大陆与群岛

Mainland and Archipelagos

大陆辽阔而宏伟，物产丰富，承载着绝大多数的居民。

The continent is vast and majestic, rich in resources, and home to the overwhelming majority of the population. 

群岛如星辰般点缀在大洋之中，岛民加起来拢共也只占一小部分。

The archipelagos are scattered across the ocean like stars, and all the islanders combined make up only a small fraction. 

大陆有极为发达的经济系统，科技先进，大楼如林，物质供应近乎无穷。

The continent has an extremely developed economic system and advanced technology; skyscrapers rise like forests, and material supplies are nearly inexhaustible. 

群岛各不相同，有些岛屿有小而精的经济系统，有些岛屿则近乎自然经济，各个岛之间的经济规则千差万别。

The islands, however, differ from one another: some have small but highly refined economic systems, while others are close to a natural economy, and the economic rules vary wildly from island to island. 

大陆曾经的格局是互不统属的很多个小邦，但后来经过反反复复的战争、殖民、连横、全陆化，如今已经实现了全大陆的大一统。大陆的中心是一个雄伟的超级都市，都市的中央是一座金碧辉煌而又高耸入云的巨塔，高到处在大陆的任何角落，都能一眼望到它。

In the past, the continent was a patchwork of many small states, none subordinate to another. But after repeated cycles of war, colonization, alliance-making, and full continental integration, it has now achieved a single, unified rule over the entire landmass. At the heart of the continent stands a magnificent super-metropolis, and at the very center of that metropolis rises a colossal tower, glittering with gold and soaring into the clouds, so tall that from anywhere on the continent, one can glimpse it at a glance. 

群岛几乎没什么原住民，岛民多数都是来自大陆的难民。没有一个主线历史能够描述群岛的生态演变。很多岛曾经有一段辉煌的历史，后来慢慢沉寂下去，后来可能又慢慢恢复了生气。岛屿之间也有复杂的互动，但从没有过一种范式能够统一所有群岛。

The archipelagos have almost no indigenous inhabitants; most islanders are refugees from the continent. No single “mainline” history can capture how the islands’ ecology has evolved. Many islands once enjoyed a period of splendor, then gradually fell into silence, and may later slowly come back to life. There are complex interactions among the islands, but no paradigm has ever unified them all. 

大陆人生来便被告知：中央巨塔是人的终极追求。能够进一次巨塔的大门，对多数大陆人而言便足以荣耀一生。而巨塔每向上攀登一层，都意味着要和更多同样想要往上攀登的人激烈竞争。不过大陆早已不是几百年前的那个野蛮文明，竞争不靠流血的搏杀；每一层都有一套非常精妙复杂的游戏规则来决定谁能继续向上一阶。能够在巨塔登顶的人，会成为全大陆的豪杰。

From birth, continental people are told this: the central tower is the ultimate pursuit of human life. For most, being able to enter its gates even once is enough to be honored for a lifetime. And each step upward—each new level climbed—means fierce competition with ever more people who want to climb as well. Yet the continent is no longer the barbaric civilization it was centuries ago; competition is not settled by bloodshed. Each level is governed by an exquisitely intricate set of game-like rules that decide who may advance to the next. Those who reach the very top of the tower become heroes of the entire continent. 

群岛远离大陆，看不到中央巨塔。每个岛屿都有自己的制高点，到达制高点的方法各不相同。有些岛屿在自己的岛上树立了一个本岛的巨塔，并制定了本岛的巨塔上升规则；有不少规则看着还挺残忍。更多的岛屿甚至没人争着去那个顶点，一个人带上一天的干粮和水就能上去。

The archipelagos lie far from the continent and cannot see the central tower. Every island has its own highest point, and the paths to reach it differ from place to place. Some islands even erect their own local tower and devise their own rules for climbing it—many of which look rather cruel. On many more islands, no one even bothers to compete for the summit; a person can reach it simply by bringing a day’s worth of food and water. 

大多数大陆人一生都围绕着“上塔”而展开。当然，多数大陆人一生都没办法进入巨塔。数百年来，为了安置这些人的心灵，大陆上早已演变出了一套成熟的技术。通过安排得无比精妙的仪式和娱乐活动，大量大陆人都与那些有机会进塔的明星们进行了心灵绑定。每一个进塔的人如今都是成千上万个永远无法进塔的人的投射对象，一个人进塔，四舍五入等于是一万个人进了塔。另外，大陆上还有大量的视听作品，其主题都在讲如何花式毁掉这座巨塔，这些作品抚慰了无数不能进塔的大陆人。但抚慰归抚慰，能不能进入巨塔、能爬到多少层，依然是大陆人进行相互评估时的第一标准。

Most people on the continent spend their entire lives revolving around the idea of “climbing the tower.” Of course, the majority will never be able to enter the great tower at all. Over the centuries, the continent has long since developed a mature set of techniques to soothe these people’s minds. Through exquisitely orchestrated rituals and entertainment, vast numbers of continental people form a kind of spiritual bond with the celebrities who do have a chance to enter the tower. Every person who gets in becomes the object of projection for tens of thousands who never will. One person entering the tower, roughly speaking, is as good as ten thousand people entering it. In addition, the continent produces an enormous volume of audiovisual works themed around ever more imaginative ways to destroy the tower; these works have comforted countless continental people who cannot enter. But comfort is comfort: whether one can enter the tower at all, and how many levels one can climb, remains the foremost standard by which continental people measure one another. 

群岛人分成两拨。那些早就从大陆来到的群岛的人，他们多数已经适应了群岛的生活。无数形态各异的岛屿，无数创造新事物的机会，让他们早已忘记了大陆的那一座巨塔。另一拨人是刚从大陆过来不久的人，这些人多数没有资格在大陆攀爬巨塔，同时又厌倦了大陆上虽然充足但又千篇一律的物质与文化供应。这些人刚开始会被群岛的新鲜感所吸引，但很快他们就会时不时地往大陆的方向望去，试试能不能看到那个宏伟的巨物。他们其中的一部分人甚至在不久之后会开始在原地建起一座新塔，逼得其他的岛民只能迁往其它的岛屿。

Islanders fall into two groups. Those who came from the continent long ago have, for the most part, adapted to island life. With countless islands in countless forms, and countless opportunities to create new things, they have long since forgotten the continent’s great tower. The other group consists of those who arrived only recently—people who mostly are not qualified to climb the tower on the continent, and who also grew tired of the continent’s abundant yet monotonous material and cultural supply. At first they are drawn in by the islands’ novelty, but soon they find themselves, from time to time, gazing back toward the continent, trying to see whether that magnificent colossus is visible. Some of them even begin, before long, to build a new tower right where they are, forcing other islanders to migrate to other islands. 

在大陆人眼里，群岛人自然是低下的野人。尤其是那些没有资格进塔的大陆人，他们对岛人充满了鄙夷与不理解：“我们虽然无法上塔，但我们每天起来都能看到那座伟大的建筑，人生就有了意义；你们去那些穷山恶水的破岛上，什么都看不到，你们的人生有何价值？”

In the eyes of continental people, islanders are naturally lowly savages. Especially those continental people who have no chance of entering the tower: they are full of contempt and incomprehension toward the islanders. “Even though we can’t climb the tower,” they say, “we wake up every day and can still see that great building, and that gives life meaning. You go off to those wretched, backwater islands, where you can’t see anything at all. What value can your lives possibly have?” 

在群岛人的眼里...好吧，其实很多岛人对大陆人一点兴趣都没有，他们也并不在乎大陆人怎么想。只有刚来到岛上的大陆人，会时不时地嘲讽大陆人的愚蠢，而资深岛民此时都只会笑一笑。

In the eyes of islanders… well, in truth, many islanders have no interest in continental people whatsoever, and they don’t really care what the continent thinks. Only the newly arrived continental refugees will occasionally mock the continent’s stupidity, while seasoned islanders merely smile. 

不过，反而是大陆在巨塔顶层的极少数人，他们不仅不鄙视岛人，反而时刻都关注着群岛的动态。因为他们早就发现：这个大陆虽然看起来风平浪静，但随着时间的推移，无法进塔的人总是越来越愤怒，整个文明似乎总是有自毁的倾向。而每到关键时候，总是会有一些岛上所捣鼓出来的新奇玩意能成为挽救大陆的救命稻草。他们意识到，只有每隔一段时间吸纳一些群岛的新元素，并让掌握这些元素的人来加固这座巨塔，并替换掉巨塔中下层的一些人，才能维持整个大陆文明的长期稳定。因此，在填海造陆的技术推动之下，大陆实际上在缓慢地扩张与吞并群岛。

And yet, it is precisely the tiny handful of people at the very top of the tower who not only do not look down on islanders, but keep a constant eye on what is happening in the archipelagos. They discovered long ago that although the continent appears calm on the surface, as time goes by, those who cannot enter the tower only grow angrier, and the whole civilization seems to carry a tendency toward self-destruction. And whenever a critical moment arrives, some odd novelty tinkered together on the islands reliably becomes the straw that saves the continent. They realized that only by periodically absorbing new elements from the archipelagos—bringing in the people who command those elements to reinforce the tower, and replacing some of those in its lower and middle levels—can the continent’s civilization remain stable in the long run. Thus, driven by land-reclamation technology, the continent is in fact slowly expanding and swallowing up the islands. 

与此相对应的，每隔一段时间，总会有某个岛屿会突然成为大陆的新宠儿。岛与陆之间的海被填平，大量大陆人如同蝗虫一般涌入，将岛上原有的财富洗劫一空，并以此换取进入巨塔的门票。而这个岛的原岛民也会分成两拨。其中一拨意识到自己以新的姿态降临大陆、进入巨塔中上层的机会来了，于是心安理得地搬迁到了大陆中心；而另一拨人则痛恨于净土的毁灭，决然地扬帆起航，走向了更远的岛屿，从头开始建设一个新的小社会。

Correspondingly, every so often, some island will suddenly become the continent’s new darling. The sea between island and continent is filled in, and vast numbers of continental people pour in like locusts, stripping the island of its accumulated wealth and using it to buy tickets into the tower. The island’s original inhabitants then split into two groups. One group realizes that the chance has come to arrive on the continent in a new guise, to enter the tower’s upper tiers, and they move to the continent’s center with clear consciences. The other group, enraged by the destruction of their sanctuary, decisively sets sail toward more distant islands, to begin again from scratch and build a new small society. 

在大陆人的眼里，这是大陆文明的又一次胜利，进一步强化了大陆的伟大。

In the eyes of continental people, this is yet another victory for continental civilization—one that further reinforces the continent’s greatness. 

在一部分岛人地眼里，大陆文明的进步是自己的功劳。

In the eyes of some islanders, the continent’s progress is their own achievement. 

而另一部分岛人只希望，在远方还有着无数的未被发现的岛屿。

And the rest of the islanders can only hope that, somewhere far away, there are still countless undiscovered islands.