海底兩萬里 第308期 第23章 珊瑚王國(7)

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I fancied I saw these cylindrical, membrane-filled tubes trembling beneath the water's undulations. I was tempted to gather their fresh petals, which were adorned with delicate tentacles, some newly in bloom, others barely opened, while nimble fish with fluttering fins brushed past them like flocks of birds. But if my hands came near the moving flowers of these sensitive, lively creatures, an alarm would instantly sound throughout the colony. The white petals retracted into their red sheaths, the flowers vanished before my eyes, and the bush changed into a chunk of stony nipples.

我好像是看見薄膜一般的和圓筒形樣的細(xì)管在海波下顫動。我要去采它們的帶有纖維觸須的新鮮花瓣（有的剛開，有的剛露頭）的時候，有些身子輕快、鰭迅速擺動的魚走來，像鳥飛過一樣觸動了它們。但是，一當(dāng)我的手挨近這些活花朵，這些有生命的含羞草的時候，花叢中立即發(fā)出警報來了。于是雪白的花瓣縮人它們的朱紅匣中去了，花朵在我眼前消失了，珊瑚叢隨即轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橐淮髨F(tuán)的石圓丘。

Sheer chance had placed me in the presence of the most valuable specimens of this zoophyte. This coral was the equal of those fished up from the Mediterranean off the Barbary Coast or the shores of France and Italy. With its bright colors, it lived up to those poetic names of blood flower and blood foam that the industry confers on its finest exhibits. Coral sells for as much as 500 francs per kilogram, and in this locality the liquid strata hid enough to make the fortunes of a whole host of coral fishermen. This valuable substance often merges with other polyparies, forming compact, hopelessly tangled units known as "macciota," and I noted some wonderful pink samples of this coral.

偶然的機(jī)會把這種植蟲動物的一些最寶貴的品種擺在我面前。這種珊瑚跟在地中海、在法國、意大利和巴巴利海岸打到的，一樣有價值。商業(yè)上對于其中最美的幾種給了“血花”和“血沫”這樣詩意的名字，它們的鮮艷顏色證明這是有道理的。這種珊瑚一直賣到五百法郎一公斤；在這一帶的海水里面實在是蘊(yùn)藏有無數(shù)打撈珊瑚人的財富呢。 這種寶貴的物質(zhì)時常雜有其他種類的珊瑚樹， 因此構(gòu)成名為“馬西奧達(dá)”的密集和混雜的整塊珊瑚，在這些整塊珊瑚上面，我看到很美麗的玫瑰珊瑚品種。

But as the bushes shrank, the tree forms magnified. Actual petrified thickets and long alcoves from some fantastic school of architecture kept opening up before our steps. Captain Nemo entered beneath a dark gallery whose gentle slope took us to a depth of 100 meters.

不久，珊瑚樹叢就緊密連攀起來，樹枝分布增長起來。好像是真正的石質(zhì)叢林和奇矮建筑的長槽在我們腳步面前擺開了。尼摩船長走人一條長廊般的黑暗過道，從這條傾斜的、過道，我們到了一百米深的地方。