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Obituary: Michael Collins
讣告：迈克尔·柯林斯
The third man
第三人
Michael Collins, astronaut, died on April 28th, aged 90
宇航员迈克尔·柯林斯，于4月28日离世，享年90岁
The moon that filled the window of the spacecraft Columbia was not one Michael Collins had ever seen before. It was absolutely three-dimensional, its belly bulging out towards him. Cascading sunlight formed a halo round it. The lighter parts were a lot lighter than usual, the jagged mountains darker. It was electrifying. Then the feeling passed. “Hello Moon!” he quipped. “How’s the old backside?”
迈克尔·柯林斯（Michael Collins）从没见过这般景象：“哥伦比亚号”指挥舱窗外被月亮填满，如此立体、圆鼓鼓地凸向他。日光照射在月亮周围形成光晕，亮处比平常要亮很多，参差不齐的山脉稍显暗沉。这样的情景令他振奋，这样的感觉稍纵即逝。“月亮你好呀！”他打趣道，“你那边的屁股还好吗？”
This was the closest he had come, as the Apollo 11 crew on July 19th 1969 scouted out their best landing place. But he knew all about the Moon: dry, lifeless, rough as a corncob. Sometimes it looked like a sun-seared peach pit, sometimes like smallpox. What it never looked was interesting. He would certainly much rather have flown off to Mars.
这是他距月球最近的一次。1969年7月19日，阿波罗11号机组人员到处寻找最佳着陆点。他早就对月球了如指掌：气候干燥、了无生气，表面坑洼的像根玉米棒。有时，月面看起来像晒干的桃核，有时又像天花。总之从来没有呈现过有趣的样子。相比而言，他更希望飞到火星。
It was therefore no hardship, when his colleagues Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the lunar module Eagle down to the surface and clumped about on it, for him to stay for 27 hours in orbit in Columbia. Someone had to get them home. Besides, he loved Columbia, finest of ships, commodious and a friend. It pained him to think of Neil and Buzz trailing their grimy moon-goo into it. On his previous spaceflight, the Gemini 10 mission with John Young in 1966 to practise manoeuvering in Earth orbit, the two of them had squashed into a cabin the size of the front seat of a Volkswagen. By contrast Columbia almost reminded him, if you took the centre couch out, of Washington National Cathedral. When he later became director of the new National Air and Space Museum, planning and completing it on time and under budget, she had a place of honour, right by Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis.
所以，当同事尼尔·阿姆斯特朗（Neil Armstrong）和巴兹·奥尔德林（Buzz Aldrin）将“鹰”号登月舱降落在月球表面、费劲力气踏上月球时，“哥伦比亚”号指挥舱的柯林斯在飞船轨道停留了27个小时，这于他而言并非难事。总要有人把登月者接回家。柯林斯喜欢也最爱“哥伦比亚号”，她宽敞舒适，像他的好朋友。一想到尼尔和巴兹会把脏兮兮的月球粘土带进船舱，他就难过不已。在此前的1966年，他和约翰·杨（John Young）一起操纵双子座10号执行地球轨道飞行任务时，两人挤在大众汽车前座大小的机舱中，相比之下，如果撤走航天座椅，他甚至觉得“哥伦比亚号”宽敞如华盛顿国家大教堂。后来，柯林斯担任国家航空航天博物馆的馆长，负责规划部署，按时按预算完成了场馆的建设，他让“哥伦比亚号”光荣地坐落在林德伯格的“圣路易斯精神号”身边。
Ensconced in Columbia he could dine in splendour on tubes of his favourite cream-of-chicken soup, drink fairly hot coffee, listen to music and crank up the thermostat to 76 degrees. For 48 minutes in each of 14 orbits, as he passed the Moon’s meteor-battered backside, it was a joy to get Mission Control to shut up for a while. So when the press called him the loneliest man in history, or at least since Adam, 65 miles above his comrades, 250,000 miles from home, that was ridiculous. Occasionally forgotten, perhaps.
在“哥伦比亚号”里坐定后，他可以美美地享用鸡肉奶油汤，喝点热咖啡，听听音乐，把恒温器调高到24.4度。每飞行48分钟，他就变换到14条轨道的其中一条，经过被陨石撞击的月球背面时，他会暂时关闭任务控制系统，静静地享受这段时间。所以，当媒体称他为史上最孤独的人时（或者至少自亚当以来），想想他正处于同事头顶65英里、距家25万英里，多么不可思议。只是，有时候他也许会被遗忘。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
