Sunrise at Sea
海上的日出
Ba Jin

I would often get up early to watch sunrise when it was not yet quite light and all was quiet except for the droning of the ship engine.
为了看日出，我常常早起。那时天还没有大亮，周围非常清静，船上只有机器的响声。

The sky was pale with a bluish blue.
天空还是一片浅蓝，颜色很浅。

Soon a strike of pink dawn broke over the horizon, expanding gradually and becoming brighter and brighter.
转眼间天边出现了一道红霞，慢慢地在扩大它的范围，加强它的亮光。

Knowing that the sun was about to rise, I had my eyes fixed on the distant edge of the sea.
我知道太阳要从天边升起来了，便不转眼地望着那里。

As expected, the sun soon appeared revealing half of its face, which was very red but not bright.
果然过了一会儿，在那个地方出现了太阳的小半边脸，红是真红，却没有亮光。

It kept rising laboriously bit by bit as if weighted down with a heavy burden on its back, until, after breaking the rosy clouds, it completely emerged from the sea aglow with a lovely red.
这个太阳好像负着重荷似地一步一步、慢慢地努力上升，到了最后，终于冲破了云霞，完全跳出了海面，颜色红得非常可爱。

Then, before I knew it, the dark red began to shine blazingly, dazzling my eyes until they stung and all of a sudden lighting up the surrounding clouds.
一刹那间，这个深红的圆东西，忽然发出了夺目的亮光，射得人眼睛发痛，它旁边的云片也突然有了光彩。

Sometimes, hidden by the clouds, the sun nonetheless shed its rays straight onto the seawater, making it difficult for me to distinguish between the sky and the sea because what I saw in front of me was nothing but a wide expanse of dazzling brilliance.
有时太阳走进了云堆中，它的光线却从云里射下来，直射到水面上。这时候要分辨出哪里是水，哪里是天，倒也不容易，因为我就只看见一片灿烂的亮光。

Sometimes, with thick layers of dark clouds hanging in the sky, the sun was hardly visible to the naked eye.
有时天边有黑云，而且云片很厚，太阳出来，人眼还看不见。

But its radiance managed to show through the dark clouds to edge them with golden lace.
然而太阳在黑云里放射的光芒，透过黑云的重围，替黑云镶了一道发光的金边。

Then, after gradually breaking through the tight encirclement, it came into full view and even dyed the dark clouds purple and scarlet.
后来太阳才慢慢地冲出重围，出现在天空，甚至把黑云也染成了紫色或者红色。

At the moment, apart from the sun, the clouds and the seawater, I too was luminous.
这时候发亮的不仅是太阳、云和海水，连我自己也成了明亮的了。

Wasn’t that a marvelous spectacle?
这不是很伟大的奇观么？