The Songs of Distant Earth - Apr 17, 2008
刚看完一本名叫The songs of distant earth的科幻小说，作者是Arthur C. Clarke (亚瑟·克拉克, 16 December 1917–19 March 2008)。这本书属于牛津书虫系列，所以很缩简和简略。在这个版本里面有五个短篇小说：
１. The Nice Billion Names of God
We know what the lamas are trying to do. But we didn’t know why. It’s the craziest thing but old Sam’s just told me the reason. He’s getting a bit excited now that we’re getting close to the end of the list. You see, they believe that when they have listed all His names - and they think that there are nine billion of them - God’s purpose in making the world will be finished. There will be nothing more for human beings to do, and indeed, no further reason for humans to go on living. When the list’s completed, God steps in and simply closes everything down … bang!
喇嘛借助电脑在短短的三个月内将上帝的九十亿个可能的名字列出来后，人类也就失去了存在的意义，一切又回归混沌。
2. The Secret
On Earth, we spend our whole lives fighting gravity. Every step we take, every movement we make, is hard work for our bodies. In seventy years, how much blood does the heart lift through how many kilometres? But here on the Moon, where on eighty-kilo human weighs only about thirteen kilos, a body has to do only a sixth of that work.
科学家在月球上发现仓鼠的寿命从平常的两年提高到１０年，仅仅是因为月球的重力只有地球的六份之一。但是这个消息不敢被发布。
3. The Wall of Darkness
‘Along the line of the Wall, Brayldon, our univers comes to an end - and yet does not. Before the Wall was built, there was nothing to prevent people going onwards. The Wall itself is only a man-made thing, but it has the same strangeness as the space it now fills.’He held the piece of paper towards Brayldon and slowly turned it round and round.
‘Here,’ he said, ‘is a simple piece of paper. It has, of course, two sides. Can you imagine one that has not?’
Brayldon stared at him in amazement.
‘That’s impossible - quite impossible!’
‘But is it?’ said Grayle softly. On the table his hand searched for and found a long, thin strip of paper. He ran his fingers along the paper strip, then joined the two ends together so that the strip had the shape of a circle.
‘The scientists of the First Age,’ he went on, ‘had minds that could understand this fully, but this simple example may help to show you the truth. Watch. I run my finger around the inside, so - and now along the outside. The two surfaces are quite separate; you can go from one to the other only by moving through the thickness of the strip. Do you agree?’
‘Of course,’ said Brayldon, still puzzled. ‘But what does it prove?’
‘Nothing,’ said Grayle. ‘But now watch…’
Again Grayle brought the two ends of the paper strip together, but now he had given it a half-turn so that the circle of paper had a twist in it. He held it out to Brayldon.
‘Run your finger around it now,’ he said quietly.
Braylon did not do so; he could see the old man’s meaning.
‘I understand,’ he said. ‘You no longer have two separate surfaces. It is now a single continuous piece of paper - a one-sided surface - something that at first sight seems quite impossible.’
‘Yes,’ said Grayle softly. ‘I thought you would understand. A one-sided surface. Of course, a piece of paper only has two dimensions, but it gives us a simple example of what must happen, in three dimensions, at the Wall.’
在五篇当中就这篇看得很糊涂，主人公们生活在一个只有一面的表面上（？），在他们世界的尽头有一堵高高的墙，没有尽头。他们想法子爬上墙的最上面，一直往对面走，发现又回到起点，就像是卷起的一张纸。
4. No Morning After
‘We can make what we call a bridge - it’s kind of tunnel through space, like the one you’re looking into now. It’s difficult to explain, even to one of your mathematicians.’…
‘We had no idea you knew so much about science,’ said the Thaarns. ‘But there’s no time to discuss that. The important thing is this - if you stepped into that tunnel in front of you, you’d find yourself immediately on another planet. It’s a short cut, as you said, but through the thirty-seventh dimension.’
五百光年以外的一个名叫the Thaarn的星球上，科学家发现了地球所在的太阳将在３天内爆炸，他们尝试着联系地球人，幸运的是他们终于通过一个喝醉酒的数学家脑电波取得联系，让他警告地球人要通过一个有他们提供的３７维通道逃到另外一个地方去。由于是醉酒状态，再说他要说出来也没有人相信，地球人灭亡了。
5. The Songs of Distant Earth
With the starship comes knowledge, and love, and pain.
The lights had been turned down; the music had begun. No one who was there that night ever forgot that moment, when the first strange and beautiful sounds filled the hall. Lora stood, lost in wonder, not even remembering that Leon stood by her side, holding her hand in this.
It was a music that she had never known - the sound of things that belonged to Earth, and to Earth alone. The slow bear of deep bells, the songs of patient boatmen rowing home, of armies marching into battles long ago, the whisper of ten million voices rising from the great cities, the sound of winds dancing over endless seas of ice. All these things she heard in the music, and more - the songs of distant Earth, carried to her across the light-years…
Then a clear high voice, rising like a bird into the sky, singing a song that went straight to every heart. It was a song for all loves lost in the loneliness of space, for friends and homes that would never be seen again, that would be forgotten for ever in years to come.
这个是Arthur为了反击评论家说他的作品冰冷没有血性而作的，没有太多的描写未来的世界，而是着重与两个人之间的事情以及对地球的思念。遥远的距离，再也不能相见，最后也终会遗忘，但是来自地球的声音会唤醒血液中沉睡已久的回忆。
书中的Lora让我想起Tell Laura I love her：
Ricky Valance - Tell Laura I love her
还有＜新難兄難弟＞中的粱朝伟和梁家辉的演绎哦：http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTw7Pso80o