It was an insane idea. Fortunately I controlled myself and stretched out on the bed to soothe my bodily agitation. My nerves calmed a little, but with my brain so aroused, I did a swift review of my whole existence aboard the Nautilus, every pleasant or unpleasant incident that had crossed my path since I went overboard from the Abraham Lincoln: the underwater hunting trip, the Torres Strait, our running aground, the savages of Papua, the coral cemetery, the Suez passageway, the island of Santorini, the Cretan diver, the Bay of Vigo, Atlantis, the Ice Bank, the South Pole, our imprisonment in the ice, the battle with the devilfish, the storm in the Gulf Stream, the Avenger, and that horrible scene of the vessel sinking with its crew... ! All these events passed before my eyes like backdrops unrolling upstage in a theater. In this strange setting Captain Nemo then grew fantastically. His features were accentuated, taking on superhuman proportions. He was no longer my equal, he was the Man of the Waters, the Spirit of the Seas.
這真是一種瘋狂的念頭。幸好,我克制住自己,我躺到床上去,讓體內(nèi)的騷動(dòng)平息一下。我的神經(jīng)松馳了一點(diǎn),但大腦仍然過度地興奮。我快速地回憶著從我離開”林肯號”船只以來,在“鸚鵡螺號”船上所有經(jīng)歷過的所有快樂和不幸的事情:海下狩獵,托里斯海峽,巴布亞土著,擱淺,珊瑚墓地,蘇伊士通道,桑多林島,克利特島潛水人,維多灣,大西洋城,大浮冰群,南極點(diǎn),受困冰層,大戰(zhàn)章魚,海灣暖流的風(fēng)暴,“復(fù)仇號”戰(zhàn)艦,以及那被撞沉的戰(zhàn)艦和它的全體船員一起沉沒的可怕的一幕!所有這些事件歷歷在目,仿佛是電影院后臺那一幕幕展開的布景。而尼摩船長在這個(gè)奇異的境界里無限地放大,他的形象突出超人,他再也不是我的同類,而是一個(gè)水中人,一個(gè)海底精靈。
By then it was 9:30. I held my head in both hands to keep it from bursting.
9點(diǎn)半了,我雙手夾住自己的腦袋,以免它脹裂開。