你在误解整个大爆炸

我相信你能掌握它

实际上宇宙在膨胀

而作家和教师误读了文章

  You are misconceiving the whole Big Bang.

  I am believing you can get the hang.

  It is a fact that the universe expands,

  Yet writer and teacher misunderstands.

不然你不会读到这首诗文

没有了人类、海洋，也没有天空

一些人关注这个问题，未受愚弄

除非宇宙已展开而冷冻

  You would not read this poem otherwise,

  There’d be no human beings, seas, nor skies –

  Some focus this demands, do not be fooled –

  Unless the universe had stretched and cooled.

从一个热而致密的原始态

残留着一片余晖冰冷

我们处于微波之中。命运的未来

可反推老早发生的事情

  From a hot, dense, primordial state

There remains a cooler afterglow

We see in microwaves.  Our future fate

Reflects what happened, very long ago.

原注：这里我须声明，这不是纯粹是奔向现在而预选的，而是来自未来的终极因、甚至来自我们未来的视界而后选的，这尤为重要。

膨胀和冷却是核心主题 

为了说明电视上的噪声

不是在说蠢话，屏幕上斑点闪烁

随机如雪

  Expansion and cooling are the central theme,

  Account for the noise on a TV show,

  Not the stupid dialog, the speckled gleam

  Of analog TV, the random snow.

就像达尔文的进化论

生物学缺了它就几乎不可理解

膨胀是宇宙的革命

它被错写，仍在误传

  Like Darwinian Evolution,

  Without which Biology makes little sense,

  Expansion is the cosmic revolution

  Which bad writing still misrepresents.

那些微波是什么？清晰的解答

赢得了彭齐亚斯和威尔逊的诺贝尔奖

鸽子拉屎，并局部污染

推延了证实伽莫夫狂野的猜想

  What were those microwaves? The clear solution

  Won Penzias and Wilson’s Nobel Prize.

  Pigeon dropping and local pollution

  Delayed confirming Gamow’s wild surmise.

就像达尔文的思想，宇宙的膨胀

提供了形成结构的环境

而随时间的演化；天堂

许多宫殿内部变冷，然后开始变暖

  Like Darwin’s ideas, cosmic expansion

  Provides the context wherein structures form

  And develop over time; his mansion

  Has many houses, into cool, but starting warm.

大多数科学家认为他们理解

但只有少数同意它的真义

膨胀是一种事实，而且

广义相对论要干预

  Most scientists think that they understand

  But few agree on what it really means.

  Expansion’s a fact, on the other hand

  General Relativity intervenes.

哈勃对星系发现了什么

达尔文和孟德尔对基因贡献如何

红移意味着怎样，使人心惊

改变了计划，变更了字符和所有场景

  What Edwin Hubble did for galaxies,

  What Darwin and Mendel did for genes,

  What red shift meant, caused terrible unease,

  Changed plot, changed character, and all the scenes.

宇宙稍稍膨胀

产生巨大效应，到底为何

为何它冷到我们直打喷嚏

请给予我，永恒和一瞬

    The universe expands, by small degrees,

  With vast effect.  What is it, anyway?

  Why does it cool until we freeze?

  Allow me, please, forever and a day.

一次扭结，帝国，爆炸的弹药

逐渐变大，飞入虚空

而读到本书，打开光盘

便缺少这种想象的空间

  A sprain, empire, and exploding bomb

  Get bigger, moving into empty space.

  But read this book, play this CD-ROM:

  There is no such imaginary place

宇宙刺入边缘

从中心向外面

叶芝说“万物摔成碎片”

“中心不可保持”，于是我敲下回车键

  into which the universe penetrates

  towards the edges, outward from the center.

  “Things fall apart,” said William Butler Yeats,

  “the center cannot hold.”  But now we enter

无边缘而无中心的事物

不像扭结，炸弹，或罗马帝国

爱因斯坦和哈勃发明了

气球或轮胎的宇宙

  something with no edges, with no center

  unlike the sprain, bomb, or Roman Empire,

  Einstein and Hubble were inventor

  Of a balloon, or automobile tire

膨胀着而没有外部

内在运动，我听见你在抱怨

星系因一些碰撞而远离

星系间的空间便可拉伸

  Inflating without having an outside

  In which to move into.  I hear you kvetch.

  Galaxies grow remote, though some collide,

  The space between the galaxies can stretch.

星系随机运动，而星团

保持静止；而光子提供了

宇宙的参照系，再次验证了

它们的运动距离在推开

  Galaxies move at random, but at rest

  Are clusters of them; photons now provide

  The universal reference frame, the test

  Against which motion’s measured.  Push aside

理解“星系在飞行”，

仍在相互远离。尽可大胆收下

这张宝贵的百元美钞

（上面有）哈勃和爱因斯坦，就像杰克和海蒂

  The notion “galaxies are flying.”  Still,

  They still would move apart.  Just take in stride

  This valuable hundred dollar bill.

  Hubble and Einstein, Jekyll and Hyde.

想象散在气球上的蚁群

它们因吹胀而不断远离

即使每只蚂蚁不动，且看卡通

拉伸的橡皮。这就是艺术作品

  Imagine ants, crawling on the balloon

  as it expands.  They are farther apart

  even if each stays put.  Watch the cartoon –

  the rubber’s stretched.  This is a work of art,

这种膨胀的思想

无需进入某物。想象虎鲸

如果我们从海岸到海岸，放大海洋

它们已扩散来，波澜无际

  this idea of expansion without motion

  into anything.  Imagine Killer Whales

  if we, shore to shore, enlarged the ocean --

  they’d spread apart without waving tails.

气球图像延展到如此遥远

我们见到二维橡皮在三维空间中拉伸

但行星和恒星的三维宇宙

在这种情况就无需四维。

  Balloon picture stretches just so far.

  We see 2-D rubber stretch in 3-D space

  But 3-D cosmos, of planet and star,

  Does not need 4-D.  In this case

空间是动态的，它可弯曲

或膨胀，或收缩

可见无需嵌入四维几何

需要何等智力理解，爱翁的执着

  Space is dynamic, it can curve,

  Expand, or shrink without being embedded

  In 4-D geometry.  We observe

  What takes nerve to accept.  Albert wedded

事件发生的空间和时间

完全符合观测，如在我们宇宙中

见到万物奇怪的彼此远离

擦亮你的眼睛，梦想

  space and time to something which succeeds

  in matching observation, strange as it seems

  in our universe, everything recedes

  from everything else; rub your eyes, the dreams

大爆炸是小的，正在衰退

不在别处，它到处存在

空间自身爆炸，像国庆摆放的

烟花，冲天绽放

  that the Big Bang was small, just fade away.

  Nor was it someplace else.  It was everywhere.

  Space itself exploded.  Independence Day

  Fireworks lit, and went up in a flare.

什么导致膨胀？无人知道

模型符合数据，因此我们认为

正在寻找正确的问题。我们猜想

膨胀将要收缩

  What caused the expansion?  Nobody knows.

  The model fits the data.  So we think

  we’re asking the right questions.  We suppose

  confusion about expansion will shrink.

任你绞尽脑汁，挖空心思

现在应理解整个大爆炸

毕竟我经历了（灵魂）的狂飙

并且，就此终结

  Now you should understand the whole Big Bang

  With every nerve, in your brain or spinal.

  Now I’m done, after all this sturm und drang,

  Furthermore, this will be on the Final.

评注：本诗论述的是关于宇宙膨胀的问题，译成汉语之后，看起来似乎平淡无味了。而原诗是隔行押韵的，但这首诗译成汉语实在难以兼顾韵律。但从修辞、遣词的角度看，本诗并不高明，甚至似乎有点科学打油诗的味道。不过，那位女作者还算是美国漂亮的科普作家，虽然著作不多，但科普在美国还算时尚。