【译】From the Earth to the Moon （5

From the Earth to the Moon

by Jules Verne

Things had reached this point, the members of the Gun Club were becoming more and more wrought up, and the club was threatened with dissolution when an unexpected event forestalled that catastrophe.

The day after the conversation reported above, each member of the club received the following notice:

事情已经到了这一步，俱乐部成员的情绪愈加高涨，正在俱乐部快要解散时，一个意想不到的事情发生了。

这次谈话后的第二天，俱乐部的所有人都收到了以下通知：

BALTIMORE, October 3.

The president of the Gun Club has the honor of informing his colleagues that during the meeting on October 5, he will make an announcement that will be of the greatest interest to them. He therefore strongly urges them to be present.

IMPEY BARBICANE

PRESIDENT

巴尔地摩，十月三日

大炮俱乐部主席很荣幸地通知俱乐部的会员，于十月五日，主席将发出申明，而这将是会员们最在意的事情。因此，届时，主席十分希望所有人都能到场。

易恩培·巴比康

大炮俱乐部主席

Chapter 2  President Barbicane's Announcement

巴比康主席的宣告   

 At eight o'clock on the evening of October 5, a dense crowd was milling in the rooms of the Gun Club at 21 Union Square. All the members who lived in Baltimore had responded to their president's invitation. As for the corresponding members, express trains were bringing them in by the hundreds and they were pouring through the streets of the city. Large though the meeting hall was, it was unable to hold this influx of learned members, and so they overflowed into the adjoining rooms, the halls, and even into the grounds outside. There they encountered the ordinary people who were swarming around the doors. Each one trying to make his way to the front, all eager to learn what President Barbicane's important announcement was going to be, pushing, jostling, and crushing one another with the freedom of action that is peculiar to a populace that has been raised with the idea of self-government.

在10月5日晚上八点钟的时候，联合广场的二十一号大炮俱乐部的房间里挤满了人群。所有居住在巴尔的摩的成员都应了主席的邀请到场了。至于通讯会员则是由数百辆特快列车送了过来，并涌入了城市的街道上。会议大厅固然很大，但它依然无法容纳这涌入的博学渊博的成员们，于是他们只能被分散到各个相邻的房间里，大厅里，甚至是大厅外的空地上。在那儿，他们看见普通民众簇拥在门口。每个人都在伸长脖子努力望向前方，都希望能听到巴比康总统的重要公告是什么，在被自治政府有意扶持的行为自由的思想指引下，相互推搡着，拥挤着，谁也不让谁。

That evening a stranger in Baltimore would have been unable to enter the meeting hall no matter how much he might have been willing to pay. It was reserved exclusively for the resident and corresponding members of the Gun Club, and no one else was admitted into it. Even the local dignitaries and the members of the city government had to mingle with the crowd and try to catch word of what was taking place inside.

在那个晚上，一个在巴的摩尔的陌生人想进到这个会议大厅，那是绝不可能的，无论乐意花多少钱都不行。这可是专门为会员和负责通讯的会员们准备的，其他人可不被允许进入。就连当地名声赫赫之辈和那政府官员都得和人群待在一起，并努力听着从里面漏出来的一字一句。    

Meanwhile the meeting hall presented a curious spectacle. This immense room was wonderfully well adapted to its purpose. Tall pillars composed of superposed cannons resting on bases of thick mortars supported the lacy wrought-iron reinforcements of the ceiling. The walls were adorned with clusters of blunderbusses, arquebuses, muskets, carbines, and all other kinds of firearms, ancient and modern. Gas blazed from a thousand revolvers grouped in the form of chandeliers;the magnificent lighting was completed by candelabra composed of pistols and rifles. Models of cannons, samples of bronze, sighting marks shot full of holes, metal plates shattered by the cannon balls of the Gun Club, collections of rammers and sponges, strings of bombs, necklaces of projectiles, garlands of shells-in short, all the tools of the artilleryman, surprised the eye by their astonishing arrangements and gave one to understand that their real purpose was more decorative than murderous.

先看看这个奇特会议厅吧。这个巨大的房间奇异地达到了建造它的目的。高大的柱子是由叠加大炮做成的，正立在厚重的迫击炮做的柱基上，这样的柱基柱子支撑着有着锻铁花边的天花板。墙壁上点缀似地放着一排排散弹枪，火绳枪，步枪，卡宾枪，以及其他所有古代和现代的各种枪支器械。煤气灯从一千多支手枪组成的吊灯中散发出光线来，由手枪和步枪组合而成的大烛台也在亮着美轮美奂的灯光。大炮模型，青铜样品，千疮百孔的靶面，俱乐部炮弹炸碎的金属板的碎片，大量的填装器和擦拭用的海绵，排成线的颗颗炮弹，如项链似地罗列着的弹药，花环状成列的——总之，所有炮兵的器械用奇特的排列方式夺人眼球，而这给人了一种比起杀戮，他们真正用途更像是装饰品的感觉。