Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

海底二万里

   CHAPTER 19

   第二部 第十九章

   The Gulf Stream

   大西洋暖流

   THIS DREADFUL SCENE on April 20 none of us will ever be able to forget. I wrote it up in a state of intense excitement. Later I reviewed my narrative. I read it to Conseil and the Canadian. They found it accurate in detail but deficient in impact. To convey such sights, it would take the pen of our most famous poet, Victor Hugo, author of The Toilers of the Sea.

   4月20日的惊人场面在我们中间永远没有一人能忘记,我是在强烈的情绪下把它写下来的。以后我又把这个叙述重读一遍,我把它念给康塞尔和尼德-兰听。他们觉得我所写的很正确,跟实际情形一样,但产生的效果还不够强烈。想描绘这类图画,必须我们诗人中最有名的一位。《海上劳工》的作者的妙笔①,才能表达出来。

   As I said, Captain Nemo wept while staring at the waves. His grief was immense. This was the second companion he had lost since we had come aboard. And what a way to die! Smashed, strangled, crushed by the fearsome arms of a devilfish, ground between its iron mandibles, this friend would never rest with his companions in the placid waters of their coral cemetery!

   我上面说过,尼摩船长眼盯着水波流消。他的痛苦是大得了不得的。自我们到船上来,这是他损失的第二个同伴.“这个同伴死得多么可怕!这个朋友被一条章鱼的粗大胳膊压扁,室息,扭断,被它的铁牙床研碎,不能跟他的同伴们一样地在珊瑚墓地的安静水底长眠!

   As for me, what had harrowed my heart in the thick of this struggle was the despairing yell given by this unfortunate man. Forgetting his regulation language, this poor Frenchman had reverted to speaking his own mother tongue to fling out one supreme plea! Among the Nautilus's crew, allied body and soul with Captain Nemo and likewise fleeing from human contact, I had found a fellow countryman! Was he the only representative of France in this mysterious alliance, obviously made up of individuals from different nationalities? This was just one more of those insoluble problems that kept welling up in my mind!

   对我个人来说,在这次战斗中,那个不幸的人发出的最后绝望的呼喊把我的心肠撕碎了。这个可怜的法国人,忘记他在船上约定的语言,又说出祖国和母亲的话来,发出最后一次的呼救!诺第留斯号所有的船员,他们全是身心跟尼摩船长还结在一起的,他们是跟他一样躲避人类的;那么,其中有一个是我的同胞!在这个神秘的团体中一这个团体显然由不同国籍的人组成一~代表法国的只是他一个人吗?这又是不断横在我心头的不可解的一个问题!

   Captain Nemo reentered his stateroom, and I saw no more of him for a good while. But how sad, despairing, and irresolute he must have felt, to judge from this ship whose soul he was, which reflected his every mood! The Nautilus no longer kept to a fixed heading. It drifted back and forth, riding with the waves like a corpse. Its propeller had been disentangled but was barely put to use. It was navigating at random. It couldn't tear itself away from the setting of this last struggle, from this sea that had devoured one of its own!

   尼摩船长回他的房中去了,我有好些时候看不见他。如果我从诺第留斯号来判断——因为他是船的灵魂,船完全受他的感应,他应该是愁闷、失望和踌躇,诺第留斯号并不保持一定的方向。它走来走去,像一具死尸,随波上下。它的推进器已经松开,自由了,它几乎用不着这个推进器了。它没有固定方向地漂流着。它又不忍离开它最后一次斗争-的场所,那个吞噬了他的一个亲人的海面!

   Ten days went by in this way. It was only on May 1 that the Nautilus openly resumed its northbound course, after raising the Bahamas at the mouth of Old Bahama Channel. We then went with the current of the sea's greatest river, which has its own banks, fish, and temperature. I mean the Gulf Stream.

   这样过了十天。一直到了5月:日,诺第留斯号在巴哈麻水道口望见留加衣群岛后,又驶向往北方去的水道。我们于是沿着海中最大河流的潮水行驶,这河有它自己的边岸,自己的鱼类和自己的温度。我称这河为大西洋暖流。

   It is indeed a river that runs independently through the middle of the Atlantic, its waters never mixing with the ocean's waters. It's a salty river, saltier than the sea surrounding it. Its average depth is 3,000 feet, its average width sixty miles. In certain localities its current moves at a speed of four kilometers per hour. The unchanging volume of its waters is greater than that of all the world's rivers combined.

   是的,这是一条河流,它在大西洋中自由流动,它的水跟大西洋的水互不相混。它是一条成水河,比周围的海水更成。它的平均深度是三千英尺,平均宽度是六十海里。在某几处,它的水流速度是每小时四公里。它的水的不变积量比地球上任何的河水积量都大。

   As discovered by Commander Maury, the true source of the Gulf Stream, its starting point, if you prefer, is located in the Bay of Biscay. There its waters, still weak in temperature and color, begin to form. It goes down south, skirts equatorial Africa, warms its waves in the rays of the Torrid Zone, crosses the Atlantic, reaches Cape São Roque on the coast of Brazil, and forks into two branches, one going to the Caribbean Sea for further saturation with heat particles. Then, entrusted with restoring the balance between hot and cold temperatures and with mixing tropical and northern waters, the Gulf Stream begins to play its stabilizing role. Attaining a white heat in the Gulf of Mexico, it heads north up the American coast, advances as far as Newfoundland, swerves away under the thrust of a cold current from the Davis Strait, and resumes its ocean course by going along a great circle of the earth on a rhumb line; it then divides into two arms near the 43rd parallel; one, helped by the northeast trade winds, returns to the Bay of Biscay and the Azores; the other washes the shores of Ireland and Norway with lukewarm water, goes beyond Spitzbergen, where its temperature falls to 4 degrees centigrade, and fashions the open sea at the pole.

   大西洋暖流的真正水源,它的出发点,由莫利船长指出来的,可以说,是在嘉斯贡尼海湾①。它的水在这湾中,温度和颜色还不很强,但已经开始形成了。它向南流,沿赤道非洲走,水流受热带地区阳光的蒸晒,日益变得温热起来,横过大西洋,到达巴西海岸的三罗格罗,然后分成两个支流,一个支流流入安的列斯群岛海中,尽量吸取温热水分。这时候,大西洋暖流担任恢复海上温度的平衡,以及把热带海水跟北极海水混和起来,开始它的保持均衡的作用。在墨西哥湾中,它被晒至白热程度,沿北美海岸奔向北方,一直前进到纽芬兰岛。然后受台维斯海峡寒流的推送,转折向西,又流入大西洋中,在地球这一处的一个大圈上沿斜航曲线流去。到北纬43度,暖流又分为两支,其中一支受东北季候风的帮助,回到嘉斯贡尼湾和阿梭尔群岛,另一支使爱尔兰和挪威海岸获得温暖后,直流至斯勃齐堡,在斯勃齐堡一带,它的温度降至四度,形成北极自由流动的海。

   It was on this oceanic river that the Nautilus was then navigating. Leaving Old Bahama Channel, which is fourteen leagues wide by 350 meters deep, the Gulf Stream moves at the rate of eight kilometers per hour. Its speed steadily decreases as it advances northward, and we must pray that this steadiness continues, because, as experts agree, if its speed and direction were to change, the climates of Europe would undergo disturbances whose consequences are incalculable.

   这时诺第留斯号航行的就是大西洋的这条河流。从巴哈麻水道口出来,在十四里宽,三百五十米深的地方,暖流行动的速度是每小时八公里。这种速度越向北去越慢;这种规律性是有其存在必要的,因为有人已经指出,如果暖流的速度和方向改变了,欧洲的气候就将变幻莫测。

   Near noon I was on the platform with Conseil. I shared with him the relevant details on the Gulf Stream. When my explanation was over, I invited him to dip his hands into its current.

   到中午左右,我跟康塞尔在平台上。我告诉他关于大西洋暖流的一些特殊性。当我把话说完时,我要他把手放到水流里面去。

   Conseil did so, and he was quite astonished to experience no sensation of either hot or cold.

   康塞尔照我的话做,把手放下去,他很惊异,他没有丝毫冷热的感觉。

   "That comes," I told him, "from the water temperature of the Gulf Stream, which, as it leaves the Gulf of Mexico, is barely different from your blood temperature. This Gulf Stream is a huge heat generator that enables the coasts of Europe to be decked in eternal greenery. And if Commander Maury is correct, were one to harness the full warmth of this current, it would supply enough heat to keep molten a river of iron solder as big as the Amazon or the Missouri."

   “这因为,”我对他说,“大西洋暖流从墨西哥湾出来,它的水温跟人的体温没有什么差别。暖流是巨大的暖气炉,使欧洲沿海气候温和,永远有青草绿叶。并且,如果我们要相信莫利说的活,把暖流的热力全部利用起来,供应的热量:可以使一条亚马逊河或密苏里河一般大的铁的河流,永远保持熔点温度。”

   Just then the Gulf Stream's speed was 2.25 meters per second. So distinct is its current from the surrounding sea, its confined waters stand out against the ocean and operate on a different level from the colder waters. Murky as well, and very rich in saline material, their pure indigo contrasts with the green waves surrounding them. Moreover, their line of demarcation is so clear that abreast of the Carolinas, the Nautilus's spur cut the waves of the Gulf Stream while its propeller was still churning those belonging to the ocean.

   在这时候,暖流的速度是每秒两米二十五厘米。它的水流跟周围的水流很不同,它的受压挤的水在洋面上特别浮出,使它的暖水和海中冷水之间造成不同的水平。另外,暖流的水很沉黑,富于盐质,它的纯蓝靛色在周围的绿波上截然分开。当诺第留斯号跟嘉、罗林群岛在同一纬度上,船冲角进入了暖流,它的推进器还在海水中搅动的计,候,这两种水流的分界线就有很明显的划分了。一个整个的生物世界被带进这水流里。在地中海很常见的肛鱼,成群地在暖流中游行。

   This current swept along with it a whole host of moving creatures. Argonauts, so common in the Mediterranean, voyaged here in schools of large numbers. Among cartilaginous fish, the most remarkable were rays whose ultra slender tails made up nearly a third of the body, which was shaped like a huge diamond twenty-five feet long; then little one-meter sharks, the head large, the snout short and rounded, the teeth sharp and arranged in several rows, the body seemingly covered with scales.

   Among bony fish, I noted grizzled wrasse unique to these seas, deep-water gilthead whose iris has a fiery gleam, one-meter croakers whose large mouths bristle with small teeth and which let out thin cries, black rudderfish like those I've already discussed, blue dorados accented with gold and silver, rainbow-hued parrotfish that can rival the loveliest tropical birds in coloring, banded blennies with triangular heads, bluish flounder without scales, toadfish covered with a crosswise yellow band in the shape of a Greek t, swarms of little freckled gobies stippled with brown spots, lungfish with silver heads and yellow tails, various specimens of salmon, mullet with slim figures and a softly glowing radiance that Lacépède dedicated to the memory of his wife, and finally the American cavalla, a handsome fish decorated by every honorary order, bedizened with their every ribbon, frequenting the shores of this great nation where ribbons and orders are held in such low esteem.

   I might add that during the night, the Gulf Stream's phosphorescent waters rivaled the electric glow of our beacon, especially in the stormy weather that frequently threatened us.

   在夜间,大西洋暖流的磷光海水跟我们探照灯的电光相竞赛,特别在天气变化、有暴风雨威胁我们的时候。

   On May 8, while abreast of North Carolina, we were across from Cape Hatteras once more. There the Gulf Stream is seventy-five miles wide and 210 meters deep. The Nautilus continued to wander at random. Seemingly, all supervision had been jettisoned. Under these conditions I admit that we could easily have gotten away. In fact, the populous shores offered ready refuge everywhere. The sea was plowed continuously by the many steamers providing service between the Gulf of Mexico and New York or Boston, and it was crossed night and day by little schooners engaged in coastal trade over various points on the American shore. We could hope to be picked up. So it was a promising opportunity, despite the thirty miles that separated the Nautilus from these Union coasts.

   5月8日,跟北加罗林群岛在同一纬度上,我们还是与哈提拉斯角侧面遥遥相对。这时,大西洋暖流的宽度是七千五海里,它的深度是二百一十米。诺第留斯号继续随意冒险行驶。在船上好像没有什么管理和监督了。我要承认,在这种情况下,逃走的计划很可能实现,是的,有人居住的海岸到处都给人们以方便的藏身处。海上有许多汽船不断往来行驶,它们是从纽约或从波士顿到墨西哥湾的定期船只,又有那些小的二桅帆船在美洲沿海各地担任沿岸航行的工作。我们对很有希望能得到这些船只的接待。所以,现在是一个很好的机会。就是诺第留斯号离美洲联邦海岸有三十海里,也没有什么关系。

   But one distressing circumstance totally thwarted the Canadian's plans. The weather was thoroughly foul. We were approaching waterways where storms are commonplace, the very homeland of tornadoes and cyclones specifically engendered by the Gulf Stream's current. To face a frequently raging sea in a frail skiff was a race to certain disaster. Ned Land conceded this himself. So he champed at the bit, in the grip of an intense homesickness that could be cured only by our escape.

   但突然的险恶情势完全打破了加拿大人的计划。天气很坏。我们走近了这带常有暴风的海,就是台风和旋风产生的地方,产生的原因,正是由于大西洋暖流。在一只脆弱的小艇上,冒险与时常狂吼的波涛搏斗,那一定是白送性命。尼德-兰本人也同意这种看法。所以,对于他的发狂的思乡病,虽然只有逃走才能治疗,但现在,他也只能咬紧牙关,再忍耐一些时候了。

   "Sir," he told me that day, "it's got to stop. I want to get to the bottom of this. Your Nemo's veering away from shore and heading up north. But believe you me, I had my fill at the South Pole and I'm not going with him to the North Pole."

   “事情必须结束了,”那一天他对我说,“我想对于这事必须有明确的决定。您的尼摩离开陆地,往上溯,向北开行了。但我公开对您说,南极我已经受够了,我决不跟他到北极去。”

   "What can we do, Ned, since it isn't feasible to escape right now?"

   “怎么办,尼德?这时候,逃走是不可能呢!”

   "I keep coming back to my idea. We've got to talk to the captain. When we were in your own country's seas, you didn't say a word. Now that we're in mine, I intend to speak up. Before a few days are out, I figure the Nautilus will lie abreast of Nova Scotia, and from there to Newfoundland is the mouth of a large gulf, and the St. Lawrence empties into that gulf, and the St. Lawrence is my own river, the river running by Quebec, my hometown-- and when I think about all this, my gorge rises and my hair stands on end! Honestly, sir, I'd rather jump overboard! I can't stay here any longer! I'm suffocating!"

   “我还是我从前的那个主意。必须跟船长谈一下。当我们在您的祖国沿海中的时候,您并没有跟他说。现在到我的祖国沿海中了,我要跟他说了。当我想到,没有几天,诺第留斯号就要跟新苏格兰在同一纬度上,在那边,近纽芬兰岛,现出阔大的海湾,圣劳轮斯河流入这湾中,圣劳轮斯河是我的河,是我生长的城市魁北克所在的河,当我想到这事时,我的愤怒完全露在我脸上了,我的头发竖起来了。您瞧,先生,我情愿跳到海中去!我不愿留在这里!我闷死了!”

   The Canadian was obviously at the end of his patience. His vigorous nature couldn't adapt to this protracted imprisonment. His facial appearance was changing by the day. His moods grew gloomier and gloomier. I had a sense of what he was suffering because I also was gripped by homesickness. Nearly seven months had gone by without our having any news from shore. Moreover, Captain Nemo's reclusiveness, his changed disposition, and especially his total silence since the battle with the devilfish all made me see things in a different light. I no longer felt the enthusiasm of our first days on board. You needed to be Flemish like Conseil to accept these circumstances, living in a habitat designed for cetaceans and other denizens of the deep. Truly, if that gallant lad had owned gills instead of lungs, I think he would have made an outstanding fish!

   加拿大人显然是忍无可忍了。他的坚强天性不可能跟这无期延长的监牢生活相适应。他的容貌一天一天改变。他的性格愈来愈忧郁。我感觉到他所忍受的苦恼,因为我也一样,心中有了思乡病。差不多七个月过去了,一点陆地上的消息也得不到。还有,尼摩船长的孤独,他脾气的改变——特别自从那一次跟章鱼战斗后,他的沉默,都使我在不同的角度下来看这些问题。我感到臼己心中没有那开始时期的热情了。在这专给鲸科动物和其他海中生物生活的环境中,只有像康塞尔这样的一个佛兰蒙人才能安心接受。真是,如果这个老实人没有肺而有腮,我想他很可以做一条了不得的好鱼!

   "Well, sir?" Ned Land went on, seeing that I hadn't replied.

   “先生,怎么样?”尼德-兰看见我不回答,立即又说。

   "Well, Ned, you want me to ask Captain Nemo what he intends to do with us?"

   “尼德,那么,您要我去问尼摩船长,他对于我们是怀着怎样的意图吗?”

   "Yes, sir."

   “是的,先生。”

   "Even though he has already made that clear?"

   “虽然他已经说过了,也还要问一下吗?”

   "Yes. I want it settled once and for all. Speak just for me, strictly on my behalf, if you want."

   “是的。我希望最后一次把这件事搞明白,请你特别为我同他说吧,单单以我的名义同他说吧。”

   "But I rarely encounter him. He positively avoids me."

   “可是我很难碰见他。而且他也在躲我呢。”

   "All the more reason you should go look him up."

   “那就更多一个理由,必须去看他了。”

   "I'll confer with him, Ned."

   “尼德,我不久一定问他,”

   "When?" the Canadian asked insistently.

   “什么时候?”加拿大人坚持地问。

   "When I encounter him."

   “当我碰见他的时候。……

   "Professor Aronnax, would you like me to go find him myself?"

   “阿龙纳斯先生,您让我找他去好吗?”

   "No, let me do it. Tomorrow--"

   “不,我找他去。明天……”

   "Today," Ned Land said.

   “今天。”尼德-兰说。

   "So be it. I'll see him today," I answered the Canadian, who, if he took action himself, would certainly have ruined everything.

   “好。今天,我就去看他。”我回答加拿大人说。要是他自己去的话,一定会把整个事情搞糟了。

   I was left to myself. His request granted, I decided to dispose of it immediately. I like things over and done with.

   我独自留在那里。我决定去问船长了,我打定主意立即把事情办完,我喜欢办完的事,不喜欢待办的事。

   I reentered my stateroom. From there I could hear movements inside Captain Nemo's quarters. I couldn't pass up this chance for an encounter. I knocked on his door. I received no reply. I knocked again, then tried the knob. The door opened.

   我回到我房中。从我房中,我听到尼摩船长的房中有脚步声,那就不应该放过这个碰见他的机会了。我敲敲他的门,我得不到回答。我又敲一下,然后我用手转动门扣。

   I entered. The captain was there. He was bending over his worktable and hadn't heard me. Determined not to leave without questioning him, I drew closer. He looked up sharply, with a frowning brow, and said in a pretty stern tone:

   "Oh, it's you! What do you want?"

   "To speak with you, captain."

   "But I'm busy, sir, I'm at work. I give you the freedom to enjoy your privacy, can't I have the same for myself?"

   This reception was less than encouraging. But I was determined to give as good as I got.

   "Sir," I said coolly, "I need to speak with you on a matter that simply can't wait."

   "Whatever could that be, sir?" he replied sarcastically. "Have you made some discovery that has escaped me? Has the sea yielded up some novel secret to you?"

   We were miles apart. But before I could reply, he showed me a manuscript open on the table and told me in a more serious tone:

   "Here, Professor Aronnax, is a manuscript written in several languages. It contains a summary of my research under the sea, and God willing, it won't perish with me. Signed with my name, complete with my life story, this manuscript will be enclosed in a small, unsinkable contrivance. The last surviving man on the Nautilus will throw this contrivance into the sea, and it will go wherever the waves carry it."

   The man's name! His life story written by himself! So the secret of his existence might someday be unveiled? But just then I saw this announcement only as a lead-in to my topic.

   "Captain," I replied, "I'm all praise for this idea you're putting into effect. The fruits of your research must not be lost. But the methods you're using strike me as primitive. Who knows where the winds will take that contrivance, into whose hands it may fall? Can't you find something better? Can't you or one of your men--"

   决不能让它损失,但您用来执行您的计划的,是很原始粗糙的方法。谁知道大凤把这盒子吹到哪里去?它将落到什么人的手中?您不能找出更好的办法吗?您,或你们中的一位,不可以……?”

   "Never, sir," the captain said, swiftly interrupting me.

   “永不能,先生。”尼摩船长打断我的话,急促地说。

   "But my companions and I would be willing to safeguard this manuscript, and if you give us back our freedom--"

   “就是我,我的同伴们,我们愿意保存这特别藏起来的手稿,如果您能恢复我们的自由……”

   "Your freedom!" Captain Nemo put in, standing up.

   “自由!”尼摩船长站起来说。

   "Yes, sir, and that's the subject on which I wanted to confer with you. For seven months we've been aboard your vessel, and I ask you today, in the name of my companions as well as myself, if you intend to keep us here forever."

   “是的,先生,就是这个问题,我现在要来问问您。我们在您船上有七个月了,我今天用我的同伴和我的名义来问您,您的意图是不是要把我们永远留在这船上。”

   "Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo said, "I'll answer you today just as I did seven months ago: whoever boards the Nautilus must never leave it."

   “阿龙纳斯先生,”尼摩船长说,“我今天要回答您的话,就是七个月前我回答过您的:谁进了诺第留斯号就不能离开它。”

   "What you're inflicting on us is outright slavery!"

   “您要我们接受的简直是奴隶制了!”

   "Call it anything you like."

   “随便您喜欢给它川-么名称吧。”

   "But every slave has the right to recover his freedom! By any worthwhile, available means!"

   “可是,奴隶随时随地保留有要恢复他的自由的权利:不管哪种机会来到,他都会认为是好的,都要加以利用!

   "Who has denied you that right?" Captain Nemo replied. "Did I ever try to bind you with your word of honor?"

   “这个权利,”尼摩船长回答,“谁否认您有?我曾想过要您们发誓把您们束缚住吗?”

   The captain stared at me, crossing his arms.

   船长两手交叉在胸前,眼盯着我。

   "Sir," I told him, "to take up this subject a second time would be distasteful to both of us. So let's finish what we've started. I repeat: it isn't just for myself that I raise this issue. To me, research is a relief, a potent diversion, an enticement, a passion that can make me forget everything else. Like you, I'm a man neglected and unknown, living in the faint hope that someday I can pass on to future generations the fruits of my labors--figuratively speaking, by means of some contrivance left to the luck of winds and waves. In short, I can admire you and comfortably go with you while playing a role I only partly understand; but I still catch glimpses of other aspects of your life that are surrounded by involvements and secrets that, alone on board, my companions and I can't share. And even when our hearts could beat with yours, moved by some of your griefs or stirred by your deeds of courage and genius, we've had to stifle even the slightest token of that sympathy that arises at the sight of something fine and good, whether it comes from friend or enemy. All right then! It's this feeling of being alien to your deepest concerns that makes our situation unacceptable, impossible, even impossible for me but especially for Ned Land. Every man, by virtue of his very humanity, deserves fair treatment. Have you considered how a love of freedom and hatred of slavery could lead to plans of vengeance in a temperament like the Canadian's, what he might think, attempt, endeavor . . . ?"

   “先生,”我对他说,“第二次再来谈这个问题,不是您所高兴,也不是我所愿意的。不过我们既然说到了,我们就尽情地谈一下。我再重复一遍,这不是单单关于我个人的问题。对我来说,研究是一种帮助,一种有力的转移,一种吸引,一种热情,可以使我忘记一切。跟您一样,我生活不求人知,我只有一种微小的希望,想把自己工作的结果,有一天利用一个靠不住的盒子,随风浪的漂流,遗赠给将来的人。总之,我在我了解您这个人的某些方面上。我可以佩服您,跟着您,没有什么苦恼和不快。但您的生活有其他的方面,使我觉得它是很复杂和很神秘,就是这一部分,一直到现在,我的同伴和我,丝毫不了解。我们的心时常为您而跳动,为您的某些痛苦而感动,或为您的天才或勇敢行为而鼓舞:但是,我们同时又看到,不论是从朋友或从敌人方面发出来的美和善,哪怕是出于人类同情心的最细微的表示,我们也必须把它压抑在心中,不能露出来,那么,就是这种感觉,我们对于所有牵涉到您的全是陌生的这种感觉,也就使得我们的处境有些不能忍受下去;甚至对我来说也是这样。特别对尼德-兰来说,更是这样。对自由的热爱,对奴役的憎恨:在天性跟加拿大人一般的人心中可以生出的报复计划,他可能思想的,可能企图的,可能要做的……您心中曾想过一下吗?”

   I fell silent. Captain Nemo stood up.

   我停声不说了。尼摩船长站起来说:

   "Ned Land can think, attempt, or endeavor anything he wants, what difference is it to me? I didn't go looking for him! I don't keep him on board for my pleasure! As for you, Professor Aronnax, you're a man able to understand anything, even silence. I have nothing more to say to you. Let this first time you've come to discuss this subject also be the last, because a second time I won't even listen."

   “尼德-兰思索的,企图的,要做的是什么,随他的意思去,那跟我有什么关系?并不是我把他找来的呀!并不是我高兴把他留在船上啊!至于您,阿龙纳斯先生,您是能了解一切的人,就是不说出来您也能了解的人,我没有什么话可以回答您的了。希望您来谈这个问题的第一次也就是最后一次了,因为第二次我就是听都不听您了。”

   I withdrew. From that day forward our position was very strained. I reported this conversation to my two companions.

   我退出来。自这一天起,我们的情形很是紧张。我把谈话报告给我的两个同伴听了。

   "Now we know," Ned said, "that we can't expect a thing from this man. The Nautilus is nearing Long Island. We'll escape, no matter what the weather."

   “我们现在知道,”尼德-兰说,“对于这个人我们不能有什么期待了。诺第留斯号现在接近长岛,不管天气怎样,我们逃吧。”

   But the skies became more and more threatening. There were conspicuous signs of a hurricane on the way. The atmosphere was turning white and milky. Slender sheaves of cirrus clouds were followed on the horizon by layers of nimbocumulus. Other low clouds fled swiftly. The sea grew towering, inflated by long swells. Every bird had disappeared except a few petrels, friends of the storms. The barometer fell significantly, indicating a tremendous tension in the surrounding haze. The mixture in our stormglass decomposed under the influence of the electricity charging the air. A struggle of the elements was approaching.

   但是天气愈来愈坏,有迹象预告大风暴就要到来。空中大气变成灰白的牛奶色。在天际,接着一阵一阵疏散的淡云来的,是那朵朵的浓密乌云了。别的低垂的层云很快地在空中飞过。海水高涨,鼓起阔大的波涛。除了喜欢跟风暴做朋友的那一种:海燕外,所有的鸟都不见了。风雨表显著下降,表示空中的温度很高,水蒸气很多。暴风镜受了大气中饱和的电力,内部物质分解了。风雨的猛烈斗争很快就要展开了。

   The storm burst during the daytime of May 13, just as the Nautilus was cruising abreast of Long Island, a few miles from the narrows to Upper New York Bay. I'm able to describe this struggle of the elements because Captain Nemo didn't flee into the ocean depths; instead, from some inexplicable whim, he decided to brave it out on the surface.

   大风暴在5月8日那一天爆发,正当诺第留斯号跟长岛在同一纬度上,距纽约水道只有几海里远的时候。我可以描写这次风雨的激烈斗争,因为,不知由于哪种古怪的情绪,尼摩船长不让船潜入海底,而要它在水而上乘风破浪。

   The wind was blowing from the southwest, initially a stiff breeze, in other words, with a speed of fifteen meters per second, which built to twenty-five meters near three o'clock in the afternoon. This is the figure for major storms.

   凤从西南方吹来,首先是一阵一阵的凉凤,就是说,每秒的速度为十五米,到下午二点左右,速度就达到每秒二十五米。这是暴风的速度了。

   Unshaken by these squalls, Captain Nemo stationed himself on the platform. He was lashed around the waist to withstand the monstrous breakers foaming over the deck. I hoisted and attached myself to the same place, dividing my wonderment between the storm and this incomparable man who faced it head-on.

   尼摩船长站在平台上,在猛烈的暴风下屹立不动。他腰间用绳子捆住,可以抵抗阵阵冲来的大浪。我也站在平台上,也用绳子把自己捆起来,欣赏这风暴,同时又赞美这不怕风暴的无与轮比的人。

   The raging sea was swept with huge tattered clouds drenched by the waves. I saw no more of the small intervening billows that form in the troughs of the big crests. Just long, soot-colored undulations with crests so compact they didn't foam. They kept growing taller. They were spurring each other on. The Nautilus, sometimes lying on its side, sometimes standing on end like a mast, rolled and pitched frightfully.

   波涛汹涌的海面被浸在水中的片片巨大浓云扫过。我再也看不见大漩涡中形成的中间小浪。只有煤黑色的长波大浪,浪尖并不汹涌,因为它们紧凑环境中,

   Near five o'clock a torrential rain fell, but it lulled neither wind nor sea. The hurricane was unleashed at a speed of forty-five meters per second, hence almost forty leagues per hour. Under these conditions houses topple, roof tiles puncture doors, iron railings snap in two, and twenty-four-pounder cannons relocate. And yet in the midst of this turmoil, the Nautilus lived up to that saying of an expert engineer: "A well-constructed hull can defy any sea!" This submersible was no resisting rock that waves could demolish; it was a steel spindle, obediently in motion, without rigging or masting, and able to brave their fury with impunity.

   Meanwhile I was carefully examining these unleashed breakers. They measured up to fifteen meters in height over a length of 150 to 175 meters, and the speed of their propagation (half that of the wind) was fifteen meters per second. Their volume and power increased with the depth of the waters. I then understood the role played by these waves, which trap air in their flanks and release it in the depths of the sea where its oxygen brings life. Their utmost pressure--it has been calculated-- can build to 3,000 kilograms on every square foot of surface they strike. It was such waves in the Hebrides that repositioned a stone block weighing 84,000 pounds. It was their relatives in the tidal wave on December 23, 1854, that toppled part of the Japanese city of Tokyo, then went that same day at 700 kilometers per hour to break on the beaches of America.

   After nightfall the storm grew in intensity. As in the 1860 cyclone on Réunion Island, the barometer fell to 710 millimeters. At the close of day, I saw a big ship passing on the horizon, struggling painfully. It lay to at half steam in an effort to hold steady on the waves. It must have been a steamer on one of those lines out of New York to Liverpool or Le Havre. It soon vanished into the shadows.

   At ten o'clock in the evening, the skies caught on fire. The air was streaked with violent flashes of lightning. I couldn't stand this brightness, but Captain Nemo stared straight at it, as if to inhale the spirit of the storm. A dreadful noise filled the air, a complicated noise made up of the roar of crashing breakers, the howl of the wind, claps of thunder. The wind shifted to every point of the horizon, and the cyclone left the east to return there after passing through north, west, and south, moving in the opposite direction of revolving storms in the southern hemisphere.

   我受不了闪电的光辉,但尼摩船长正视着它,好像要把风暴的灵魂吸取过来。隆隆可怕的响声布满空中,这是很复杂的声响,由互相击打的波浪怒吼声,大风的呼啸声,雷电的爆裂声所组成。凤从夭际各处吹来,台风臼东方出发,经过北方、西方和南方,又回到东方,跟北半球的回旋风暴的方向正相反。

   Oh, that Gulf Stream! It truly lives up to its nickname, the Lord of Storms! All by itself it creates these fearsome cyclones through the difference in temperature between its currents and the superimposed layers of air.

   啊:这大西洋暖流!它被称为风暴王,真有道理!由于在它水流上面,备层空气的温度不同,使它造成厉害强大的台风。

   The rain was followed by a downpour of fire. Droplets of water changed into exploding tufts. You would have thought Captain Nemo was courting a death worthy of himself, seeking to be struck by lightning. In one hideous pitching movement, the Nautilus reared its steel spur into the air like a lightning rod, and I saw long sparks shoot down it.

   接着大雨,就是一阵烈火。雨点变为轰掣闪电的羽饰了。真使人要说,尼摩船长想求得一种配得上他身份的死。是要让雷来轰自己呢。受到了一次可怕的颠簸震动,诺第留斯号把它前头的冲角竖起在空中,像避雷针那样,我看见从冲角上发出很长的火花。

   Shattered, at the end of my strength, I slid flat on my belly to the hatch. I opened it and went below to the lounge. By then the storm had reached its maximum intensity. It was impossible to stand upright inside the Nautilus.

   疲乏了,力尽了,我爬在台上滚到嵌板边去。我把嵌板弄开,下到客厅中,这时候,狂风暴雨,雷电交加,猛烈达到了最高点。想在诺第留斯号内部站立起来,简直不可能。

   Captain Nemo reentered near midnight. I could hear the ballast tanks filling little by little, and the Nautilus sank gently beneath the surface of the waves.

   尼摩船长到半夜左右才回船中,我听到储水池渐渐装满水,诺第留斯号轻轻地沉到海水下面去。

   Through the lounge's open windows, I saw large, frightened fish passing like phantoms in the fiery waters. Some were struck by lightning right before my eyes!

   通过客厅中打开的玻璃窗,我看见好些惊慌的大鱼,像幽灵一样,在火光照耀的水中走过。有一些鱼就在我眼前叭雷轰死了。

   The Nautilus kept descending. I thought it would find calm again at fifteen meters down. No. The upper strata were too violently agitated. It needed to sink to fifty meters, searching for a resting place in the bowels of the sea.

   诺第留斯号老是下降。我想它在十五米深的地方又可以得到安静。出乎意料之外,上部水层受到了过度激烈的搅动。一直要到五十个米深,在海的深处,它才找到安宁

   But once there, what tranquility we found, what silence, what peace all around us! Who would have known that a dreadful hurricane was then unleashed on the surface of this ocean?

   水底是多么安定,多么寂静,多么和平的环境!谁能说这时在大洋面上没有可怕的狂风暴雨呢?