世界小史 第40期:亞述人

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 For both the Babylonians and the Assyrians worshipped the sun and the moon, and also the stars.

因為巴比倫尼亞人和亞述人都把太陽、月亮和星星當作他們的神祈禱，

On clear, warm nights, throughout the year and over centuries, they observed and recorded everything they saw in the skies.

所以幾個世紀以來，他們一年到頭都在晴朗、溫暖的夜晚觀察和記錄他們在天空中看到的一切。

And because they were intelligent, they noticed that the stars revolved1 in a regular way.

他們都是頭腦清醒的聰明人，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，星星轉(zhuǎn)動得很有規(guī)律。

They soon learnt to recognize those that seemed fixed2 to the vault3 of heaven, reappearing each night in the same place.

那些在天穹似乎固定不動并且每個夜晚重新出現(xiàn)在同一位置的星星，不久就被他們認出來了。

And they saw shapes in the constellations4 and gave them names, just as we do when we speak of the Great Bear.

他們給星空中的那些圖像取了名字，就像我們今天稱之為“大熊星座”一樣。

But the stars which seemed to move over the vault of heaven, now, say, towards the Great Bear, and now towards the Scales, were the ones that interested them most.

但是他們最感興趣的是那些在天穹中移動并時而在“大熊星座”，附近時而又在“天秤星座”近旁的星星。

In those days people thought that the earth was a flat disk, and that the sky was a sort of hollow sphere cupped over the earth, that turned over it once each day.

當時他們認為，地球是一個扁平的圓盤，星空是一種空心球體架在地球上方并每天轉(zhuǎn)動一次。

So it must have seemed miraculous5 to them that,

所以人們一定特別感到驚奇：

although most of the stars stayed fixed to the heavens, some seemed, as it were, only loosely fastened, and able to move about.

雖然天穹上的大部分星星都固定不動，某些星星在某種程度上可以說只能松動地被安置在那上面并到處“亂跑”。