Rendezvous with Rama (excerpt #1)

"Rendezvous with Rama" is a sci-fi novel written by the late Arthur C. Clarke. I have both the English and Japanese version and thus, this series would use the wordings from both version as is.

遅かれ早かれ、かならずおこることだった。１９０８年６月３０日、モスクワはあやうく、三時間と四千キロの差で破壊をまぬがれた〜大宇宙のものさしで測れば、まことに微々たる差とはいえ。

"Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On June 30, 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometres -- a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe."

＊遅かれ早かれ、

遅い・おそい "slow"
早い・はやい "fast"

A set phrase combining imperative forms of "slow" (遅い) and "fast" (早い) to give it a new meaning. "Sooner or later." Cultural note: Generally, Japanese avoids direct imperatives unless in a very casual environment, or between the wider social status differences. Often, the uses are relegated into a set phrase such as this one.

＊かならずおこることだった。

A straightforward descriptive sentence that delivers only one idea. Usually, we can ignore the だ at the end of a sentence, or in this case, its non-present form だった because it is a copula, in place of "is" in English. It is a casual form of です and です is perhaps one of the very first thing you learn in Japanese.

Therefore, for this sentence, the idea is 起こる "to happen" + こと "thing" or "thing that happen." This idea is enhanced by an adverb at the beginning, かならず "always; without exception; absolutely; without fail; etc" to give it a final meaning of "always (going) to happen."

＊１９０８年６月３０日、モスクワはあやうく、三時間と四千キロの差で破壊をまぬがれた

年・ねん "year"
月・げつ "month"
日・にち "day"
三時間・さんじかん "three hours"
四千・よんせん "four thousands"
差・さ "difference"
破壊・はかい "destruction"

The first part, １９０８年６月３０日 simply marks the date on which the following event took place. Now the place of interest, is the topic of this sentence, marked with は particle. And it's モスクワ "Moscow."

Now as the topic has been established, the rest of the sentence will add more information into/about this topic. The first information is an adverb, あやうく "barely" which gives the following information an "almost" quality.

The information in question is 三時間と四千キロの差で破壊をまぬがれた. The core idea of this information is, as it's usual in Japanese, located at the end of this sentence, 破壊をまぬがれた "escaped destruction." This core idea is preceded by a で particle, often translated into English as "by" which marked 三時間と四千キロの差 "a difference of three hours and four thousand kilometres" and therefore giving the information a complete translation of, "Escaped destruction by a difference of three hours and four thousand kilometres."

Combined with the topic and the rest of modifiers, the final translation of the sentence becomes "On June 30th, 1908, Moscow, barely escaped destruction by a difference of three hours and four thousand kilometres."

＊大宇宙のものさしで測れば、まことに微々たる差とはいえ。

大・だい "big"
宇宙・うちゅう "universe"
測る・はかる "to measure"
微々・びび "insignificant; slight; small"

When you see a sentence involving ば somewhere, it is most likely a conditional sentence and therefore would have at least two ideas in the manner of "if A then B."

The conditional part of this sentence is 測れば "if measured," followed by its "then" clause, まことに微々たる差とはいえ. This clause's idea is 差 "difference" modified by a couple of adverbs that precedes it, まことに "truly," dan 微々たる "really insignificant." It is then marked with とはいえ "although" to give 測れば、まことに微々たる差とはいえ as "although if measured, its difference is truly insignificant."

But we're not finished! 測れば is further expanded by 大宇宙のものさし with an instrumentation particle で "by" attached to it. 大宇宙のものさし is a simple A + の + B or "A's B" or in this case, "Big universe's measurement." Thus, combined, the whole sentence then becomes, "Although if measured by measurement of the big universe, its difference is truly insignificant."