14 黑潮暖流(3)

Captain Nemo bowed. I was left to myself, lost in my thoughts. They all centered on the Nautilus's commander. Would I ever learn the nationality of this eccentric man who had boasted of having none? His sworn hate for humanity, a hate that perhaps was bent on some dreadful revenge-what had provoked it? Was he one of those unappreciated scholars, one of those geniuses "embittered by the world," as Conseil expressed it, a latter-day Galileo, or maybe one of those men of science, like America's Commander Maury, whose careers were ruined by political revolutions? I couldn't say yet. As for me, whom fate had just brought aboard his vessel, whose life he had held in the balance: he had received me coolly but hospitably. Only, he never took the hand I extended to him. He never extended his own.

尼摩船长对我行个礼,出去了。我一人留下,默默地沉思。所想的都是关于这位诺第留斯号的船长。这个古怪的人,自以为不属于任何国籍,我将永远不知道他是哪一国的人吗?他对于人类的那种仇恨,或者他对于使他有那种仇恨的人,要想法作可怕的报复吗?他是不是像康塞尔说的,“有人给他受过痛苦的”一位被人轻视的学者,一位天才,一位近代的伽利略呢?或者他是一位科学家,像美国人莫利一般)学术研究事业因为政治上的变动受到挫折呢?这我都还不能说。我是由于偶然的机会被抛在他船上的人,我的生命在他手中,他冷淡地,但客气地收留了我。不过他从不握我伸出去的手,他也从不将他的手伸出来。

For an entire hour I was deep in these musings, trying to probe this mystery that fascinated me so. Then my eyes focused on a huge world map displayed on the table, and I put my finger on the very spot where our just-determined longitude and latitude intersected.

整整一个小时,我浸沉在深深的思虑中,总想明了这使我十分感兴味的秘密。后来我的眼光盯着摆在桌上的平面大地图,我就把手指放在上面所指出的经纬度相交的那点。

Like the continents, the sea has its rivers. These are exclusive currents that can be identified by their temperature and color, the most remarkable being the one called the GulfStream. Science has defined the global paths of five chief currents: one in the north Atlantic, a second in the south Atlantic, a third in the north Pacific, a fourth in the south Pacific, and a fifth in the southern Indian Ocean. Also it's likely that a sixth current used to exist in the northern Indian Ocean, when the Caspian and Aral Seas joined up with certain large Asian lakes to form a single uniform expanse of water.

海洋跟大陆一样,也有江河。这些江河是特殊的水流,从它们的温度、它们的颜,可以辨认出来,其中最显著的是大家所知道的“暖流”。科学决定了在地球上有下面的五条主要水流路线:第一条在大西洋北部,第二条在大西洋南部,第三条在太平洋北部,第四条在太平洋南部,第五条在印度洋南部。很可能在印度洋北部从前有第六条水流存在,那个时候,里海和阿拉伯海还跟亚洲的各大湖连起来,成为一片大海。