This was where the Nautilus had been sent accidentally--or perhaps deliberately--by its captain. It was sweeping around in a spiral whose radius kept growing smaller and smaller. The skiff, still attached to the ship's plating, was likewise carried around at dizzying speed. I could feel us whirling. I was experiencing that accompanying nausea that follows such continuous spinning motions. We were in dread, in the last stages of sheer horror, our blood frozen in our veins, our nerves numb, drenched in cold sweat as if from the throes of dying! And what a noise around our frail skiff! What roars echoing from several miles away! What crashes from the waters breaking against sharp rocks on the seafloor, where the hardest objects are smashed, where tree trunks are worn down and worked into "a shaggy fur," as Norwegians express it!
就在這里,“鸚鵡螺號”船只——無意或有意地——被他的船長引了進來。我清楚地感覺到,“鸚鵡螺號”劃出了一道半徑越來越小的螺旋線,還附在船身上的小艇,也隨著它被飛速地卷進渦漩里。我體驗著持續(xù)過度的回旋運動引起的慣性旋轉(zhuǎn),我們處于極度驚恐和駭懼中,血液停止了循環(huán),神經(jīng)反應也消失了,渾身上下一陣陣垂死前的冷汗!我們脆弱的小艇周圍發(fā)出怎樣駭人的聲響??!幾海里內(nèi)回蕩著驚天動地的呼嘯聲!海水撞碎在海底,尖利的巖石上時發(fā)出的震耳欲聾的碎裂聲!在那里,連最堅硬的物體也會被撞得粉碎,按挪威人的說法,樹干也變成了“茸茸皮毛”!
What a predicament! We were rocking frightfully. The Nautilus defended itself like a human being. Its steel muscles were cracking. Sometimes it stood on end, the three of us along with it!
那是怎樣的處境啊!我們可怕地搖晃著?!胞W鵡螺號”像一個人一樣在自衛(wèi)著,它的鋼鐵筋骨在咔咔作響,它不時直起身,我們也跟著它豎起來。
"We've got to hold on tight," Ned said, "and screw the nuts down again! If we can stay attached to the Nautilus, we can still make it... !"
“要好好撐住,”尼德說,“擰緊螺絲!緊貼著‘鸚鵡螺號’,說不定我們還會有救!”
He hadn't finished speaking when a cracking sound occurred. The nuts gave way, and ripped out of its socket, the skiff was hurled like a stone from a sling into the midst of the vortex.
他還沒說完,咔嚓一聲,螺絲松了,脫離了巢穴的小艇,像一塊被投石器射出的石頭一樣,墜進了漩渦之中。
My head struck against an iron timber, and with this violent shock I lost consciousness.
我一頭撞在一根鐵條上。在這一重擊下,我失去了知覺。