本篇朗读为潘之声英语世界原创作品。图片、原文、背景乐版权归原作者；朗读音频版权归潘之声。未经潘之声授权，任何单位或个人不得擅自使用或编辑本朗读音频。

本期朗读：潘叔（潘之声英语世界）

I have never seen the night. I have never seen the stars. I have never seen spring, fall, or winter. I was born as the Braking Era ended, just as the Earth stopped turning.

我没见过黑夜，我没见过星星，我没见过春天、秋天和冬天。我出生在刹车时代结束的时候，那时地球刚刚停止转动。

It had taken forty-two years to halt the Earth’s rotation, three years longer than the Coalition had planned. My mother told me about the time our family watched the last sunset. The sun sank very slowly, as if stuck on the horizon. It took three days and three nights to set all the way. Of course, afterward there was no more “day” or “night”. The Eastern hemisphere was shrouded in perpetual dusk for a long time, maybe a decade or so. The sun lay just below the horizon, and its glow filled half the sky. And during that endless sunset, I was born.

地球自转刹车用了四十二年，比联合政府的计划长了三年。妈妈给我讲过我们全家看最后一个日落的情景，太阳落得很慢，仿佛在地平线上停住了，用了三天三夜才落下去。当然，以后没有“天”也没有“夜”了，东半球在相当长的一段时间里（有十几年吧）将处于永远的黄昏中，因为太阳在地平线下并没落深，还在半边天上映出它的光芒。就在那次漫长的日落中，我出生了。

Dusk did not mean darkness. The Earth Engines brightly illuminated the whole Northern hemisphere. They had been installed all across Asia and North America—only the solid plate structure of these two continents could withstand the enormous thrust they exerted. In total, there were 12,000 engines scattered across the Eurasian and North American plains.

黄昏并不意味着昏暗，地球发动机把整个北半球照得通明。地球发动机安装在亚洲和美洲大陆上，因为只有这两个大陆完整坚实的板块结构才能承受发动机对地球巨大的推力。地球发动机共有一万二千台，分布在亚洲和美洲大陆的各个平原上。

From where I lived, I could see the bright plasma beams of hundreds of engines. Imagine an enormous palace, as big as the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Inside the palace, countless massive columns rise up to the vaulted ceiling, each one blazing with the blue-white light of a fluorescent tube. And you, you are just a germ on the palace’s floor. That was the world I lived in.

从我住的地方，可以看到几百台发动机喷出的等离子体光柱。你想像一个巨大的宫殿，有雅典卫城上的神殿那么大，殿中有无数根顶天立地的巨柱，每根柱子像一根巨大的日光灯管那样发出蓝白色的强光。而你，是那巨大宫殿地板上的一个细菌，这样，你就可以想像到我所在的世界是什么样子了。

潘之声英语世界 原创朗读作品