All right then! Imagine this weapon to be ten times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful, launch it at a speed of twenty miles per hour, multiply its mass times its velocity1, and you get just the collision we need to cause the specified catastrophe.
好吧!現(xiàn)在假定那武器還要厲害十倍,那動(dòng)物的力量還要大十倍,如果它的前進(jìn)速度是每小時(shí)二十英里,那么拿它的體重去乘它的速度平方,就能求出憧壞斯各脫亞號(hào)的那股沖擊力。
So, until information becomes more abundant, I plump for a sea unicorn of colossaldimensions,
因此,在還沒(méi)有得到更多的材料之前,我認(rèn)為這是一只海麒麟,這只海麒麟身軀非常巨大,
no longer armed with a mere lance but with an actual spur, like ironclad frigates7 or those warships called 'rams,' whose mass and motor power it would possesssimultaneously.
身上的武裝不是劍戟,而是真正的沖角,像鐵甲船或戰(zhàn)艦上所裝有的那樣,它同時(shí)又具備有戰(zhàn)艦的重量和動(dòng)力。
This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away--unless it's something elseentirely, which, despite everything that has been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!
這樣便說(shuō)明了這種神秘不可解的現(xiàn)象?;蛘呦喾吹兀还苋藗兯?jiàn)到的、所感到的是怎樣,實(shí)際上什么都不是;那也是可能的。
These last words were cowardly of me; but as far as I could, I wanted to protect my professorial dignity and not lay myself open to laughter from the Americans, who when they do laugh, laugh raucously.
最后幾句話只能說(shuō)明我沒(méi)有主見(jiàn),看問(wèn)題搖擺不定;這是為了在一定程度上保全我教授的身份,同時(shí)不愿意讓美國(guó)人笑話,因?yàn)槊绹?guó)人笑起來(lái),是笑得很厲害的。
I had left myself a loophole. Yet deep down, I had accepted the existence of the monster.
我于是自下這一條退路。其實(shí)我是承認(rèn)這個(gè)怪物的存在的。