Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

海底二萬里

   CHAPTER 9

   第二部 第九章

   A Lost Continent

   沉沒的大陸

   THE NEXT MORNING, February 19, I beheld the Canadian entering my stateroom. I was expecting this visit. He wore an expression of great disappointment.

   第二天2月19日早晨,我看見加拿大人走進我房中。我正等他來,他神色沮喪。

   "Well, sir?" he said to me.

"Well, Ned, the fates were against us yesterday."

   “先生,怎樣?“他對我說。

    “尼德,怎樣,昨天機會對我們不利。”

   "Yes! That damned captain had to call a halt just as we were going to escape from his boat."

   “對!那個鬼怪船長正在我們要逃出他的船的時候,就把船停下來了。”

   "Yes, Ned, he had business with his bankers."

   “尼德,是的,他跟他的銀行經理有享呢。”

   "His bankers?"

   “他的銀行經理!”

   "Or rather his bank vaults. By which I mean this ocean, where his wealth is safer than in any national treasury."

   “或者不如說是跟他的銀行有享。我所說銀行的意思就是海洋,就是他的財富存放的地方,那比國家的金庫更為安全可靠的海洋。”

   I then related the evening's incidents to the Canadian, secretly hoping he would come around to the idea of not deserting the captain; but my narrative had no result other than Ned's voicing deep regret that he hadn't strolled across the Vigo battlefield on his own behalf.

   我於是把昨晚的意外事件告訴加拿大人,暗中希望這樣可以使他不要拋棄船長,可是,我的講述所得的結果,只是尼德很強烈表示出來的悔恨,他惋惜自己沒有能親自到維哥灣的戰場上去走一下。他說:

   "Anyhow," he said, "it's not over yet! My first harpoon missed, that's all! We'll succeed the next time, and as soon as this evening, if need be . . ."

   “‘好,事情並沒有完!這一次只是魚叉落了空罷了!另一次我們一定成功,如果可能,就是今晚……,,

   "What's the Nautilus's heading?" I asked.

   “諾第留斯號是向哪個方向航行?”我問。

   "I've no idea," Ned replied.

   “我不知道。”尼德回答。

   "All right, at noon we'll find out what our position is!"

   “那麼,到中午,我們來觀測船的方位吧。”

   The Canadian returned to Conseil's side. As soon as I was dressed, I went into the lounge. The compass wasn't encouraging. The Nautilus's course was south-southwest. We were turning our backs on Europe.

   加拿大人回到康塞爾那邊去。我一穿好了衣服,就走入客廳中。羅盤指示不很明確。諾第留斯號的航路是西南偏南。我們是背着歐洲行駛。

   I could hardly wait until our position was reported on the chart. Near 11:30 the ballast tanks emptied, and the submersible rose to the surface of the ocean. I leaped onto the platform. Ned Land was already there.

   我等待着把船的方位記在地圖上,心中有些着急。十一點左右,儲水池空了,船浮上洋面。我跑到平台上,尼德已經先在那裡了。

   No more shore in sight. Nothing but the immenseness of the sea. A few sails were on the horizon, no doubt ships going as far as Cape São Roque to find favorable winds for doubling the Cape of Good Hope. The sky was overcast. A squall was on the way.

   陸地再也望不見,只見一片汪洋大海。天際有幾隻帆船,一定是到桑羅克角尋找順風,繞過好望角去的船。天色明沉,恐怕要颳風了。

   Furious, Ned tried to see through the mists on the horizon. He still hoped that behind all that fog there lay those shores he longed for.

   尼德氣得了不得,極力向多霧的天際看望,他還是希望在這濃霧後面,有他所渴望的陸地。

   At noon the sun made a momentary appearance. Taking advantage of this rift in the clouds, the chief officer took the orb's altitude. Then the sea grew turbulent, we went below again, and the hatch closed once more.

   正午,太陽出現了一會兒。船副乘天氣暫時清朗的時候,測量了太陽的高度。一會兒,海面更洶湧起來,我們回到船中,嵌板又閉上了。

   When I consulted the chart an hour later, I saw that the Nautilus's position was marked at longitude 16 degrees 17' and latitude 33 degrees 22', a good 150 leagues from the nearest coast. It wouldn't do to even dream of escaping, and I'll let the reader decide how promptly the Canadian threw a tantrum when I ventured to tell him our situation.

   一小時後,我看一下地圖,看見圖上記出諾第留斯號的方位,是西經16度17分,南緯33度22分,離最近的海岸還有一百五十里。現在是沒辦法逃走

   As for me, I wasn't exactly grief-stricken. I felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from me, and I was able to resume my regular tasks in a state of comparative calm.

   Near eleven o'clock in the evening, I received a most unexpected visit from Captain Nemo. He asked me very graciously if I felt exhausted from our vigil the night before. I said no.

   "Then, Professor Aronnax, I propose an unusual excursion."

   "Propose away, captain."

   "So far you've visited the ocean depths only by day and under sunlight. Would you like to see these depths on a dark night?"

   "Very much."

   "I warn you, this will be an exhausting stroll. We'll need to walk long hours and scale a mountain. The roads aren't terribly well kept up."

   "Everything you say, captain, just increases my curiosity. I'm ready to go with you."

   "Then come along, professor, and we'll go put on our diving suits."

   Arriving at the wardrobe, I saw that neither my companions nor any crewmen would be coming with us on this excursion. Captain Nemo hadn't even suggested my fetching Ned or Conseil.

   In a few moments we had put on our equipment. Air tanks, abundantly charged, were placed on our backs, but the electric lamps were not in readiness. I commented on this to the captain.

   "They'll be useless to us," he replied.

   “電光燈對我們沒有用處。”

   I thought I hadn't heard him right, but I couldn't repeat my comment because the captain's head had already disappeared into its metal covering. I finished harnessing myself, I felt an alpenstock being placed in my hand, and a few minutes later, after the usual procedures, we set foot on the floor of the Atlantic, 300 meters down.

   我覺得他沒有聽懂,但又不能重複我的問題,因為船長的腦袋已經套在金屬球中了。我也套好了我的頭,覺得他給了我一根銥鐵的手杖。幾分鐘後,我們做了照例的動作,就踩在大西洋的海底下,在三百米深處。

   Midnight was approaching. The waters were profoundly dark, but Captain Nemo pointed to a reddish spot in the distance, a sort of wide glow shimmering about two miles from the Nautilus. What this fire was, what substances fed it, how and why it kept burning in the liquid mass, I couldn't say. Anyhow it lit our way, although hazily, but I soon grew accustomed to this unique gloom, and in these circumstances I understood the uselessness of the Ruhmkorff device.

   時間近半夜了。海水深黑,尼摩船長給我指出遠處的一團淡紅色,像是一陣廣泛的微光,在距諾第留斯號二海里左右的地方亮着。這火光是什麼,什麼物質使它發亮,它為什麼和怎樣在海水中照耀,那我可不能說。總之,‘包照着,使我們刁”以看見,雖然光線很模糊,但我不久就習慣了這種特殊的陰暗,我明白了,在這種情形下,蘭可夫燈是沒有什

   Side by side, Captain Nemo and I walked directly toward this conspicuous flame. The level seafloor rose imperceptibly. We took long strides, helped by our alpenstocks; but in general our progress was slow, because our feet kept sinking into a kind of slimy mud mixed with seaweed and assorted flat stones.

   尼摩船長和我,彼此相挨很近,向那上面說的火光一直走上。平鋪的地面使人不知不覺地漸漸上升。我們有手杖幫助,大踏步前進。不過,總起來說,我們還是走得慢,因為我的腳時常陷入一種帶著海藻和雜有石子的泥濘裡面。

   As we moved forward, I heard a kind of pitter-patter above my head. Sometimes this noise increased and became a continuous crackle. I soon realized the cause. It was a heavy rainfall rattling on the surface of the waves. Instinctively I worried that I might get soaked! By water in the midst of water! I couldn't help smiling at this outlandish notion. But to tell the truth, wearing these heavy diving suits, you no longer feel the liquid element, you simply think you're in the midst of air a little denser than air on land, that's all.

   正在前進的時候,我在我的頭頂上聽到一種喊喳的聲音。這種聲音有時來得更厲害,成為一種連續不停的聲響。我不久就明白了這聲音的原因。原來是雨下得很凶,掃“在水波而上發出的聲響。我本能地想,身上要淋濕了!在水中間被水淋濕了!我想到這個古怪的思想,不禁好笑起來。老實說,穿了那很厚的潛水衣,我實在感覺不到水,我只覺得自己是在比地上氣圍更稠密一些的海水氣圍中罷了。

   After half an hour of walking, the seafloor grew rocky. Jellyfish, microscopic crustaceans, and sea-pen coral lit it faintly with their phosphorescent glimmers. I glimpsed piles of stones covered by a couple million zoophytes and tangles of algae. My feet often slipped on this viscous seaweed carpet, and without my alpenstock I would have fallen more than once. When I turned around, I could still see the Nautilus's whitish beacon, which was starting to grow pale in the distance.

   走了半小時後,地面上有很多石頭。水母、細小甲殼類、磷光植蟲類,發出輕微的光線,輕微地照亮了地面。我看到億萬植蟲類和海藻群所追怎起來的一堆一堆的石頭。我的腳時常滑在這些粘性的海藻地毯上,如果沒有鑲鐵手杖幫助,我摔下來恐怕不止一次了。我回過頭來,總是看見諾第留斯號的淡白燈光,漸遠漸模糊了。

   Those piles of stones just mentioned were laid out on the ocean floor with a distinct but inexplicable symmetry. I spotted gigantic furrows trailing off into the distant darkness, their length incalculable. There also were other peculiarities I couldn't make sense of. It seemed to me that my heavy lead soles were crushing a litter of bones that made a dry crackling noise. So what were these vast plains we were now crossing? I wanted to ask the captain, but I still didn't grasp that sign language that allowed him to chat with his companions when they went with him on his underwater excursions.

   上面說的那些石頭堆是按照某種規律性在海洋底下安爿:起來的,為什麼這樣,我可不能解釋。我看見一些巨大的溝,沒入遠方暗彩中,長度使人們不可能估量。還有其它奇特的地方,我簡直不能承認它們的存在。我覺得我的沉重的鉛鐵靴底踏上了骸骨堆成的床墊,發出乾脆的聲響,那麼我現在跑過的這個廣大平原是什麼呢?我很想問門科長,但他的符號語言,就是說,他的船員們跟他到海底旅行時,拿來做交談用的符號語言,對我來說,還是一點不懂。

   Meanwhile the reddish light guiding us had expanded and inflamed the horizon. The presence of this furnace under the waters had me extremely puzzled. Was it some sort of electrical discharge? Was I approaching some natural phenomenon still unknown to scientists on shore? Or, rather (and this thought did cross my mind), had the hand of man intervened in that blaze? Had human beings fanned those flames? In these deep strata would I meet up with more of Captain Nemo's companions, friends he was about to visit who led lives as strange as his own? Would I find a whole colony of exiles down here, men tired of the world's woes, men who had sought and found independence in the ocean's lower depths? All these insane, inadmissible ideas dogged me, and in this frame of mind, continually excited by the series of wonders passing before my eyes, I wouldn't have been surprised to find on this sea bottom one of those underwater towns Captain Nemo dreamed about!

   指引我們的淡紅光芒陸續加強,並且把天際照得返紅了。發光的焦點是在水底下,使我心中奇怪到極點。這是一種電力發散的現象嗎?我是面對著一種地上的學者還不知道的自然現象嗎?甚至于——我腦子中忽然有這個思想一~在這火團中是有人手參與其間嗎?是人手燃燒起來的嗎,在這些深水層下面,是不是我要碰到尼摩船長的同伴,朋友,他們像他一樣過這種奇異的生活,他現在來訪問他們嗎?我要在那裡遇見流放的僑民,他們對於地上的窮苦感到厭倦,來這海洋底下的最深處找尋,並且找到這種獨立自主的生活嗎?這些瘋狂的、奇特的思想紊繞在我的腦陳,在這種心情中,我不斷地承受眼前一系列神奇景象所給予的刺激:那麼,我在這大海下面,若是真碰見了尼摩船長新夢想的一座海底城市,又有什麼可以驚奇的呢!

   Our path was getting brighter and brighter. The red glow had turned white and was radiating from a mountain peak about 800 feet high. But what I saw was simply a reflection produced by the crystal waters of these strata. The furnace that was the source of this inexplicable light occupied the far side of the mountain.

   我們的道路愈來愈照得亮了。發白的光芒是從一座高約八百英呎的山頂照下來。我現在望見的,不過是從水層形成的晶體所發展出來的單純反光。那發光焦點,不可理解的光明的泉源,還在山的那一面。

   In the midst of the stone mazes furrowing this Atlantic seafloor, Captain Nemo moved forward without hesitation. He knew this dark path. No doubt he had often traveled it and was incapable of losing his way. I followed him with unshakeable confidence. He seemed like some Spirit of the Sea, and as he walked ahead of me, I marveled at his tall figure, which stood out in black against the glowing background of the horizon.

   在這大西洋下面羅列起來的石頭迷樓中間,尼摩船長一點不遲疑,大步前進。他很熟悉這陰暗的道路。他一定時常來,不可能迷路。我跟着他走,信心很堅定。我覺得他是一位海中的神靈,當他走在我面前的時候,我讚美他的魁梧身材,在天際水平的晶瑩背景上作黝黑色顯現出來。

   It was one o'clock in the morning. We arrived at the mountain's lower gradients. But in grappling with them, we had to venture up difficult trails through a huge thicket.

   時間是清早六點。我們現在到了這山的俞列石欄了,但要走近石欄,必須從廣闊的亂石叢林間,很難走的小徑中冒險穿行。

   Yes, a thicket of dead trees! Trees without leaves, without sap, turned to stone by the action of the waters, and crowned here and there by gigantic pines. It was like a still-erect coalfield, its roots clutching broken soil, its boughs clearly outlined against the ceiling of the waters like thin, black, paper cutouts. Picture a forest clinging to the sides of a peak in the Harz Mountains, but a submerged forest. The trails were cluttered with algae and fucus plants, hosts of crustaceans swarming among them. I plunged on, scaling rocks, straddling fallen tree trunks, snapping marine creepers that swayed from one tree to another, startling the fish that flitted from branch to branch. Carried away, I didn't feel exhausted any more. I followed a guide who was immune to exhaustion.

   對!真是一片死樹叢,沒有樹葉,沒有樹漿,是受海水作用曠石化了的樹。這兒那兒都有巨大的檢樹聳立其間。好像一個還沒有倒下來的煤礦坑,深深的根把它支起在倒塌的地上,枝葉就跟用黑紙做的剪影一樣,清楚地描在海水天花板上。人們想象一座哈爾茲的森林①,可是沉在水下的森林,掛在一座山坡上、情形就有點彷彿了。小路上堵滿了海藻和黑角菜,一群甲殼類動物在中間蠕蠕爬動。我慢慢攀上大石頭,跨過躺下來的樹幹,碰斷在兩樹之間搖擺的海番藤,驚嚇了在樹枝間迅速地游過的魚,我走向前去。興緻勃勃的,不感覺疲倦。我緊緊跟着我的不疲倦的帶路人。

   What a sight! How can I describe it! How can I portray these woods and rocks in this liquid setting, their lower parts dark and sullen, their upper parts tinted red in this light whose intensity was doubled by the reflecting power of the waters! We scaled rocks that crumbled behind us, collapsing in enormous sections with the hollow rumble of an avalanche. To our right and left there were carved gloomy galleries where the eye lost its way. Huge glades opened up, seemingly cleared by the hand of man, and I sometimes wondered whether some residents of these underwater regions would suddenly appear before me.

   多麼美麗的景象!怎樣才能把它們說出來呢?怎樣描繪海水中間的樹木和岩石的形象,怎樣描繪它們下面的沉黑雜亂,它們上面的那被海水的反映所增強的紅色光輝呢?我們攀越一片一片的岩石,它們隨即一大扇地倒下去,發出了雪山崩倒的隆隆聲。左右兩旁都有闊大的隙地,好像是人類的手弄過的,我心中在想,我面前會不會忽然出現海底地區的居民呢。

   But Captain Nemo kept climbing. I didn't want to fall behind. I followed him boldly. My alpenstock was a great help. One wrong step would have been disastrous on the narrow paths cut into the sides of these chasms, but I walked along with a firm tread and without the slightest feeling of dizziness. Sometimes I leaped over a crevasse whose depth would have made me recoil had I been in the midst of glaciers on shore; sometimes I ventured out on a wobbling tree trunk fallen across a gorge, without looking down, having eyes only for marveling at the wild scenery of this region. There, leaning on erratically cut foundations, monumental rocks seemed to defy the laws of balance. From between their stony knees, trees sprang up like jets under fearsome pressure, supporting other trees that supported them in turn. Next, natural towers with wide, steeply carved battlements leaned at angles that, on dry land, the laws of gravity would never have authorized.

   但尼摩船長老是往上走,我不願落在後面,大膽跟着他。我的手杖給我很大的幫助。在這些深淵旁邊鑿出來的狹窄小道上,一失足,就會發生危險。我腳步很穩地走,並沒有感到頭昏心亂。有時我跳過一個裂口,口深不可測,在陸地上的冰海中間,可能使我倒退。有時我在深窟上倒下的動搖的大樹幹上冒險走過,不看自己腳下,兩眼只是欣賞這地區的粗野景色。那裡,有一些巨大的岩石,下部切削不平,傾斜地支起來,好像不理會那平衡的定律似的。有些樹在這些岩石的膝頭中間,像受了很大的壓力迸出來的一樣,它們彼此支持,相互支撐着。又有一種天然形成的樓閣:削成尖峰的大扇牆垣,像碉堡突出的牆一樣,作很大角度的傾斜,如果在陸地面上,恐怕不是地心引力的法則所許可的。

   And I too could feel the difference created by the water's powerful density--despite my heavy clothing, copper headpiece, and metal soles, I climbed the most impossibly steep gradients with all the nimbleness, I swear it, of a chamois or a Pyrenees mountain goat!

   就是我自己,我也感覺不到由於海水的強大密度所發生的那種不同壓力,雖然我的沉重衣服,我的銅質頭蓋,我的鉛鐵靴底那樣累贅,當我走上崎嶇不平的斜坡上時,我簡直可以說是很輕便地越過,像羚羊和山羊一般快!

   As for my account of this excursion under the waters, I'm well aware that it sounds incredible! I'm the chronicler of deeds seemingly impossible and yet incontestably real. This was no fantasy. This was what I saw and felt!

   Two hours after leaving the Nautilus, we had cleared the timberline, and 100 feet above our heads stood the mountain peak, forming a dark silhouette against the brilliant glare that came from its far slope. Petrified shrubs rambled here and there in sprawling zigzags. Fish rose in a body at our feet like birds startled in tall grass. The rocky mass was gouged with impenetrable crevices, deep caves, unfathomable holes at whose far ends I could hear fearsome things moving around. My blood would curdle as I watched some enormous antenna bar my path, or saw some frightful pincer snap shut in the shadow of some cavity! A thousand specks of light glittered in the midst of the gloom. They were the eyes of gigantic crustaceans crouching in their lairs, giant lobsters rearing up like spear carriers and moving their claws with a scrap-iron clanking, titanic crabs aiming their bodies like cannons on their carriages, and hideous devilfish intertwining their tentacles like bushes of writhing snakes.

   我們離開諾第留斯號兩小時後,穿過了一條長長的林帶,在我們頭頂的一百英呎上面,聳立着那座山峰,山峰的投影映在對面的光輝回射的山坡上。一些化石小樹擺成皺裡去呢?

   What was this astounding world that I didn't yet know? In what order did these articulates belong, these creatures for which the rocks provided a second carapace? Where had nature learned the secret of their vegetating existence, and for how many centuries had they lived in the ocean's lower strata?

   But I couldn't linger. Captain Nemo, on familiar terms with these dreadful animals, no longer minded them. We arrived at a preliminary plateau where still other surprises were waiting for me. There picturesque ruins took shape, betraying the hand of man, not our Creator. They were huge stacks of stones in which you could distinguish the indistinct forms of palaces and temples, now arrayed in hosts of blossoming zoophytes, and over it all, not ivy but a heavy mantle of algae and fucus plants.

   But what part of the globe could this be, this land swallowed by cataclysms? Who had set up these rocks and stones like the dolmens of prehistoric times? Where was I, where had Captain Nemo's fancies taken me?

   I wanted to ask him. Unable to, I stopped him. I seized his arm. But he shook his head, pointed to the mountain's topmost peak, and seemed to tell me:

   我想問問他。既然不能問他,我就擋住他,要他停下來。我拉住他的胳膊。但他搖搖頭,手指着那山的最後一個”山峰,好像對我這樣說:

   "Come on! Come with me! Come higher!"

   “走!再走!再走!”

   I followed him with one last burst of energy, and in a few minutes I had scaled the peak, which crowned the whole rocky mass by some ten meters.

   我跟着他,最後一次鼓起勇氣跑去,幾分鐘後,我就攀登了那座尖峰,峰高出所有這些大堆岩石約十米左右。

   I looked back down the side we had just cleared. There the mountain rose only 700 to 800 feet above the plains; but on its far slope it crowned the receding bottom of this part of the Atlantic by a height twice that. My eyes scanned the distance and took in a vast area lit by intense flashes of light. In essence, this mountain was a volcano. Fifty feet below its peak, amid a shower of stones and slag, a wide crater vomited torrents of lava that were dispersed in fiery cascades into the heart of the liquid mass. So situated, this volcano was an immense torch that lit up the lower plains all the way to the horizon.

   我向我們剛越過的這邊看,山高出平原不過七百至八百英呎左右,但從相對的另一邊看,它高出大西洋這一部分的海底為上面說的兩倍,即一千五六百英呎左右。我的眼睛看得很遠,一眼就看見了烘烘的電光所照明的廣大空間。是的,這山是一座火山.山峰五十英呎下面,在雨點一般的石頭和渣滓中間,一個闊大的噴火口吐出硫磺火石的急流,四散為火的瀑布,沒人團團的海水裡面。這火山在這樣的位置上,像一把巨大的火燭,照着海底下面的平原,一直到遠方水平綫的盡頭。

   As I said, this underwater crater spewed lava, but not flames. Flames need oxygen from the air and are unable to spread underwater; but a lava flow, which contains in itself the principle of its incandescence, can rise to a white heat, overpower the liquid element, and turn it into steam on contact. Swift currents swept away all this diffuse gas, and torrents of lava slid to the foot of the mountain, like the disgorgings of a Mt. Vesuvius over the city limits of a second Torre del Greco.

   上面說過,這海底噴火口噴出硫磺火石,但這並不是烈焰。必須有空氣中的氧氣才有火焰。在水底下火焰是無從燃起的。但火石奔流的本身就有白熱化的能力,發出白色的火,跟海水作鬥爭,兩相接觸便化成汽了。迅速的海流把所有這些混和的氣體都卷下去,火石的急流一直就滾到山腳底下,像維蘇威火山①噴出的東西倒在另一個多列-德爾-格里哥海港②中那樣。

   In fact, there beneath my eyes was a town in ruins, demolished, overwhelmed, laid low, its roofs caved in, its temples pulled down, its arches dislocated, its columns stretching over the earth; in these ruins you could still detect the solid proportions of a sort of Tuscan architecture; farther off, the remains of a gigantic aqueduct; here, the caked heights of an acropolis along with the fluid forms of a Parthenon; there, the remnants of a wharf, as if some bygone port had long ago harbored merchant vessels and triple-tiered war galleys on the shores of some lost ocean; still farther off, long rows of collapsing walls, deserted thoroughfares, a whole Pompeii buried under the waters, which Captain Nemo had resurrected before my eyes!

   正是,那邊的、我眼底下的、荒廢了、沉沒了、倒下了的一切,現出是一座破壞了的城市,坍塌的屋頂,倒下的廟字,破損零落的拱門,倒在地下的石砫,人們還能感覺到這些都是多斯加式建築物的堅固結實的結構。遠一點,是宏大水道工程的一些殘廢基址。這邊是堆成一座圓丘的街市高地,帶有巴爾台農廟①式的模糊形狀。那邊是堤岸的遺蹟,就像一座古老的海港,在海洋邊上,庇護過那些商船和戰艦一樣。更遠一些,有一道一道倒塌下來的牆垣,寬闊無人的大路,整個沉沒水底下的龐貝城②,現在尼摩船長把它復活過來,呈現在我眼前了!

   Where was I? Where was I? I had to find out at all cost, I wanted to speak, I wanted to rip off the copper sphere imprisoning my head.

   我在哪裡?我在哪裡?我不管一切,一定要知道,我要說話,我要把套起我的腦袋的銅球拉下來。

   But Captain Nemo came over and stopped me with a gesture. Then, picking up a piece of chalky stone, he advanced to a black basaltic rock and scrawled this one word:

   這時尼摩船長走到我面前,做個手勢,要我停住。然後他拿起一小塊鉛石,向一塊黑色的玄武岩石走去,僅僅寫下這個名詞:

   ATLANTIS

   大西洋洲

   What lightning flashed through my mind! Atlantis, that ancient land of Meropis mentioned by the historian Theopompus; Plato's Atlantis; the continent whose very existence has been denied by such philosophers and scientists as Origen, Porphyry, Iamblichus, d'Anville, Malte-Brun, and Humboldt, who entered its disappearance in the ledger of myths and folk tales; the country whose reality has nevertheless been accepted by such other thinkers as Posidonius, Pliny, Ammianus Marcellinus, Tertullian, Engel, Scherer, Tournefort, Buffon, and d'Avezac; I had this land right under my eyes, furnishing its own unimpeachable evidence of the catastrophe that had overtaken it! So this was the submerged region that had existed outside Europe, Asia, and Libya, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, home of those powerful Atlantean people against whom ancient Greece had waged its earliest wars!

The writer whose narratives record the lofty deeds of those heroic times is Plato himself. His dialogues Timaeus and Critias were drafted with the poet and legislator Solon as their inspiration, as it were.

   我心中豁然開朗了!大西洋城,鐵奧龐比③的古代梅羅勃提城,柏拉圖@的大西洋洲,被奧利煙尼⑤、薄非爾③、楊布利克①、唐維爾②、馬爾台一伯蘭③、韓波爾所否認,他們把這地方的沉沒不見,說是完全由於神話傳說的故事所造成,但被波昔端尼斯④、蒲林尼、安米恩一麥雪林⑤、鐵豆利安⑤、恩格爾①、許列爾③、杜尼福②、貝豐⑤、達維查克②所承認,這個洲,這塊陸地,出現在我的眼底了,並且又有它沉沒時所受到的災禍的無可爭辯的實物證據!那麼,這就是那塊沉沒的陸地,在歐洲、亞洲、利比亞之外,在海久爾山柱的外面,上面居住着那強大的大西洋種族,最初對他們進行過多次戰爭的就是古代希臘。

    把這些英雄傳說時期的事蹟記載在個人的著作中的歷史家,就是柏拉圖本人。他的狄美和克利提亞斯談話錄,可以說,就是由於詩人和立法家梭輪@的靈感所啟發而寫出的著作。

   One day Solon was conversing with some elderly wise men in the Egyptian capital of Sais, a town already 8,000 years of age, as documented by the annals engraved on the sacred walls of its temples. One of these elders related the history of another town 1,000 years older still. This original city of Athens, ninety centuries old, had been invaded and partly destroyed by the Atlanteans. These Atlanteans, he said, resided on an immense continent greater than Africa and Asia combined, taking in an area that lay between latitude 12 degrees and 40 degrees north. Their dominion extended even to Egypt. They tried to enforce their rule as far as Greece, but they had to retreat before the indomitable resistance of the Hellenic people. Centuries passed. A cataclysm occurred--floods, earthquakes. A single night and day were enough to obliterate this Atlantis, whose highest peaks (Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands) still emerge above the waves.

   一天,梭輪跟薩依斯城③的一些聰明智慧的老人們談話;根據城中神廟裡聖牆上所刻的編年錄,這城已經證明有八百年歷史了。其中一個老人講了另一個城的歷史,這個城更古老一千年。這個最早的雅典城已經有了九百世紀的年歲,曾經被大西洋人侵入,並且部分被破壞。他說,這些大西洋人據有一個廣大的洲,這洲比亞洲和非洲連合起來還大,包括的面積是從緯度12度起,向北至40度止。他們的統治力量一直達到埃及。他們還要把威力伸展到希臘,但是由於希臘人的不屈不撓的頑強抵抗,他們不得不退出。好幾個世紀又過去了。一次天翻地覆的大災禍發生了,就是發生了洪水,地震。僅僅一天一夜的工夫就把這個大西洋洲完全沉沒,只有馬德爾、阿梭爾群島、加納裡群島、青角群島,就是這洲上的最高山峰現在還浮出海面①。

   These were the historical memories that Captain Nemo's scrawl sent rushing through my mind. Thus, led by the strangest of fates, I was treading underfoot one of the mountains of that continent! My hands were touching ruins many thousands of years old, contemporary with prehistoric times! I was walking in the very place where contemporaries of early man had walked! My heavy soles were crushing the skeletons of animals from the age of fable, animals that used to take cover in the shade of these trees now turned to stone!

   以上就是尼摩船長寫的那個名詞在我心中引起來的歷史的回憶。所以,由於最離奇的命運的引導,我腳踩在這個大陸的一座山峰上了!我的手摸到了十萬年前古老的和跟地質時期同時的那些遺址了!我走的地方就是最初原始人類曾經走過的地方!我的沉重靴底踩了那些洪荒時期的動物骨骼,而那些樹木,現在已化戌礦石,而從前還曾把樹蔭遮覆過它們呢!

   Oh, why was I so short of time! I would have gone down the steep slopes of this mountain, crossed this entire immense continent, which surely connects Africa with America, and visited its great prehistoric cities. Under my eyes there perhaps lay the warlike town of Makhimos or the pious village of Eusebes, whose gigantic inhabitants lived for whole centuries and had the strength to raise blocks of stone that still withstood the action of the waters. One day perhaps, some volcanic phenomenon will bring these sunken ruins back to the surface of the waves! Numerous underwater volcanoes have been sighted in this part of the ocean, and many ships have felt terrific tremors when passing over these turbulent depths. A few have heard hollow noises that announced some struggle of the elements far below, others have hauled in volcanic ash hurled above the waves. As far as the equator this whole seafloor is still under construction by plutonic forces. And in some remote epoch, built up by volcanic disgorgings and successive layers of lava, who knows whether the peaks of these fire-belching mountains may reappear above the surface of the Atlantic!

   啊!為什麼我沒有時間!我簡直想走下這山的陡峭斜坡去,走遍這必然把非洲和美洲連接起來的廣闊大陸,訪問那些洪水前期的偉大城市。或者,那邊,在我的眼光下,現出那勇武好戰的馬基摩斯城,那信仰虔誠的歐色比斯城,區人族居民曾經在那裡生活過數千百年,他們一定有力量來堆築一直到現在還可以抵抗水力侵蝕的石頭建築物。或者有一天,有一種火山噴發現象要把這些沉沒的廢墟重新浮出水面上來!有人指出,在大西洋的這一部分有多數的海底火山,很多船隻經過這些受火山熬煎的海底時,感到種種特殊的震動。又有些船聽到抑制住沒有迸發出來的聲音,表示出水火兩種元素的深刻激烈的鬥爭;另有一些船又撿了一些拋出在海面上的火山灰屑。這整個地帶,一直至赤道,還是受地心大火的力量,不停地轉變,又有誰知道,在一個遙遠的時期,由於火山噴出的一切,由於火石的層層累積,陸續增長起來,那噴火山的山峰不出現在大西洋面上!

   As I mused in this way, trying to establish in my memory every detail of this impressive landscape, Captain Nemo was leaning his elbows on a moss-covered monument, motionless as if petrified in some mute trance. Was he dreaming of those lost generations, asking them for the secret of human destiny? Was it here that this strange man came to revive himself, basking in historical memories, reliving that bygone life, he who had no desire for our modern one? I would have given anything to know his thoughts, to share them, understand them!

   當我作這些暇想的時候,我正在設法把所有這些偉大景色的細節都裝在我記憶中的時候,尼摩船長手扶在辭苔剝落的石碑上,站着不動,獃立出神。他是想著那些過去不見了的人類嗎?他是向他們打聽人類命運的秘密嗎?這個古怪的人是到這個地方來受歷史回憶的鍛鍊嗎?他是不願意過近代人的生活,他到這裡來複活古代的生活嗎?我什麼都可以作,只要我能認識他的思想,和他共有這種思想,明白瞭解它們!

   We stayed in this place an entire hour, contemplating its vast plains in the lava's glow, which sometimes took on a startling intensity. Inner boilings sent quick shivers running through the mountain's crust. Noises from deep underneath, clearly transmitted by the liquid medium, reverberated with majestic amplitude.

   我們停在那個地方整整有一個鐘頭,靜觀那火石光輝下的廣闊平原,火石熱力有時達到驚人的強度。地心內部的汕騰使山的表面發生迅速的顫動。隆隆的聲響受海水清亮的播送,演成壯闊的迴響。

   Just then the moon appeared for an instant through the watery mass, casting a few pale rays over this submerged continent. It was only a fleeting glimmer, but its effect was indescribable. The captain stood up and took one last look at these immense plains; then his hand signaled me to follow him.

   這時候,月亮通過陣陣海水,出現了一會兒,向這塊沉沒的大陸投下一些淡白的光芒。這僅僅是一些微弱光芒,但生出一種難以形容的景象。船長站起來,最後看一下這廣闊的平原,然後向我做手勢,要我跟池走。

   We went swiftly down the mountain. Once past the petrified forest, I could see the Nautilus's beacon twinkling like a star. The captain walked straight toward it, and we were back on board just as the first glimmers of dawn were whitening the surface of the ocean.

   我們很快就走下山嶺。過了化石的森林後,我就望見了諾第留斯號的探照燈,像一顆星照在那裡。船長一直向船走去,我們抵達船上,正是最早的曙尤照在海洋面上發白的時候。