We discover that it's the future: China has constructed a huge mirror in space called the China Sun, and is using it to engineer the climate. Ah Quan gets a job cleaning the reflective surface of the China Sun. It turns out that Stephen Hawking is living in orbit, where the low gravity has helped to prolong his life; Hawking and Ah Quan become friends and go on space walks together. The physicist teaches the worker about the laws of physics and about the vastness of the universe, and Ah Quan’s mind begins to dwell on the question of humanity’s fate: Will we explore the stars, or live and die on Earth? Soon afterward, he is saying goodbye to his parents and setting out on a one-way mission to explore interstellar space. By the end of the story, Ah Quan’s progress is representative of humanity’s. He has traversed an enormous social and material distance, but it pales in comparison to the journey ahead.
我們發(fā)現(xiàn)書(shū)中描述的是未來(lái)的世界：中國(guó)在太空建造了一面巨大的鏡子，它被稱為“中國(guó)太陽(yáng)”，用于調(diào)節(jié)氣候。阿全的工作是清潔“中國(guó)太陽(yáng)”反光表面。原來(lái)斯蒂芬·霍金（Stephen Hawking）生活在軌道上，因?yàn)槟抢锏闹亓π。纳靡匝娱L(zhǎng)；后來(lái)霍金和阿全成為了朋友，一起去太空漫步。這位物理學(xué)家向這個(gè)工人講授了物理學(xué)定律和宇宙的浩瀚，阿全的內(nèi)心開(kāi)始思考人類命運(yùn)：我們要去探索其他星球嗎？還是就在地球上度過(guò)一生？不久，他就向父母告別，踏上了探索星際的單程之旅。故事結(jié)尾，阿全取得的進(jìn)步代表著全人類的進(jìn)步，盡管他跨越了巨大的社會(huì)和物質(zhì)距離，但與未知的旅程相比，這顯得微不足道。

Liu’s stories aren't always so tender; in imagining the human future, his romantic sweetness is balanced with harsh objectivity. In "The Wandering Earth," scientists discover that the sun is about to swell into a red giant. In response, they build enormous engines capable of pushing the entire planet toward another star—an "exodus" that will last a hundred generations, during which everything on the surface will be destroyed. Watching the deadly sun recede and transform into a star like any other, the protagonist cries out, "Earth, oh my wandering Earth!" And yet the story suggests that this is just the sort of outrageous project we'll need in order to insure humanity's long-term survival.
劉慈欣的故事不完全是這么溫和的；在想象人類的未來(lái)時(shí)，他筆下的浪漫甜蜜與殘酷現(xiàn)實(shí)是相輔相成的。在《流浪地球》（The Wandering Earth）中，科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)太陽(yáng)將要膨脹為巨大的紅色星體。因此，他們建造了巨大的引擎，這些引擎能夠?qū)⒄麄€(gè)地球推向另一顆恒星——一場(chǎng)持續(xù)上百代的“大遷移”就此展開(kāi)。在此期間，地球表面的一切都將被摧毀?？粗旅奶?yáng)漸漸遠(yuǎn)去，變得模糊，最后變得與其他星體無(wú)異，主人公哭喊著“地球，我流浪的地球??！”然而，這個(gè)故事向我們暗示了，我們需要種種匪夷所思的解決方案來(lái)保證人類的長(zhǎng)存。

"In the distant future, if human civilization survives and spreads through the cosmos, humanity must create technological marvels at ultra-grand scales," Liu wrote to me.
劉慈欣在郵件中寫(xiě)道：“在遙遠(yuǎn)的未來(lái)，如果人類文明在宇宙間生存繁衍的話，人類必需創(chuàng)造超乎尋常的科技奇跡?！?/p>

I believe science and technology can bring us a bright future, but the journey to achieve it will be filled with difficulties and exact a price from us. Some of these obstacles and costs will be quite terrible, but in the end we will land on the sunlit further shore. Let me quote the Chinese poet Xu Zhimo from the beginning of the last century, who, after a trip to the Soviet Union, said, "Over there, they believe in the existence of Heaven, but there is a sea of blood that lies between Heaven and Hell, and they’ve decided to cross the sea."
我深信，科學(xué)技術(shù)能夠給我們帶來(lái)光明美好的未來(lái)，但是實(shí)現(xiàn)的過(guò)程會(huì)充滿艱難險(xiǎn)阻，我們要為此付出代價(jià)。其中有些阻礙非常艱難，有些代價(jià)非常高昂，但是我們終將抵達(dá)陽(yáng)光明媚的彼岸。請(qǐng)?jiān)试S我援引上世紀(jì)初中國(guó)詩(shī)人徐志摩在游歷前蘇聯(lián)（Soviet Union）之后寫(xiě)下的詩(shī)句：“他們相信天堂是有的，可以實(shí)現(xiàn)的，但在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界與那天堂的中間隔著一座海，一座血污海，人類泅得過(guò)這血海，才能登彼岸，他們決定先實(shí)現(xiàn)那血海。”

But to what end? Humanity can't survive everything; the last volume of the "Three-Body" trilogy is set, in part, during the heat-death of the universe. Liu’s stories see life from two angles, as both a titanic struggle for survival and as a circumscribed exercise in finitude. In my favorite of his stories, "The Mountain"—it's available in English in a short-fiction collection called "The Wandering Earth"—mountain climbing is proposed as a metaphor for this contradiction. "It is the nature of intelligent life to climb mountains," inter-dimensional alien explorers explain. But the universe is so unknowable that "we are all always at the foot," and will never reach the peak. In another story, "The Devourer," a character asks, "What is civilization? Civilization is devouring, ceaselessly eating, endlessly expanding." But you can't expand forever; perhaps it would be better, another character suggests, to establish a “self-sufficient, introspective civilization." At the core of Liu's sensibility, in short, is a philosophical interest in the problem of limits. How should we react to the inherent limitations of life? Should we push against them or acquiesce?
但是，終點(diǎn)在哪里呢？人類無(wú)法保存一切；《三體》三部曲的最后一部中，部分情節(jié)設(shè)定在宇宙熱死亡期間。劉慈欣的故事從兩個(gè)不同角度來(lái)審視生命：一個(gè)是為生存而頑強(qiáng)斗爭(zhēng)，一個(gè)是在界限內(nèi)受限制的行為。在他所有作品中，我最喜歡的是《山》（The Mountain）——在短篇小說(shuō)集《流浪地球》中有它的英文譯本——此文以登山作為這個(gè)矛盾的隱喻。跨緯度的外星探索者解釋“登山是智慧生命的本質(zhì)”。但是宇宙神秘而不可知，以至于“我們總是在山腳下，”且永遠(yuǎn)也到不了頂峰。在另一個(gè)故事《吞食者》中，書(shū)中人物問(wèn)“什么是文明？文明就是吞食，不停地吃啊吃，不停地?cái)U(kuò)張和膨脹?！钡悄悴豢赡苡肋h(yuǎn)在擴(kuò)張，另一個(gè)人物建議道，也許建立一個(gè)“自給自足的、內(nèi)省的文明”會(huì)更好，另一個(gè)人物這樣建議。簡(jiǎn)而言之，一言以蔽之，劉慈欣的理性內(nèi)核是對(duì)極限問(wèn)題的哲學(xué)思考。我們應(yīng)該如何應(yīng)對(duì)生命固有的局限性？我們應(yīng)該反抗，還是認(rèn)命？

"Everything ends," Liu said, in his e-mail, "and describing what is inevitable should not be viewed as a form of pessimism. Take the example of a romantic tale: 'The lovers lived happily ever after' would clearly be viewed as an optimistic story. But if you add a coda—'A hundred years later, they were both dead'—does that turn the story pessimistic? Only science fiction can go as far as 'a hundred years later' at the scale of the universe."
劉慈欣在郵件中提到：“沒(méi)什么是永恒的，描述必然性不應(yīng)當(dāng)被視為一種悲觀主義。就拿愛(ài)情故事來(lái)說(shuō)，‘戀人從此幸?？鞓?lè)地生活在一起’我們當(dāng)然認(rèn)為這是一個(gè)樂(lè)觀的故事。但如果你在結(jié)尾再加一句——‘百年過(guò)后，他們兩個(gè)都去世了’——難道就變成了一個(gè)悲觀的故事了嗎？只有科幻小說(shuō)可以描寫(xiě)‘百年之后’的浩瀚宇宙。”

Vocabulary
film noir: 黑色電影(一類犯罪影片)
psychedelia: 迷幻物
runaway: 迅猛發(fā)展而難以控制的
novella: 短篇小說(shuō)
exodus: 大批離開(kāi)
protagonist: 主人公
circumscribed: 受限制的
trilogy: 三部曲
finitude: 限定
introspective: 內(nèi)省的
coda: 結(jié)尾部分

英文來(lái)源：紐約客
譯者：蘇玉和SCNU
審校&編輯：許晶晶