Worlds Of War 1 |
(Ide': J.W. text, omarbetad, förlängd, svenska ord av Mig)
Journalist:
No one would have believed that
in the last years of the 19th century
that human affairs where being watched
from the timeless worlds of space.
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized
as someone with a microscope studies creatures
that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Few man even considered the possibility of life on other planets
and yet, across the gulf of space,
minds immeasurably superior to ours
regarded this Earth with envious eyes
and slowly and surely
they drew there plans against us.
At midnight on the 12th of August,
a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars
and sped towards Earth.
Across two-hundred-million miles of void
invisibly hurtling towards us
came the first of the missiles
that were bring so much calamity to Earth.
As I watched there was another jet of gas.
It was another missile starting on his way
and that how it was for the next ten nights
a flair spurting out from Mars.
Bright green, drawing a green mist behind it.
A beautiful but somehow disturbing sight.
Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger.
He was convinced there could be no life
on that remote forbidding planet.
-The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one he said.
But still they came….
Then came the night the first missile approached Earth
it was thought to be an ordinary falling star.
But next day there was a huge crater
in the middle of the street.
Ogilvy came to examine what lay there:
A cylinder 30 yards across, glowing hot....
with faint sounds of movement coming from within.
Suddenly the top began moving , rotating , unscrewing
and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside
trying to escape.
He rush to the cylinder
but the intense heat stopped him before
he could burn himself on the metal.
It seems totally incredible to me now
that everyone spent that evening as
though it were just like any other.
From the railway station came the sound of shutting trains,
ringing and rumbling, softened almost
into melody by the distance.
It all seemed so safe and tranquil….
scrutinized = granskade
immeasurably = oändligt
luminous = självlysande
void = tomhet
calamity = olycka
tranquil = lugnt
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