海底兩萬里 第38期 第4章 尼德蘭(7)

Seated on the afterdeck, Ned Land and I chatted about one thing and another, staring at that mysterious sea whose depths to this day are beyond the reach of human eyes.

尼德。蘭跟我一同坐在尾樓甲板上，一邊看著這神秘的大海—它的深處到今天為止人們還無法到達(dá)：

Quite naturally, I led our conversation around to the giant unicorn, and I weighed our expedition's various chances for success or failure.

一邊談?wù)勥@個(gè)，說說那個(gè)，這時(shí)候，很自然地，我把話頭轉(zhuǎn)到巨大的海麒麟上面了，我又談到我們這次遠(yuǎn)征成功或失敗的各種可能。

Then, seeing that Ned just let me talk without saying much himself, I pressed him more closely.

后來，我看見尼德.蘭一聲不響，只讓我說，就直截了當(dāng)?shù)匾l(fā)言。

Ned, I asked him, how can you still doubt the reality of this cetacean we're after? Do you have any particular reasons for being so skeptical?

尼德。蘭，我問他您怎么能懷疑我們追逐著的鯨魚類動(dòng)物的存在呢?您這樣懷疑，有什么特別理由嗎?

The harpooner stared at me awhile before replying, slapped his broad forehead in one of his standard gestures, closed his eyes as if to collect himself, and finally said:Just maybe, Professor Aronnax.

這位魚叉手在回答之前，看了我一會(huì)兒，照他慣常的姿勢，拿手拍拍他寬大的前額，閉閉眼睛，好像在沉思。他說：阿龍納斯先生，我有理由。

But Ned, you're a professional whaler, a man familiar with all the great marine mammals-your mind should easily accept this hypothesis of an enormous cetacean, and you ought to be the last one to doubt it under these circumstances!

尼德·蘭，您是一位職業(yè)的捕鯨專家，您很熟悉海中的巨大哺乳類動(dòng)物，照理您應(yīng)當(dāng)容易承認(rèn)這個(gè)巨大的鯨魚類動(dòng)物的存在，可是您竟要來做最后一個(gè)懷疑這事的人!