Waves

海浪

Waves are the children of the struggle between ocean and atmosphere, the ongoing signatures of infinity. Rays from the sun excite and energize the atmosphere of the earth, awakening it to flow, to movement, to rhythm, to life. The wind then speaks the message of the sun to the sea and the sea transmits it on through waves -- an ancient, exquisite, powerful message.

These ocean waves are among the earth's most complicated natural phenomena. The basic features include a crest (the highest point of the wave), a trough (the lowest point), a height (the vertical distance from the trough to the crest), a wave length (the horizontal distance between two wave crests), and a period (which is the time it takes a wave crest to travel one wave length).

Although an ocean wave gives the impression of a wall of water moving in your direction, in actuality waves move through the water leaving the water about where it was. If the water was moving with the wave, the ocean and everything on it would be racing in to the shore with obviously catastrophic results.

An ocean wave passing through deep water causes a particle on the surface to move in a roughly circular orbit, drawing the particle first towards the advancing wave, then up into the wave, then forward with it and then -- as the wave leaves the particles behind -- back to its starting point again.

From both maturity to death, a wave is subject to the same laws as any other 'living' thing. For a time it assumes a miraculous individuality that, in the end, is reabsorbed into the great ocean of life.

The undulating waves of the open sea are generated by three natural causes: wind, earth movements or tremors, and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. Once waves have been generated, gravity is the force that drives them in a continual attempt to restore the ocean surface to a flat plain.

from World Magazine (BBC Enterprises)

本文參考譯文

海浪是大海和空氣相斗的產(chǎn)物，無(wú)限的一種不間斷的標(biāo)志。太陽(yáng)光刺激了地球的大氣層，并給予它能量;陽(yáng)光使空氣開(kāi)始流動(dòng)，產(chǎn)生節(jié)奏，獲得生命。然后，風(fēng)把太陽(yáng)的住處帶給了大海，海洋用波浪的形式傳遞這個(gè)信息 -- 一個(gè)源過(guò)流長(zhǎng)、高雅而有力的信息。

這些海浪屬于地球上最復(fù)雜的自然現(xiàn)象。它們的基本特征包括浪峰(波浪的最高點(diǎn))、波谷(最低點(diǎn))、浪高(從波谷到浪峰的垂直距離)、波長(zhǎng)(兩個(gè)浪峰間的水平距離)和周期(海峰走過(guò)一個(gè)波長(zhǎng)所需的時(shí)間)。雖然，海浪給人的印象是一堵由水組成的墻向你壓過(guò)來(lái)，而實(shí)際上，浪從水中移過(guò)，而水則留在原處。如果水和浪一起移動(dòng)的話，那么大海和海里所有的東西就會(huì)向岸邊疾涌過(guò)來(lái)，帶來(lái)明顯的災(zāi)難性后果。

穿過(guò)深水的海浪使水面上的一個(gè)微粒按照一種近乎圓形的軌道移動(dòng)，先把微粒拉向前移動(dòng)的海浪，然后推上波浪，隨著波浪移動(dòng)，然后 -- 當(dāng)波浪把微粒留在身后時(shí) -- 又回到出發(fā)點(diǎn)。

從成熟到消亡，波浪和其他任何“活動(dòng)中”的東西一樣，都受制于共同的法則。一度它獲得非凡的個(gè)性，但最終又被重新融進(jìn)生命的大洋。

公海上起伏的波浪是由3個(gè)自然因素構(gòu)成的：風(fēng)、地球的運(yùn)動(dòng)或震顫和月亮、太陽(yáng)的引力。一旦波浪形成，地球引力是持續(xù)不斷企圖使海面復(fù)原為平面的力量。

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