雷厄姆地的夏洛特湾,在这一段航程中,我第一次看见峻峭的冰崖——经典的南极景象。当时我应该是在看沿瓦维罗号船舷边浮出水面的座头鲸,或者注视着飞翔的信天翁和海燕,或者是在研究地图想弄清构成南极半岛的那些杂乱繁多的半岛、小岛、海湾和海角。但是冰山的白色有种难以阻挡的诱惑力,而且乘船巡游与陆上探险有很大不同,你会感到有一种冲动——想下船去在又厚又大的冰面上走一走。
After a few 33)false starts, we eventually got to walk on the continent at 34)Neko Harbour. A miniature conquest of sorts, it was also an opportunity to sit and ponder away from the group. The bay was calm and the sky a pinkish grey and slightly eerie, and there were 35)sweeping views of distant mountains—a sun we couldn’t see was illuminating their peaks—and of blue glaciers all along the coast. By early March, Antarctica is readying itself for winter, and this gloomy but 36)atmospheric point on the map seemed entirely fitting for the end of the season and the end of our voyage south.
经过几次不成功的尝试之后,我们终于在纳克港踏上了南极大陆的土地。有点小小的征服感,也给我离开人群坐下来沉思的机会。海湾里风平浪静,天空呈现带有粉红的灰色,显得有点怪异。远处的群山一览无余——我们看不见太阳,但阳光却照亮了群山顶峰——海岸边遍布着蓝色冰川。三月上旬时,南极已经准备进入冬天。地图上这个阴沉但气氛不错的地点显得与季末合拍之极,也与我们南极航行的终点合拍。
The return 37)leg had its own wonders. The 38)Gerlache Strait is not as famous as the 39)Lemaire but it is one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s unmissable mini-voyages. A calm, narrow channel, lined by low peaks wrapped in 40)ultra-white glaciers, it is strewn with huge 41)tabular icebergs and smaller bergy bits. During a slow morning cruise, we saw a couple of humpback whales rolling and blowing along one side, and then a 42)Weddell seal and lots of fur seals 43)basking on floating ice islands. The light, though, was the thing: it was end-of-the-world luminous, a bit Martian even, and the ice glowed 44)aquamarine and 45)emerald against a dreamy grey sky. In the afternoon it all became 46)coffee-table 47)photogenic: blue skies, white ice, calm waters, a lone 48)cormorant on a steeple of ice, and 49)twee 50)chinstrap penguins hiking up snowy slopes. A young leopard seal still studying to be a 51)top-drawer predator chased us—once he had realized we were going anyway…
返程也自有其奇妙之处。杰拉许海峡虽然没有雷麦瑞海峡那么出名,但它是游览南极半岛不可错过的迷你航程之一。平静而狭窄的杰拉许海峡两边矗立着被白得超乎寻常的冰川包裹的低矮山峰,水面上点缀着巨大的平顶冰山和浮冰碎片。在一次早上的慢速航行中,在船的一侧我们看见一对座头鲸在海面上出没喷水,接着又看见一头威德尔海豹和许多毛皮海豹在浮冰岛屿上晒太阳。光线也值得一提:这是世界尽头的亮光,甚至有点像是在火星上;在梦幻般的灰色天空下,冰川闪烁着海蓝色和翠绿色的光芒。到了下午,一切又变成了如精装画册里出现的那些画面:蓝色的天空,白色的冰川,平静的海面,一只鸬鹚栖息在一块浮冰尖顶上,可爱的南极企鹅摇摇摆摆走上白雪覆盖的斜坡。一头小海豹尚在学习如何成为一个至高无上的食肉者,它跟在我们轮船的后面,直到意识到我们终将离去……
I can—sort of—understand why the majority of people want a 52)shortish 53)hop to the Antarctic Peninsula. It 54)ticks a box, yields amazing photographs, involves the shortest possible exposure to the 55)perils of the 56)Drake Passage—and, yes, it’s cheaper. But if you have the time and the money, and don’t mind some long stretches on big seas, prepare yourself for the slow trip and enjoy it well; the chances are you won’t be back here again, so why rush?
我大概可以明白,为什么大多数人喜欢用很短的时间空降到南极半岛上。这么做既算是到南极一游,能拍出美艳的照片,又把在德雷克海峡上冒险前进的时间缩减到最少。还有,是的,这样更便宜。但是,如果你既有时间,又有金钱,也不怕在大海上长时间航行,那就准备好来一次缓慢的旅行并好好享受它吧。游南极,你很可能不会有第二次,那何必匆忙呢?
