| What was left of Mars, that is; this one small city of about nine hundred beings. | Вернее, не весь Марс, а то, что осталось от марсианской цивилизации, - маленький городок с населением около девятисот душ. |
| The civilization of Mars was older than that of Earth, but it was a dying one. This was what remained of it: one city, nine hundred people. | Цивилизация Марса была намного старше земной, но она умирала. |
| They were waiting for Earth to make contact, for a selfish reason and for an unselfish one. | И марсиане ждали контакта с Землей, думая и о своем будущем, и о будущем землян. |
| Martian civilization had developed in a quite different direction from that of Earth. | Ведь их цивилизация развивалась совсем не так, как на Голубой планете. |
| It had developed no important knowledge of the physical sciences, no technology. | Марсиане не создали техники, не накопили знаний в области точных наук. |
| But it had developed social sciences to the point where there had not been a single crime, let alone a war, on Mars for fifty thousand years. And it had developed fully the parapsychological sciences of the mind, which Earth was just beginning to discover. | Но они овладели парапсихологическими свойствами мозга, о которых земляне лишь начали смутно догадываться. |
| Mars could teach Earth much. How to avoid crime and war to begin with. Beyond those simple things lay telepathy, telekinesis, empathy... | Марс многому мог научить Землю: телепатии, телекинезу, эмпатии... |
| And Earth would, Mars hoped, teach them something even more valuable to Mars: how, by science and technology-which it was too late for Mars to develop now, even if they had the type of minds which would enable them to develop these things-to restore and rehabilitate a dying planet, so that an otherwise dying race might live and multiply again. Each planet would gain greatly, and neither would lose. And tonight was the night when Earth would make its first sighting shot. Its next shot, a rocket containing Earthmen, or at least an Earthman, would be at the next opposition, two Earth years, or roughly four Martian years, hence. The Martians knew this, because their teams of telepaths were able to catch at least some of the thoughts of Earthmen, enough to know their plans. Unfortunately, at that distance, the connexion was one-way. Mars could not ask Earth to hurry its programme. Or tell Earth scientists the facts about Mars' composition and atmosphere which would have made this preliminary shot unnecessary. |
