海底二萬里

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

   第二部 第十九章

   CHAPTER 19

   大西洋暖流

   The Gulf Stream

   4月20日的驚人場面在我們中間永遠沒有一人能忘記,我是在強烈的情緒下把它寫下來的。以後我又把這個敘述重讀一遍,我把它唸給康塞爾和尼德-蘭聽。他們覺得我所寫的很正確,跟實際情形一樣,但產生的效果還不夠強烈。想描繪這類圖畫,必須我們詩人中最有名的一位。《海上勞工》的作者的妙筆①,才能表達出來。

   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.

   我上面說過,尼摩船長眼盯着水波流消。他的痛苦是大得了不得的。自我們到船上來,這是他損失的第二個同伴.“這個同伴死得多麼可怕!這個朋友被一條章魚的粗大胳膊壓扁,室息,扭斷,被它的鐵牙床研碎,不能跟他的同伴們一樣地在珊瑚墓地的安靜水底長眠!

   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!

   對我個人來說,在這次戰鬥中,那個不幸的人發出的最後絶望的呼喊把我的心腸撕碎了。這個可憐的法國人,忘記他在船上約定的語言,又說出祖國和母親的話來,發出最後一次的呼救!諾第留斯號所有的船員,他們全是身心跟尼摩船長還結在一起的,他們是跟他一樣躲避人類的;那麼,其中有一個是我的同胞!在這個神秘的團體中一這個團體顯然由不同國籍的人組成一~代表法國的只是他一個人嗎?這又是不斷橫在我心頭的不可解的一個問題!

   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!

   尼摩船長回他的房中去了,我有好些時候看不見他。如果我從諾第留斯號來判斷——因為他是船的靈魂,船完全受他的感應,他應該是愁悶、失望和躊躇,諾第留斯號並不保持一定的方向。它走來走去,像一具死屍,隨波上下。它的推進器已經鬆開,自由了,它几乎用不着這個推進器了。它沒有固定方向地漂流着。它又不忍離開它最後一次鬥爭-的場所,那個吞噬了他的一個親人的海面!

   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!

   這樣過了十天。一直到了5月:日,諾第留斯號在巴哈麻水道口望見留加衣群島後,又駛嚮往北方去的水道。我們於是沿著海中最大河流的潮水行駛,這河有它自己的邊岸,自己的魚類和自己的溫度。我稱這河為大西洋暖流。

   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.

   是的,這是一條河流,它在大西洋中自由流動,它的水跟大西洋的水互不相混。它是一條成水河,比周圍的海水更成。它的平均深度是三千英呎,平均寬度是六十海里。在某幾處,它的水流速度是每小時四公里。它的水的不變積量比地球上任何的河水積量都大。

   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.

   大西洋暖流的真正水源,它的出發點,由莫利船長指出來的,可以說,是在嘉斯貢尼海灣①。它的水在這灣中,溫度和顏色還不很強,但已經開始形成了。它向南流,沿赤道非洲走,水流受熱帶地區陽光的蒸曬,日益變得溫熱起來,橫過大西洋,到達巴西海岸的三羅格羅,然後分成兩個支流,一個支流流入安的列斯群島海中,儘量吸取溫熱水分。這時候,大西洋暖流擔任恢復海上溫度的平衡,以及把熱帶海水跟北極海水混和起來,開始它的保持均衡的作用。在墨西哥灣中,它被曬至白熱程度,沿北美海岸奔向北方,一直前進到紐芬蘭島。然後受台維斯海峽寒流的推送,轉折向西,又流入大西洋中,在地球這一處的一個大圈上沿斜航曲綫流去。到北緯43度,暖流又分為兩支,其中一支受東北季候風的幫助,回到嘉斯貢尼灣和阿梭爾群島,另一支使愛爾蘭和挪威海岸獲得溫暖後,直流至斯勃齊堡,在斯勃齊堡一帶,它的溫度降至四度,形成北極自由流動的海。

   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.

   這時諾第留斯號航行的就是大西洋的這條河流。從巴哈麻水道口出來,在十四里寬,三百五十米深的地方,暖流行動的速度是每小時八公里。這種速度越向北去越慢;這種規律性是有其存在必要的,因為有人已經指出,如果暖流的速度和方向改變了,歐洲的氣候就將變幻莫測。

   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.

   到中午左右,我跟康塞爾在平台上。我告訴他關於大西洋暖流的一些特殊性。當我把話說完時,我要他把手放到水流裡面去。

   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.

   康塞爾照我的話做,把手放下去,他很驚異,他沒有絲毫冷熱的感覺。

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

   “這因為,”我對他說,“大西洋暖流從墨西哥灣出來,它的水溫跟人的體溫沒有什麼差別。暖流是巨大的暖氣爐,使歐洲沿海氣候溫和,永遠有青草綠葉。並且,如果我們要相信莫利說的活,把暖流的熱力全部利用起來,供應的熱量:可以使一條亞馬遜河或密蘇里河一般大的鐵的河流,永遠保持熔點溫度。”

   "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."

   在這時候,暖流的速度是每秒兩米二十五釐米。它的水流跟周圍的水流很不同,它的受壓擠的水在洋面上特別浮出,使它的暖水和海中冷水之間造成不同的水平。另外,暖流的水很沉黑,富於鹽質,它的純藍靛色在周圍的綠波上截然分開。當諾第留斯號跟嘉、羅林群島在同一緯度上,船沖角進入了暖流,它的推進器還在海水中攪動的計,候,這兩種水流的分界線就有很明顯的劃分了。一個整個的生物世界被帶進這水流裡。在地中海很常見的肛魚,成群地在暖流中遊行。

   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.

   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.

   在夜間,大西洋暖流的磷光海水跟我們探照燈的電光相競賽,特別在天氣變化、有暴風雨威脅我們的時候。

   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.

   5月8日,跟北加羅林群島在同一緯度上,我們還是與哈提拉斯角側面遙遙相對。這時,大西洋暖流的寬度是七千五海里,它的深度是二百一十米。諾第留斯號繼續隨意冒險行駛。在船上好像沒有什麼管理和監督了。我要承認,在這種情況下,逃走的計劃很可能實現,是的,有人居住的海岸到處都給人們以方便的藏身處。海上有許多汽船不斷往來行駛,它們是從紐約或從波士頓到墨西哥灣的定期船隻,又有那些小的二桅帆船在美洲沿海各地擔任沿岸航行的工作。我們對很有希望能得到這些船隻的接待。所以,現在是一個很好的機會。就是諾第留斯號離美洲聯邦海岸有三十海里,也沒有什麼關係。

   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.

   但突然的險惡情勢完全打破了加拿大人的計劃。天氣很壞。我們走近了這帶常有暴風的海,就是颱風和旋風產生的地方,產生的原因,正是由於大西洋暖流。在一隻脆弱的小艇上,冒險與時常狂吼的波濤搏鬥,那一定是白送性命。尼德-蘭本人也同意這種看法。所以,對於他的發狂的思鄉病,雖然只有逃走才能治療,但現在,他也只能咬緊牙關,再忍耐一些時候了。

   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.

   “事情必須結束了,”那一天他對我說,“我想對於這事必須有明確的決定。您的尼摩離開陸地,往上溯,向北開行了。但我公開對您說,南極我已經受夠了,我決不跟他到北極去。”

   "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."

   “怎麼辦,尼德?這時候,逃走是不可能呢!”

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

   “我還是我從前的那個主意。必須跟船長談一下。當我們在您的祖國沿海中的時候,您並沒有跟他說。現在到我的祖國沿海中了,我要跟他說了。當我想到,沒有幾天,諾第留斯號就要跟新蘇格蘭在同一緯度上,在那邊,近紐芬蘭島,現出闊大的海灣,聖勞輪斯河流入這灣中,聖勞輪斯河是我的河,是我生長的城市魁北克所在的河,當我想到這事時,我的憤怒完全露在我臉上了,我的頭髮豎起來了。您瞧,先生,我情願跳到海中去!我不願留在這裡!我悶死了!”

   "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!"

   加拿大人顯然是忍無可忍了。他的堅強天性不可能跟這無期延長的監牢生活相適應。他的容貌一天一天改變。他的性格愈來愈憂鬱。我感覺到他所忍受的苦惱,因為我也一樣,心中有了思鄉病。差不多七個月過去了,一點陸地上的消息也得不到。還有,尼摩船長的孤獨,他脾氣的改變——特別自從那一次跟章魚戰鬥後,他的沉默,都使我在不同的角度下來看這些問題。我感到臼己心中沒有那開始時期的熱情了。在這專給鯨科動物和其他海中生物生活的環境中,只有像康塞爾這樣的一個佛蘭蒙人才能安心接受。真是,如果這個老實人沒有肺而有腮,我想他很可以做一條了不得的好魚!

   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!

   “先生,怎麼樣?”尼德-蘭看見我不回答,立即又說。

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

   “尼德,那麼,您要我去問尼摩船長,他對於我們是懷着怎樣的意圖嗎?”

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

   “是的,先生。”

   "Yes, sir."

   “雖然他已經說過了,也還要問一下嗎?”

   "Even though he has already made that clear?"

   “是的。我希望最後一次把這件事搞明白,請你特別為我同他說吧,單單以我的名義同他說吧。”

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

   “可是我很難碰見他。而且他也在躲我呢。”

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

   “那就更多一個理由,必須去看他了。”

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

   “尼德,我不久一定問他,”

   "I'll confer with him, Ned."

   “什麼時候?”加拿大人堅持地問。

   "When?" the Canadian asked insistently.

   “當我碰見他的時候。……

   "When I encounter him."

   “阿龍納斯先生,您讓我找他去好嗎?”

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

   “不,我找他去。明天……”

   "No, let me do it. Tomorrow--"

   “今天。”尼德-蘭說。

   "Today," Ned Land said.

   “好。今天,我就去看他。”我回答加拿大人說。要是他自己去的話,一定會把整個事情搞糟了。

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

   我獨自留在那裡。我決定去問船長了,我打定主意立即把事情辦完,我喜歡辦完的事,不喜歡待辦的事。

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

   我回到我房中。從我房中,我聽到尼摩船長的房中有腳步聲,那就不應該放過這個碰見他的機會了。我敲敲他的門,我得不到回答。我又敲一下,然後我用手轉動門扣。

   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.

   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.

   決不能讓它損失,但您用來執行您的計劃的,是很原始粗糙的方法。誰知道大鳳把這盒子吹到哪裡去?它將落到什麼人的手中?您不能找出更好的辦法嗎?您,或你們中的一位,不可以……?”

   "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--"

   “永不能,先生。”尼摩船長打斷我的話,急促地說。

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

   “就是我,我的同伴們,我們願意保存這特別藏起來的手稿,如果您能恢復我們的自由……”

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

   “自由!”尼摩船長站起來說。

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

   “是的,先生,就是這個問題,我現在要來問問您。我們在您船上有七個月了,我今天用我的同伴和我的名義來問您,您的意圖是不是要把我們永遠留在這船上。”

   "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."

   “阿龍納斯先生,”尼摩船長說,“我今天要回答您的話,就是七個月前我回答過您的:誰進了諾第留斯號就不能離開它。”

   "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."

   “您要我們接受的簡直是奴隷制了!”

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

   “隨便您喜歡給它川-麼名稱吧。”

   "Call it anything you like."

   “可是,奴隷隨時隨地保留有要恢復他的自由的權利:不管哪種機會來到,他都會認為是好的,都要加以利用!

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

   “這個權利,”尼摩船長回答,“誰否認您有?我曾想過要您們發誓把您們束縛住嗎?”

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

   船長兩手交叉在胸前,眼盯着我。

   The captain stared at me, crossing his arms.

   “先生,”我對他說,“第二次再來談這個問題,不是您所高興,也不是我所願意的。不過我們既然說到了,我們就盡情地談一下。我再重複一遍,這不是單單關於我個人的問題。對我來說,研究是一種幫助,一種有力的轉移,一種吸引,一種熱情,可以使我忘記一切。跟您一樣,我生活不求人知,我只有一種微小的希望,想把自己工作的結果,有一天利用一個靠不住的盒子,隨風浪的漂流,遺贈給將來的人。總之,我在我瞭解您這個人的某些方面上。我可以佩服您,跟着您,沒有什麼苦惱和不快。但您的生活有其他的方面,使我覺得它是很複雜和很神秘,就是這一部分,一直到現在,我的同伴和我,絲毫不瞭解。我們的心時常為您而跳動,為您的某些痛苦而感動,或為您的天才或勇敢行為而鼓舞:但是,我們同時又看到,不論是從朋友或從敵人方面發出來的美和善,哪怕是出於人類同情心的最細微的表示,我們也必須把它壓抑在心中,不能露出來,那麼,就是這種感覺,我們對於所有牽涉到您的全是陌生的這種感覺,也就使得我們的處境有些不能忍受下去;甚至對我來說也是這樣。特別對尼德-蘭來說,更是這樣。對自由的熱愛,對奴役的憎恨:在天性跟加拿大人一般的人心中可以生出的報復計劃,他可能思想的,可能企圖的,可能要做的……您心中曾想過一下嗎?”

   "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 . . . ?"

   我停聲不說了。尼摩船長站起來說:

   I fell silent. Captain Nemo stood up.

   “尼德-蘭思索的,企圖的,要做的是什麼,隨他的意思去,那跟我有什麼關係?並不是我把他找來的呀!並不是我高興把他留在船上啊!至于您,阿龍納斯先生,您是能瞭解一切的人,就是不說出來您也能瞭解的人,我沒有什麼話可以回答您的了。希望您來談這個問題的第一次也就是最後一次了,因為第二次我就是聽都不聽您了。”

   "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."

   我退出來。自這一天起,我們的情形很是緊張。我把談話報告給我的兩個同伴聽了。

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

   “我們現在知道,”尼德-蘭說,“對於這個人我們不能有什麼期待了。諾第留斯號現在接近長島,不管天氣怎樣,我們逃吧。”

   "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."

   但是天氣愈來愈壞,有跡象預告大風暴就要到來。空中大氣變成灰白的牛奶色。在天際,接着一陣一陣疏散的淡雲來的,是那朵朵的濃密烏雲了。別的低垂的層雲很快地在空中飛過。海水高漲,鼓起闊大的波濤。除了喜歡跟風暴做朋友的那一種:海燕外,所有的鳥都不見了。風雨表顯著下降,表示空中的溫度很高,水蒸氣很多。暴風鏡受了大氣中飽和的電力,內部物質分解了。風雨的猛烈鬥爭很快就要展開了。

   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.

   大風暴在5月8日那一天爆發,正當諾第留斯號跟長島在同一緯度上,距紐約水道只有幾海里遠的時候。我可以描寫這次風雨的激烈鬥爭,因為,不知由於哪種古怪的情緒,尼摩船長不讓船潛入海底,而要它在水而上乘風破浪。

   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.

   鳳從西南方吹來,首先是一陣一陣的涼鳳,就是說,每秒的速度為十五米,到下午二點左右,速度就達到每秒二十五米。這是暴風的速度了。

   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.

   尼摩船長站在平台上,在猛烈的暴風下屹立不動。他腰間用繩子捆住,可以抵抗陣陣衝來的大浪。我也站在平台上,也用繩子把自己捆起來,欣賞這風暴,同時又讚美這不怕風暴的無與輪比的人。

   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.

   波濤洶湧的海面被浸在水中的片片巨大濃雲掃過。我再也看不見大漩渦中形成的中間小浪。只有煤黑色的長波大浪,浪尖並不洶湧,因為它們緊湊環境中,

   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.

   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.

   我受不了閃電的光輝,但尼摩船長正視着它,好像要把風暴的靈魂吸取過來。隆隆可怕的響聲佈滿空中,這是很複雜的聲響,由互相擊打的波浪怒吼聲,大風的呼嘯聲,雷電的爆裂聲所組成。鳳從夭際各處吹來,颱風臼東方出發,經過北方、西方和南方,又回到東方,跟北半球的迴旋風暴的方向正相反。

   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.

   啊:這大西洋暖流!它被稱為風暴王,真有道理!由於在它水流上面,備層空氣的溫度不同,使它造成厲害強大的颱風。

   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.

   接着大雨,就是一陣烈火。雨點變為轟掣閃電的羽飾了。真使人要說,尼摩船長想求得一種配得上他身份的死。是要讓雷來轟自己呢。受到了一次可怕的顛簸震動,諾第留斯號把它前頭的沖角豎起在空中,像避雷針那樣,我看見從沖角上發出很長的火花。

   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.

   疲乏了,力盡了,我爬在台上滾到嵌板邊去。我把嵌板弄開,下到客廳中,這時候,狂風暴雨,雷電交加,猛烈達到了最高點。想在諾第留斯號內部站立起來,簡直不可能。

   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.

   尼摩船長到半夜左右才回船中,我聽到儲水池漸漸裝滿水,諾第留斯號輕輕地沉到海水下面去。

   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.

   通過客廳中打開的玻璃窗,我看見好些驚慌的大魚,像幽靈一樣,在火光照耀的水中走過。有一些魚就在我眼前叭雷轟死了。

   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!

   諾第留斯號老是下降。我想它在十五米深的地方又可以得到安靜。出乎意料之外,上部水層受到了過度激烈的攪動。一直要到五十個米深,在海的深處,它才找到安寧

   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.

   水底是多麼安定,多麼寂靜,多麼和平的環境!誰能說這時在大洋面上沒有可怕的狂風暴雨呢?

   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?