世界小史 第7章:回到地球

　　And before that? Before that, not even the sun, our good old sun, was there.

　　那么在那以前呢?在那以前，甚至太陽，我們可愛又古老的太陽也不存在。

　　Only weird and amazing giant stars and smaller heavenly bodies, whirling among the gas clouds in an infinite, infinite universe.

　　只有奇怪而驚人的巨星和較小的天體在無邊無際的宇宙中的氣云間旋轉(zhuǎn)。

　　"Once upon a time"– but now all this peering down into the past is making me feel dizzy again.

　　“從前”——但現(xiàn)在這樣向下看過去，又使我感到頭暈了。

　　Quick! Let's get back to the sun, to earth, to the beautiful sea,

　　快!讓我們回到太陽，回到地球，回到美麗的大海，

　　to plants and snails and dinosaurs, to our mountains, and, last of all, to human beings.

　　回到植物、蝸牛和恐龍，回到我們的群山，然后，最后，回到人類這兒來吧。

　　It's a bit like coming home, isn't it?

　　這有點像回家，不是嗎?

　　And just so that "Once upon a time" doesn't keep dragging us back down into that bottomless well, from now on we'll always shout:

　　為了不讓這"從前" 不斷把我們向下拉進這個無底的深井，從現(xiàn)在起我們將一直喊：

　　"Stop! When did that happen?" And if we also ask, "And how exactly did that happen?"

　　"停!這是什么時候發(fā)生的事情?" 如果我們這時也問"這件事情究竟是如何發(fā)生的?"

　　we will be asking about history.

　　我們便是在問歷史了。

　　Not just a story, but our story, the story that we call the history of the world.

　　不僅是一個故事，而是我們的故事，我們稱之為世界的歷史的故事。

　　Shall we begin?

　　我們開始吧?