海底兩萬里 第231期 第18章 太平洋下四千里(3)

After its fishing was finished and its air supply renewed, I thought the Nautilus would resume its underwater excursion, and I was getting ready to return to my stateroom, when Captain Nemo turned to me and said without further preamble:

魚捕完了，空氣調(diào)換了，我想諾第留斯號(hào)又要作海底旅行了;當(dāng)我正準(zhǔn)備回房的時(shí)候，尼摩船長(zhǎng)向我回轉(zhuǎn)身來，沒有什么客套，直截了當(dāng)?shù)貙?duì)我說：

"Look at this ocean, professor! Doesn't it have the actual gift of life? Doesn't it experience both anger and affection? Last evening it went to sleep just as we did, and there it is, waking up after a peaceful night!"

“您看這海洋，教授，它不是賦有真實(shí)的生命嗎?它不是具有憤怒和溫情嗎?昨天，它跟我們一般安靜地睡著，現(xiàn)在，過了平安的一夜，它又動(dòng)起來了。”

No hellos or good mornings for this gent! You would have thought this eccentric inpidual was simply continuing a conversation we'd already started!

不說早安，不說晚安!誰也要認(rèn)為這個(gè)奇怪的人物現(xiàn)在只不過是把已經(jīng)開了頭的談話繼續(xù)說下去。

"See!" he went on. "It's waking up under the sun's caresses! It's going to relive its daily existence! What a fascinating field of study lies in watching the play of its organism. It owns a pulse and arteries, it has spasms, and I side with the scholarly Commander Maury, who discovered that it has a circulation as real as the circulation of blood in animals."

“請(qǐng)看，”他又說，“它在太陽的撫摩下蘇醒了! 它又要過它的日間生活了!觀察它有機(jī)生活的變化作用, 實(shí)在是很有興趣的學(xué)術(shù)研究呢。它有脈搏、有血管、有起伏，我覺得科學(xué)家莫利是對(duì)的，他發(fā)現(xiàn)海洋跟動(dòng)物身上的血液循環(huán)一樣，有真正的循環(huán)作用。”

I'm sure that Captain Nemo expected no replies from me, and it seemed pointless to pitch in with "Ah yes," "Exactly," or "How right you are!" Rather, he was simply talking to himself, with long pauses between sentences. He was meditating out loud.

當(dāng)然尼摩船長(zhǎng)并不等待我的答話， 我覺得跟他說許多“當(dāng)然” 、“一定”和“您對(duì)”，沒有什么用處。他說話，與其說是對(duì)著我，不如說是對(duì)著他自己，他說完每一句后，中間停頓相當(dāng)長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間。這實(shí)在是一種特殊形式的沉思.

"Yes," he said, "the ocean owns a genuine circulation, and to start it going, the Creator of All Things has only to increase its heat, salt, and microscopic animal life. In essence, heat creates the different densities that lead to currents and countercurrents. Evaporation, which is nil in the High Arctic regions and very active in equatorial zones, brings about a constant interchange of tropical and polar waters.

“是的，”他說，“海洋有真正的循環(huán)作用，要引起這作用，單由造物者在海中增加熱、鹽和微生動(dòng)物就成了。正是，熱力造成海水的不同密度，使海中發(fā)生許多順流和逆流。水汽蒸發(fā)，在北極區(qū)域完全沒有，在赤道地帶就很為活動(dòng)，造成熱帶海水和極圈海水間永遠(yuǎn)不停的交流。此外，我又注意過那些由上而下和由下而上的水流，形成真正的海洋呼吸作用。