美国国家公共电台 NPR--NASA is sending an Ada Limón poem to Jupiter's moon Europa — and maybe your name too?

NASA is sending an Ada Limón poem to Jupiter's moon Europa — and maybe your name too?

Transcript¹

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón looks out over construction of the Europa Clipper spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her original poem will be engraved² on its side.

Library of Congress

If NASA does find signs of life on its upcoming mission to Jupiter's orbit, the space agency wants to make sure that whatever's out there knows about us too.

So NASA is etching a poem onto the side of the spacecraft due to launch next year. Its author, Ada Limón, the U.S. Poet Laureate, said in an interview with Morning Edition that writing this particular poem was one of her hardest assignments.

"When NASA contacted me and asked me if I would write an original poem, I immediately got really excited and said yes. And then we hung up the call and I thought, 'How am I going to do that?'" Limón said.

She said it was difficult to think of what to write for a 1.8 billion mile journey. The vast distance to Europa means that the spacecraft won't reach its destination until 2030, which is six years after its launch.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission aims to learn more about whether the icy moon has the ingredients necessary to sustain life. The spacecraft will fly by Europa about 50 times and send back data, which NASA hopes will include clues to one the universe's greatest mysteries: Are we alone?

Limón found inspiration for the poem, "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa" which she unveiled at a reading at the Library of Congress on June 1, here on Earth.

"The way I finally entered the poem was to point back to the earth," Limón said. "The outreaching that the poem was doing was just as important as pointing back to the beauty and power and urgency of our own planet."

Limón writes of the "mysteries below our sky: the whale song, the songbird singing its call in the bough³ of a wind-shaken tree." One common element of our natural world, water, is a critical part of this mission.

Scientists believe water sits under a shell of ice on Europa, giving the moon one of three elements needed to sustain life. They also want to know more about Europa's water, and whether the moon could house the two other building blocks of life — organic molecules⁴ and food — said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, overseeing the spacecraft's construction.

"Europa is an ocean world like the Earth, right?" Leshin explained. "Our ocean is teeming⁵ with life. The question is: are other ocean worlds also teeming with life?"

When Limón was first briefed on the mission, she jotted⁶ down an idea: "We, too, are made of water." That same line made it into the poem, which she ends this way:

"O second moon, we, too, are made

of water, of vast and beckoning⁷ seas.

We, too, are made of wonders, of great

and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds, of a need to call out through the dark."

The full poem will be engraved on the side of the spacecraft in her own handwriting — she had to write it down 19 times until she was satisfied with the final copy.

You, too, can make yourself known to Europa by attaching your name to this poem. But you won't need to worry about your handwriting. As part of the "Message in a Bottle" campaign, all names received will be engraved on a microchip that will fly in the spacecraft towards Europa.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 engraved   

v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• The silver cup was engraved with his name. 银杯上刻有他的名字。
• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back. 此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bough   

n.大树枝，主枝

参考例句：

• I rested my fishing rod against a pine bough.我把钓鱼竿靠在一棵松树的大树枝上。
• Every bough was swinging in the wind.每条树枝都在风里摇摆。

4 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

5 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

6 jotted   

v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下

参考例句：

• I jotted down her name. 我匆忙记下了她的名字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The policeman jotted down my address. 警察匆匆地将我的地址记下。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 beckoning   

adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• An even more beautiful future is beckoning us on. 一个更加美好的未来在召唤我们继续前进。 来自辞典例句
• He saw a youth of great radiance beckoning to him. 他看见一个丰神飘逸的少年向他招手。 来自辞典例句