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：

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

一邊談談這個，說說那個，這時候，很自然地，我把話頭轉到巨大的海麒麟上面了，我又談到我們這次遠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?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物，照理您應當容易承認這個巨大的鯨魚類動物的存在，可是您竟要來做最后一個懷疑這事的人!