Rendezvous with Rama (excerpt #2)

１９４７年２月１２日、またもやソ連の一都市が、もっと間髪の差で難を逃れた。２０世紀に入って二個目の大隕石が、ウラジオストックから４００キロと離れていない場所で、当時開発されたばかりのウラン原爆にも劣らぬ爆発を起こしたのだ。

"Again, on 12 February 1947, yet another Russian city had a still narrower escape, when the second great meteorite of the twentieth century detonated less than 400 kilometres from Vladivostok, with an explosion rivalling that of the newly invented uranium bomb."

＊１９４７年２月１２日、またもやソ連の一都市が、もっと間髪の差で難を逃れた。

ソ連・それん "Soviet Union"
都市・とし "city"
間髪・かんぱつ "in no time; in a flash"
差・さ "difference"
難・なん "difficulty; trouble; hardship"
逃れる・のがれる "to escape"

It is immediately obvious that this sentence contains three parts separated by comma. The first part, １９４７年２月１２日 is obviously a date. Note that it's February 12th, and not December 2nd.

The second part, with a particle が attached at the end immediately marked it as a subject. The core subject is ソ連の一都市 "One Russian city." またもや that precedes it merely an adverb to mean "once again."

And finally, the third part, delivers the main idea of the whole sentence which revolves around its final verb 逃れた "escaped." But before that, from the beginning, we see もっと間髪の差 marked with a particle で.  もっと is an adverb meaning "more," and therefore gives this construct a "more minute difference," or "even smaller difference." The particle で gives it a "by" meaning. Lastly, back to the main verb, 逃れた which acted on its direct object pair (marked with particle を), 難 "difficulty." So, as a whole, the sentence finally becomes, "On February 12th 1947, once again, a Russian city, by even smaller difference, escaped difficulty."

Note that ソ連 is translated properly as "Soviet Union" rather than "Russia."

＊２０世紀に入って二個目の大隕石が、

世紀・せいき "century"
入る・はいる "to enter"
二個目・にこめ "second"
大・だい "big"
隕石・いんせき "meteor"

Awkward breaking notwithstanding, this whole part is not a complete sentence as it only consists of a subject which 二個目の大隕石 "The second big meteor." This subject however, is further modified with ２０世紀に入って "entered in 20th century" which precedes it so that in the end it becomes, "The second big meteor entered in 20th century."

＊ウラジオストックから４００キロと離れいない場所で、

離れる・離れる "to be separated; to be apart"
場所・ばしょ "place"

This is also not a complete sentence and should be seen as a continuation from the previous part. ウラジオストックから "from Vladivostok," ４００キロ "400 kilometres." 離れていない "not separated," 場所 "place." The particle と between ウラジオストックから４００キロ and 離れていない場所 acts as an implicit "and" in a way that both statements held true at the same time. Finally, the whole construct marked with a particle で to gives it a "by" meaning, but most probably in this case, as we're talking about 場所 "place" it is perhaps better to regard particle で as a marker for "a place of interest" instead.

The whole construct then becomes, "in a place not separated by 400 kilometres from Vladivostok,"

＊当時開発されたばかりのウラン原爆にも劣らぬ爆発を起こしたのだ。

当時・とうじ "at the time"
開発・かいはつ "development"
原爆・げんばく "atomic bomb"
劣る・おとる "to be inferior"
爆発・ばくはつ "explosion"
起こす・おこす "to cause; to bring about"

A continuation from two previous examples, this last part follows the idea of "The second big meteor entered in 20th century, in a place not separated by 400 kilometres from Vladivostok," and as usual the main idea is located at the end of the sentence which is, 爆発を起こしたのだ "explosion happened."

So basically, there's an "explosion" that happened "in a place not separated by 400 kilometres from Vladivostok." This "explosion" apparently caused by "the second big meteor entered in 20th century." Easy, right?

What about the part that precedes the main idea in this example? The 当時開発されたばかりのウラン原爆にも劣らぬ? It simply put additional informations to the "explosion." Let's take a look.

First off, immediately preceding the "explosion." 劣らぬ. This is probably a contraction of 劣らない, an obviously negative form of 劣る. "An explosion that is not inferior." "Not inferior" compared to? にも marks as a target for this "not inferior" and it's ウラン原爆 "Uranium bomb." So the "explosion" is "not inferior" compared to an "Uranium bomb."

This "Uranium bomb" is then modified by, 当時 "at the time," 開発された "to be developed," ばかり "just" to give it a final meaning of "Uranium bomb that was just developed at the time."

All these, forming the final sentence all the way from example #2 into, "The second big meteor entered in 20th century, in a place not separated by 400 kilometres from Vladivostok, with explosion not inferior to an Uranium bomb that was just developed at the time, happened."