The frontier was everywhere.

到處都有待開荒

We were bounded only by the earth,

曾侷限我們的只有大地

and the ocean and the sky

海洋及天空

the open road still softly calls.

廣闊的道路 始終輕柔地呼喚著

Our little terricolous globe

我們的 緲小的地球

is the madhouse of those hundred, thousands, millions of worlds.

混亂吵雜 容納了幾百 幾千 幾百萬個世界

We, who can not even put our own planetary home in order

我們這些地球人 竟無法整頓好自己的星球

driven with rivalries and hatreds,

任由她被敵意與仇恨擺佈

Are we to venture out into space?

這樣的我們要探索外太空？

By the time we’re ready to settle even the nearest other planetary systems,

等到我們準備好安居在另一個星系時

we will have changed.

到時的我們會變得十分不同

The simple passage of so many generations would have changed us.

經過多個世代更迭 人類會改變

Necessity will have changed us.

會因生活需求的不同而改變

We’re inadaptable species.

現在的我們 是適應不良的物種

It will not be we who reach of Alpha Centauri

不會是這樣的我們踏足鄰近星系-南門二

and the other nearby stars.

和周遭的其他星球

It will be a species very like us

而會是種很像人類的物種

but with more of our strengths

擁有更多的優勢

and fewer of our weaknesses.

以及更少的弱點

More confident, far-seeing,

更有自信 更有遠見

Capable, and prudent.

更有才能 且謹慎小心

For all our failings,

鑒於過去種種失敗

despite our limitations and foul abilities,

儘管我們能力有限 又充滿劣根性

we humans are capable of greatness.

我們人類 會有偉大成就

what new wonders undreamed of in our time

還有什麼新事物 能超越我們的想像?

will we have wrought in another generation?

下個世代的人類究竟會如何?

And another,

另外

how far will our nomadic species have wondered by the end of the next century?

下個世紀末 人類這游牧民族會探索到多遠?

And the next millennium?

一千年過後呢?

Our remote descendants, safely read on many worlds from the solar system

遙遠的人類後代 會從太陽系進駐其他區域

and beyond, would be unified.

成為一個完整的群體

By their common heritage.

以共同的文化傳統

By their regard for their home planet.

以及對家鄉-地球的依戀

And by the knot that whatever life there may be,

有著這樣的牽絆 不管外面的生活如何

the only humans in all the universe, come from earth.

人類不論位在宇宙何方 家鄉 永遠是地球

They will gaze up and screen to find

到時我們的子孫會抬起頭 放眼尋覓

the blue dot in their skies.

頭頂天空上的藍色小點

They will marvel the whole vulnerable, the repository of more potential, once was.

他們會驚異地球曾如此脆弱 卻又潛力無窮

How perilous, our infancy,

我們的萌芽階段 如此危險遍佈

How humble our beginnings.

我們的初始起源 如此渺小謙卑

How many rivers we had to cross

我們還要橫渡多少激流

before we found our way?

才能找到方向?