海底两万里 第205期 第15章 一封邀请信(7)
我这顿饭吃得很饱。各式各样的菜是由鱼类，海参，美味的植虫动物，另外还有助消化的海藻类植物，像青红片海藻，苦乳味海藻等等做出来的。
Our beverage consisted of clear water to which, following the captain's example, I added some drops of a fermented liquor extracted by the Kamchatka process from the seaweed known by name as Rhodymenia palmata.
饮料是用水和酵素酒合成，这酒是按照勘察加岛人的方法，从有名的海藻，即所谓掌形蔷蔽藻酿造出来的。
At first Captain Nemo ate without pronouncing a single word. Then he told me:
起初，尼摩船长只是吃，不说一句话，后来才对我说：
Professor, when I proposed that you go hunting in my Crespo forests, you thought I was contradicting myself.
阿龙纳斯先生，我邀请您到我的克利斯波岛的森林中打猎的时候，您以为我是自相矛盾。
When I informed you that it was an issue of underwater forests, you thought I'd gone insane. Professor, you must never make snap judgments about your fellow man.
当我告诉您这是海底森林的时候，您以为我是发疯。教授，您不能这样轻易判断
But, captain, believe me--
不过，船长，请您相信…
Kindly listen to me, and you'll see if you have grounds for accusing me of insanity or self-contradiction.
请您耐心听下去，然后再看看您是不是应当责备我发疯和自相矛盾了。
I'm all attention.
我听您说，船长。
Professor, you know as well as I do that a man can live underwater so long as he carries with him his own supply of breathable air.
教授，您和我都知道，人只要带了充分的可呼吸的空气，他就可以生活在水底下。
For underwater work projects, the workman wears a waterproof suit with his headimprisoned in a metal capsule, while he receives air from above by means of force pumps and flow regulators.
工人在水底下工作时，穿上～件不透水的衣服，头上套了一个金属的盒子，再利用打气机和节流器，就可以从水上面获得空气。
That's the standard equipment for a diving suit, I said.
那是一套潜水设备。我说。
Correct, but under such conditions the man has no freedom. He's attached to a pump that sends him air through an india-rubber hose;
对，可是，带了这套设备，人是不自由的，那条输送空气的胶皮管子把他和打气机连接起来。
it's an actual chain that fetters him to the shore, and if we were to be bound in this way to the Nautilus, we couldn't go far either.
简直就是一条把他拴在陆地上的锁链，如果我们是这样拴连着诺第留斯号，那我们就不能往远处走了。"
