海底二萬里

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

   第一部 第二十四章

   CHAPTER 24

   珊瑚王國

   The Coral Realm

   第二天,我醒來,頭腦特別清爽。令我十分吃驚的是,我竟在我的房中。我的同伴一定也回到他們艙房中去了,可能他們跟我一樣,一點沒有覺得。夜間所有的經過他們也一點不知道,像我完全不知道一樣,要想揭開這個神秘,我只有依靠將來的偶然機會了。

   THE NEXT DAY I woke up with my head unusually clear. Much to my surprise, I was in my stateroom. No doubt my companions had been put back in their cabin without noticing it any more than I had. Like me, they would have no idea what took place during the night, and to unravel this mystery I could count only on some future happenstance.

   我心裡盤算着走出這個房間。心想我已經恢復了自由?或者仍舊是囚人?其實,我又完全自由了。我打開門,走人過道,上了中央鐵梯。嵌板昨天是關閉的,現在開了。 我到了平台上。

   I then considered leaving my stateroom. Was I free or still a prisoner? Perfectly free. I opened my door, headed down the gangways, and climbed the central companionway. Hatches that had been closed the day before were now open. I arrived on the platform.

   尼德-蘭和康塞爾在那裡等着我。我問他們,他們什麼都不知道。昏沉沉的睡眠沒有給他們留下任何記憶,他們只是心中驚怪,看見自己不知道在什麼時候又回到自己的艙房中了。

   Ned Land and Conseil were there waiting for me. I questioned them. They knew nothing. Lost in a heavy sleep of which they had no memory, they were quite startled to be back in their cabin.

   至于諾第留斯號,我們看來還是跟往常一樣,很安靜,很神秘。它行動很緩慢,浮在海波上面。船上好像一點也沒有什麼變化。

   As for the Nautilus, it seemed as tranquil and mysterious as ever. It was cruising on the surface of the waves at a moderate speed. Nothing seemed to have changed on board.

   尼德-蘭睜開他鋭利的眼睛,觀察大海。海上什麼都沒有。加拿大人見天邊什麼也沒有,沒有船隻,沒有陸地。 西風呼呼地吹來,鳳掀起壯闊的波浪打到船上,船顯著地擺動起來。

   Ned Land observed the sea with his penetrating eyes. It was deserted. The Canadian sighted nothing new on the horizon, neither sail nor shore. A breeze was blowing noisily from the west, and disheveled by the wind, long billows made the submersible roll very noticeably.

   諾第留斯號換過新鮮空氣後,行駛在深度平均為十五米的水底下面,這樣它可以很快地回到水面上來:這種方式跟往常不同,在1月19日這一天做了好幾次。船副這時又到了平台上,他習慣說的那句話又在船裡面聽到了。

   After renewing its air, the Nautilus stayed at an average depth of fifteen meters, enabling it to return quickly to the surface of the waves. And, contrary to custom, it executed such a maneuver several times during that day of January 19. The chief officer would then climb onto the platform, and his usual phrase would ring through the ship's interior.

   至于尼摩船長,他並沒有出來。船上人員,我只看見那冷冰冰的管事人,他跟平常一樣,準時地,默不作聲地給我開飯。

   As for Captain Nemo, he didn't appear. Of the other men on board, I saw only my emotionless steward, who served me with his usual mute efficiency.

   兩點左右,我在客廳中,正在整理我的筆記,尼摩船長打開門進來了。我向他行個禮。他回答我一個禮,這是一種差不多看不出來的禮,一句話也沒有說。我繼續做我的工作,心中希望他對於昨夜的特殊事件可能給我解釋一下。 但他一聲不響。我注視他看來他的面容好像很疲乏的樣子:他的眼睛發紅,睡眠沒有讓它們恢復過來:他的臉色表示深深的憂愁,真實的苦痛。他走來走去,坐下去,站起來,隨意拿起一本書,立即又放下,看看他的各種器械,但不作經常要作的記錄,好像一刻都不能安靜下來的樣子。

   Near two o'clock I was busy organizing my notes in the lounge, when the captain opened the door and appeared. I bowed to him. He gave me an almost imperceptible bow in return, without saying a word to me. I resumed my work, hoping he might give me some explanation of the previous afternoon's events. He did nothing of the sort. I stared at him. His face looked exhausted; his reddened eyes hadn't been refreshed by sleep; his facial features expressed profound sadness, real chagrin. He walked up and down, sat and stood, picked up a book at random, discarded it immediately, consulted his instruments without taking his customary notes, and seemed unable to rest easy for an instant.

   後來他向我這邊走來了,他問我:

   Finally he came over to me and said:

   “阿龍納斯先生,您是醫生嗎?”

   "Are you a physician, Professor Aronnax?"

   我真沒想到他忽然提出這一問題,我看他一下,沒有立刻答覆他。

   This inquiry was so unexpected that I stared at him a good while without replying.

   “您是醫生嗎?”他又說,“您的好些同事,像格拉地奧列①,摩甘一唐東②,以及其他的人都曾經學過醫。”

   "Are you a physician?" he repeated. "Several of your scientific colleagues took their degrees in medicine, such as Gratiolet, Moquin-Tandon, and others."

   “不錯,”我說,“我是大夫和住院醫生。我到博物館當教授之前,曾經行醫好凡年。”

   "That's right," I said, "I am a doctor, I used to be on call at the hospitals. I was in practice for several years before joining the museum."

   “很好,先生。”

   "Excellent, sir."

   我的答覆顯然使尼摩船長滿意。但是,我不知道他為什麼說到這事,我等他提出新問題來,自己可以隨機應變地答覆。

   My reply obviously pleased Captain Nemo. But not knowing what he was driving at, I waited for further questions, ready to reply as circumstances dictated.

   “阿龍納斯先生,”船長對我說,“您願意來治療我的一個船員嗎?”

   "Professor Aronnax," the captain said to me, "would you consent to give your medical attentions to one of my men?"

   “您這兒有病人嗎?”

   "Someone is sick?"

   “是的。”

   "Yes."

   “我就跟您看去。”

   "I'm ready to go with you."

   “請跟我來吧。”

   "Come."

   我得承認,我這時心很跳動。我不知道為什麼,在這個船員的疾病和昨晚的事件之間我覺得有某一種關聯,這個秘密至少跟那個病人一樣,盤踞在我心中。

   I admit that my heart was pounding. Lord knows why, but I saw a definite connection between this sick crewman and yesterday's happenings, and the mystery of those events concerned me at least as much as the man's sickness.

   尼摩船長帶我到諾第留斯號的後部,讓我走進挨着水手住所的一間艙房。

   Captain Nemo led me to the Nautilus's stern and invited me into a cabin located next to the sailors' quarters.

   房中床上,躺着一個四十歲左右的人,外貌堅強有力,是真正盎格魯一薩克遜③人的典型。

   On a bed there lay a man some forty years old, with strongly molded features, the very image of an Anglo-Saxon.

   我彎下身去看他。他不僅是有病,而且受了傷。他的頭部包裹着血淋淋的紗布,躺在兩個枕頭上。我把包布解開,病人睜大眼睛看我,讓我解開,一聲也不說痛。

   I bent over him. Not only was he sick, he was wounded. Swathed in blood-soaked linen, his head was resting on a folded pillow. I undid the linen bandages, while the wounded man gazed with great staring eyes and let me proceed without making a single complaint.

   傷處看來很是怕人。頭蓋骨被衝擊的器械打碎,腦子露出來,腦上受到了很厲害的摩擦。在有傷的腦子上面凝結着一塊一塊的血痕,顏色像酒槽。腦子同時被打傷又受震動。傷員的呼吸很緩慢。肌肉痙攣着,使他的臉孔抖動。 大腦完全發炎了,因此思想和動作都麻木不靈了。

   It was a horrible wound. The cranium had been smashed open by some blunt instrument, leaving the naked brains exposed, and the cerebral matter had suffered deep abrasions. Blood clots had formed in this dissolving mass, taking on the color of wine dregs. Both contusion and concussion of the brain had occurred. The sick man's breathing was labored, and muscle spasms quivered in his face. Cerebral inflammation was complete and had brought on a paralysis of movement and sensation.

   病人的脈搏,我按了按,已經時有時無。身體各處,手指腳趾的尖端已經冰冷,我看出死已臨頭,沒法救治了。我包紮好這個不幸的病人,又把他頭上的紗布弄好,轉過身來對著尼摩船長;我問他:

   I took the wounded man's pulse. It was intermittent. The body's extremities were already growing cold, and I saw that death was approaching without any possibility of my holding it in check. After dressing the poor man's wound, I redid the linen bandages around his head, and I turned to Captain Nemo.

   “哪來的這傷痕呢?”

   "How did he get this wound?" I asked him.

   “那沒關係!”船長掩飾地回答,“諾第留斯號受到一次仲撞,弄斷了機器上的一條槓桿,打中了這個人。般副正在他旁邊。他奮身前去,頂受了這打擊……兄弟為自己的兄弟犧牲,朋友為自己的朋友犧牲,再沒有更簡單的享!這是諾第留斯號船上全體船員共同遵守的規律!您對於他的病精的意見究竟怎樣?”

   "That's not important," the captain replied evasively. "The Nautilus suffered a collision that cracked one of the engine levers, and it struck this man. My chief officer was standing beside him. This man leaped forward to intercept the blow. A brother lays down his life for his brother, a friend for his friend, what could be simpler? That's the law for everyone on board the Nautilus. But what's your diagnosis of his condition?"

   我遲疑不敢說。

   I hesitated to speak my mind.

   “您可以說,”船長對我說,“這人不懂得法語。

   "You may talk freely," the captain told me. "This man doesn't understand French."

   我最後看一下傷員,然後回答:

   I took a last look at the wounded man, then I replied:

   “這人在兩小時內就要死了。”

   "This man will be dead in two hours."

   “沒有什麼辦法可以救他嗎?”

   "Nothing can save him?"

   “沒有。”

   "Nothing."

   尼摩船長的手抖起來,幾滴眼淚從他的眼中流出來了,從前我以為他的眼睛是不會哭的。

   Captain Nemo clenched his fists, and tears slid from his eyes, which I had thought incapable of weeping.

   霎時間,我再看一下這垂死的人,他的生命一點一點消失了。他蒼白的面色,由於有明亮的電光照在他臨死的床上,更顯得慘白。我看他的聰明頭額有很多過早的皺紋,那是生活中的不幸或多年的貧苦給他造成的。我要從他嘴裡偶然吐出的一些話,明白他生平的秘密!

   For a few moments more I observed the dying man, whose life was ebbing little by little. He grew still more pale under the electric light that bathed his deathbed. I looked at his intelligent head, furrowed with premature wrinkles that misfortune, perhaps misery, had etched long before. I was hoping to detect the secret of his life in the last words that might escape from his lips!

   “您可以退出了,阿龍納斯先生。”尼摩船長這時對我說。

   "You may go, Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo told me.

   我出來,讓船長一人留在危急病人的房裡,我回到我的房中,為了剛纔的場面情緒很激動。那一整天,我心中有種種不祥的預感,十分不安。夜間睡得不好,睡夢中時常驚醒,覺得聽到了遠遠傳來的悲嘆和好像唱喪歌的聲音。這是對死者的禱詞,用那種我不能懂得語言說出來的禱詞嗎?

   I left the captain in the dying man's cabin and I repaired to my stateroom, very moved by this scene. All day long I was aquiver with gruesome forebodings. That night I slept poorly, and between my fitful dreams, I thought I heard a distant moaning, like a funeral dirge. Was it a prayer for the dead, murmured in that language I couldn't understand?

   第二天早晨,我又到了平台上,尼摩船長已經在那裡了。他一看見我,就走到我面前來。

   The next morning I climbed on deck. Captain Nemo was already there. As soon as he saw me, he came over.

   “教授,”他對我說,“您願意今天去作一次海底散步嗎?”

   "Professor," he said to me, "would it be convenient for you to make an underwater excursion today?"

   “我的同伴可以一同去嗎?”我問。

   "With my companions?" I asked.

   “如果他們願意,他們可以一同去。”

   "If they're agreeable."

   “我們一定跟您去,船長。”

   "We're yours to command, captain."

   “請你們就去穿潛水衣。”

   "Then kindly put on your diving suits."

   關於那個危急病人或死人的消息,他再也不提。我到尼德。蘭和康塞爾那兒,把尼摩船長的提議告訴他們。康塞爾立刻就答應去,這一次加拿大人也表示很樂意跟我們一道去。

   As for the dead or dying man, he hadn't come into the picture. I rejoined Ned Land and Conseil. I informed them of Captain Nemo's proposition. Conseil was eager to accept, and this time the Canadian proved perfectly amenable to going with us.

   時間是早上八點。到八點半,我們穿好了這次散步穿的潛水衣,並帶上探照燈和呼吸器。那座雙重的門打開了,尼摩船長和跟在他後面的十來個船員一齊出來,我們到了水下十米的地方,我們的腳便踩在諾第留斯號停下來的海底地上)

   It was eight o'clock in the morning. By 8:30 we were suited up for this new stroll and equipped with our two devices for lighting and breathing. The double door opened, and accompanied by Captain Nemo with a dozen crewmen following, we set foot on the firm seafloor where the Nautilus was resting, ten meters down.

   一段輕微的斜坡路通到崎嶇不平的地面,深度大約為二十五米左右。這地面跟我第一次在太平洋水底下散步時看見過的完全不一樣。這裡沒有細沙,沒有海底草地,沒有海底樹林,我立即認識這一天尼摩船長請我們來的這個神奇地方;這個地方是珊瑚王國。

   A gentle slope gravitated to an uneven bottom whose depth was about fifteen fathoms. This bottom was completely different from the one I had visited during my first excursion under the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Here I saw no fine-grained sand, no underwater prairies, not one open-sea forest. I immediately recognized the wondrous region in which Captain Nemo did the honors that day. It was the coral realm.

   在植蟲動物門、翡翠綱中,有礬花這一目,這一目包含礬花、木賊和珊瑚三科。珊瑚屬於珊瑚科,是一種奇怪的東西,曾經先後被分人礦物、植物和動物類。在古代它是治病的藥方,在近代是裝飾的珍寶,一直封1694年:,馬賽人皮桑尼爾才明確地把它們作為動物分類。

   In the zoophyte branch, class Alcyonaria, one finds the order Gorgonaria, which contains three groups: sea fans, isidian polyps, and coral polyps. It's in this last that precious coral belongs, an unusual substance that, at different times, has been classified in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Medicine to the ancients, jewelry to the moderns, it wasn't decisively placed in the animal kingdom until 1694, by Peysonnel of Marseilles.

   珊瑚是一群聚集在易碎的和石質偽珊瑚樹上的微生物的總體。這些珊瑚蟲有一種獨特的繁殖力,像枝枒滋生一樣,它們有自己本身的生命,同時又有共同的生命,所以這種情形好像是一種自然的社會主義;我知道最近關於這種奇怪的植蟲動物的研究結果,照生物學家的很正確的觀察,珊瑚蟲在分支繁殖中就起礦化作用,對我來說,去參觀大自然種植在海底下的一處石質森林,實在是最有興趣不過的了。

   A coral is a unit of tiny animals assembled over a polypary that's brittle and stony in nature. These polyps have a unique generating mechanism that reproduces them via the budding process, and they have an individual existence while also participating in a communal life. Hence they embody a sort of natural socialism. I was familiar with the latest research on this bizarre zoophyte-- which turns to stone while taking on a tree form, as some naturalists have very aptly observed--and nothing could have been more fascinating to me than to visit one of these petrified forests that nature has planted on the bottom of the sea.

   蘭可夫探照器使用起來,我們沿著正在形戌的珊瑚層走去,這些珊瑚脈經過相當的時間,有一夭將要把印度洋的這一部分海面封閉起來。路旁儘是錯雜的小珊瑚樹所形成的混亂的珊瑚樹叢,枝權上遮滿白光閃閃的星狀小花。不過,跟陸地上的植物正相反,固定在海底岩石上的珊瑚樹的枝權,全是從上到下發展的。

   We turned on our Ruhmkorff devices and went along a coral shoal in the process of forming, which, given time, will someday close off this whole part of the Indian Ocean. Our path was bordered by hopelessly tangled bushes, formed from snarls of shrubs all covered with little star-shaped, white-streaked flowers. Only, contrary to plants on shore, these tree forms become attached to rocks on the seafloor by heading from top to bottom.

   燈光在色彩很鮮艷的枝葉中間照來照去,發生無窮的美麗迷人的景象。我好像是看見薄膜一般的和圓筒形樣的細管在海波下顫動。我要去采它們的帶有纖維觸鬚的新鮮花瓣(有的剛開,有的剛露頭)的時候,有些身子輕快、鰭迅速擺動的魚走來,像鳥飛過一樣觸動了它們。但是,一當我的手挨近這些活花朵,這些有生命的含羞草的時候,花叢中立即發出警報來了。於是雪白的花瓣縮人它們的朱紅匣中去了,花朵在我眼前消失了,珊瑚叢隨即轉變為一大團的石圓丘。

   Our lights produced a thousand delightful effects while playing over these brightly colored boughs. I fancied I saw these cylindrical, membrane-filled tubes trembling beneath the water's undulations. I was tempted to gather their fresh petals, which were adorned with delicate tentacles, some newly in bloom, others barely opened, while nimble fish with fluttering fins brushed past them like flocks of birds. But if my hands came near the moving flowers of these sensitive, lively creatures, an alarm would instantly sound throughout the colony. The white petals retracted into their red sheaths, the flowers vanished before my eyes, and the bush changed into a chunk of stony nipples.

   偶然的機會把這種植蟲動物的一些最寶貴的品種擺在我面前。這種珊瑚跟在地中海、在法國、意大利和巴巴利①海岸打到的,一樣有價值。商業上對於其中最美的幾種給了“血花”和“血沫”這樣詩意的名字,它們的鮮艷顏色證明這是有道理的。這種珊瑚一直賣到五百法郎一公斤;在這一帶的海水裡面實在是蘊藏有無數打撈珊瑚人的財富呢。 這種寶貴的物質時常雜有其他種類的珊瑚樹,因此構成名為“馬西奧達”的密集和混雜的整塊珊瑚,在這些整塊珊瑚上面,我看到很美麗的玫瑰珊瑚品種。

   Sheer chance had placed me in the presence of the most valuable specimens of this zoophyte. This coral was the equal of those fished up from the Mediterranean off the Barbary Coast or the shores of France and Italy. With its bright colors, it lived up to those poetic names of blood flower and blood foam that the industry confers on its finest exhibits. Coral sells for as much as 500 francs per kilogram, and in this locality the liquid strata hid enough to make the fortunes of a whole host of coral fishermen. This valuable substance often merges with other polyparies, forming compact, hopelessly tangled units known as "macciota," and I noted some wonderful pink samples of this coral.

   不久,珊瑚樹叢就緊密連攀起來,樹枝分佈增長起來,好像是真正的石質叢林和奇矮建築的長槽在我們腳步面前擺開了。 尼摩船長走人一條長廊般的黑暗過道,從這條傾斜的、過道,我們到了一百米深的地方。我們的蛇形玻璃管中的光學,照在這些天然的凹凸不平的拱形建築物上面,照在像水晶燭台一般安排着的、火星點綴起來的下垂花板上,時時。 發生魔術般迷人的力量,在珊瑚的叢枝中間,我又看到一樣新奇古怪的珊瑚樹,海虱形珊瑚,節肢蝶形珊瑚,又有些團聚成堆的珊瑚,有的是青,有的是紅,真的像是鋪在石灰地上的海藻,這些珊瑚堆,生物學家經過長久的討論後,才明確地把它們列入植物中。但根據一位思想家所指出,“它: 們或者就是生命剛從無知覺的沉睡中掙紮起來,又還沒有完全脫離礦物的物性。

   But as the bushes shrank, the tree forms magnified. Actual petrified thickets and long alcoves from some fantastic school of architecture kept opening up before our steps. Captain Nemo entered beneath a dark gallery whose gentle slope took us to a depth of 100 meters. The light from our glass coils produced magical effects at times, lingering on the wrinkled roughness of some natural arch, or some overhang suspended like a chandelier, which our lamps flecked with fiery sparks. Amid these shrubs of precious coral, I observed other polyps no less unusual: melita coral, rainbow coral with jointed outgrowths, then a few tufts of genus Corallina, some green and others red, actually a type of seaweed encrusted with limestone salts, which, after long disputes, naturalists have finally placed in the vegetable kingdom. But as one intellectual has remarked, "Here, perhaps, is the actual point where life rises humbly out of slumbering stone, but without breaking away from its crude starting point."

   走了兩個鐘頭,我們到了t9百米深的地方,那地方就是珊瑚在上面開始形成的最後邊界。但在這裡的,不是孤立隔開的珊瑚叢,不是低樹林的叢木,而是,廣大的森林,巨大的礦物草木,粗大的石樹,由那些海葛藤,漂亮好看的羽毛草花圈壞結合起來,受到各樣色彩和反光的點綴,非常好看。它們的高大樹枝深入海水陰暗中不見了,我們就在下面自由自在地走過,我們腳下有管狀珊瑚,腦形貝,星狀貝,菌狀貝,石竹形珊瑚,形成一條花卉織成的地毯,現出光輝奪目的各種顏色。

   Finally, after two hours of walking, we reached a depth of about 300 meters, in other words, the lowermost limit at which coral can begin to form. But here it was no longer some isolated bush or a modest grove of low timber. It was an immense forest, huge mineral vegetation, enormous petrified trees linked by garlands of elegant hydras from the genus Plumularia, those tropical creepers of the sea, all decked out in shades and gleams. We passed freely under their lofty boughs, lost up in the shadows of the waves, while at our feet organ-pipe coral, stony coral, star coral, fungus coral, and sea anemone from the genus Caryophylia formed a carpet of flowers all strewn with dazzling gems.

   實在是難以形容,難以描繪的景象!啊!為什麼我們不能交換彼此所感到的印象!為什麼我們關禁在這金屬玻、璃的圓盔中!為什麼我們被阻止,彼此不能說話!至少,希望我們生活能跟繁殖在海水中的魚類一樣,或更進一步,能跟那些兩棲動物一樣,它們可以在長期間內,隨它們的意思,往來地上,游泳水中!

   What an indescribable sight! Oh, if only we could share our feelings! Why were we imprisoned behind these masks of metal and glass! Why were we forbidden to talk with each other! At least let us lead the lives of the fish that populate this liquid element, or better yet, the lives of amphibians, which can spend long hours either at sea or on shore, traveling through their double domain as their whims dictate!

   可是尼摩船長站住了。我的同伴和我也停止前進,我回過頭來,看見船員們作半圓形圍繞着他們偽首領。我更細心地看,看到其中有四人肩上抬着一件長方形的東西。

   Meanwhile Captain Nemo had called a halt. My companions and I stopped walking, and turning around, I saw the crewmen form a semicircle around their leader. Looking with greater care, I observed that four of them were carrying on their shoulders an object that was oblong in shape.

   我們站的是一塊寬大空地的中心地方,圍繞四周的是海底森林的高大突出的枝權。我們的照明燈在這廣闊的空間中射出模糊的光線,把地上陰影拉得特別長。空地的盡處,更是漆黑,只有珊瑚的尖刺留住了一些稀疏的亮光。

   At this locality we stood in the center of a huge clearing surrounded by the tall tree forms of this underwater forest. Our lamps cast a sort of brilliant twilight over the area, making inordinately long shadows on the seafloor. Past the boundaries of the clearing, the darkness deepened again, relieved only by little sparkles given off by the sharp crests of coral.

   尼德-蘭和康塞爾站在我身邊。我們留心看著,我心裡想,我是要參加一個很離奇的場面了。我觀察地面,看到好幾處,由於石灰質的堆積,由於人手的規律性的安排,有微微隆起的瘤子,地面顯得鼓起來的樣子。

   Ned Land and Conseil stood next to me. We stared, and it dawned on me that I was about to witness a strange scene. Observing the seafloor, I saw that it swelled at certain points from low bulges that were encrusted with limestone deposits and arranged with a symmetry that betrayed the hand of man.

   在空地中間,隨便堆起來的石頭基礎上,豎起一副珊瑚的十字架,這十字架兩邊橫出的兩條長胳膊,簡直使人要認為是石質的血製成的呢。

   In the middle of the clearing, on a pedestal of roughly piled rocks, there stood a cross of coral, extending long arms you would have thought were made of petrified blood.

   尼摩船長做個手勢,一個船員走上前來,他在距十字架幾英呎遠的地方,從腰間取下鐵鍁,開始挖坑。

   At a signal from Captain Nemo, one of his men stepped forward and, a few feet from this cross, detached a mattock from his belt and began to dig a hole.

   我完全明白了!這空地是墓地,這坑是墳袕,這長形的東西是昨夜死去的人的屍體!尼摩船長和他的船員們來到這隔絶人世的海洋底下,這所公共的墓地,埋葬他們的同伴。

   I finally understood! This clearing was a cemetery, this hole a grave, that oblong object the body of the man who must have died during the night! Captain Nemo and his men had come to bury their companion in this communal resting place on the inaccessible ocean floor!

   不!我的心從來沒有過這樣的激動,這樣的緊張!從來沒有過更動人的思想像現在這樣侵到我的腦中來!我簡直不想看我的眼睛所看見的東西了!

   No! My mind was reeling as never before! Never had ideas of such impact raced through my brain! I didn't want to see what my eyes saw!

   不過墳袕挖得很慢。魚類被驚動,到處亂跑。我聽到石灰質的地上鐵鍁叮叮作響,鐵鍁有時碰到丟在水底下的火石,發出星星的火光。墳袕漸漸加長,漸漸加大,不久便相當深,可以容受屍體了。

   Meanwhile the grave digging went slowly. Fish fled here and there as their retreat was disturbed. I heard the pick ringing on the limestone soil, its iron tip sometimes giving off sparks when it hit a stray piece of flint on the sea bottom. The hole grew longer, wider, and soon was deep enough to receive the body.

   這時抬屍體的便走近前來,屍體用白色的麻布裹着,放到濕潤的坑中去。尼摩船長兩手交叉在胸前,死者曾經愛過的所有的朋友們,都跪下來,作祈禱的姿態。我的兩個同伴和我也很虔誠地鞠恭敬禮。

   Then the pallbearers approached. Wrapped in white fabric made from filaments of the fan mussel, the body was lowered into its watery grave. Captain Nemo, arms crossed over his chest, knelt in a posture of prayer, as did all the friends of him who had loved them. . . . My two companions and I bowed reverently.

   墳袕於是被那地上挖出的土石掩蓋起來,地面形成微微的隆起。

   The grave was then covered over with the rubble dug from the seafloor, and it formed a low mound.

   當墳袕填好了,尼摩船長和他的船員都站起來,然後走到墳前,大家屈膝,伸手,作最後告別的姿勢。

   When this was done, Captain Nemo and his men stood up; then they all approached the grave, sank again on bended knee, and extended their hands in a sign of final farewell. . . .

   燃後這隊送葬的隊伍沿著原路,在森林的拱形建築物下,一堆一堆的叢林中間,走過了很長的珊瑚叢,總是往上走,向着諾第留斯號回來。

   Then the funeral party went back up the path to the Nautilus, returning beneath the arches of the forest, through the thickets, along the coral bushes, going steadily higher.

   最後,船上的燈光露出了,有一道長長的光線,把我俯一直引到諾第留斯號。我們回到船上的時候,正是一點鐘。

   Finally the ship's rays appeared. Their luminous trail guided us to the Nautilus. By one o'clock we had returned.

   我換了衣服,走上平台,心中正受着可怕思想的纏繞。 就走到探照燈旁邊坐下。

   After changing clothes, I climbed onto the platform, and in the grip of dreadfully obsessive thoughts, I sat next to the beacon.

   尼摩船長走到我面前;我站起來,對他說:

   Captain Nemo rejoined me. I stood up and said to him:

   “就是跟我預料的一般,那人在夜間死了嗎?”

   "So, as I predicted, that man died during the night?"

   “是的,阿龍納斯先生。”尼摩船長答。

   "Yes, Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo replied.

   “他現在長眠在他的同伴身邊,在那珊瑚墓地中嗎?”

   "And now he rests beside his companions in that coral cemetery?"

   "Yes, forgotten by the world but not by us! We dig the graves, then entrust the polyps with sealing away our dead for eternity!"

   船長突然用他痙攣的手、粑臉孔遮住,他沒法抑制他發出的更吟,隨後他說:

   And with a sudden gesture, the captain hid his face in his clenched fists, vainly trying to hold back a sob. Then he added:

   “那裡,海波下面幾百英呎深的地方,就是我們的安靜得墓地!”

   "There lies our peaceful cemetery, hundreds of feet beneath the surface of the waves!"

   “至少,船長,您的死去的同伴們可以在那裡很安靜地長眠,不受鯊魚的欺負!”

   "At least, captain, your dead can sleep serenely there, out of the reach of sharks!"

   “是的,先生,”尼摩船長很嚴肅地回答,”不受鯊魚和人物欺負。

   "Yes, sir," Captain Nemo replied solemnly, "of sharks and men!"

   END OF THE FIRST PART