世界小史 第40期:亚述人

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因为巴比伦尼亚人和亚述人都把太阳、月亮和星星当作他们的神祈祷，

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

所以几个世纪以来，他们一年到头都在晴朗、温暖的夜晚观察和记录他们在天空中看到的一切。

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

他们都是头脑清醒的聪明人，他们发现，星星转动得很有规律。

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动并且每个夜晚重新出现在同一位置的星星，不久就被他们认出来了。

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

他们给星空中的那些图像取了名字，就像我们今天称之为“大熊星座”一样。

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.

但是他们最感兴趣的是那些在天穹中移动并时而在“大熊星座”，附近时而又在“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.

当时他们认为，地球是一个扁平的圆盘，星空是一种空心球体架在地球上方并每天转动一次。

So it must have seemed miraculous⁵ to them that,

所以人们一定特别感到惊奇：

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

虽然天穹上的大部分星星都固定不动，某些星星在某种程度上可以说只能松动地被安置在那上面并到处“乱跑”。

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