31 章鱼(3)
But we ourselves hadn't severed all ties with humanity. For my part, I didn't want my new and unusual researchto be buried with my bones. I had now earned the right to pen the definitive book on the sea, and sooner or later I wanted that book to see the light of day.
但我们，我们不能与人类隔绝。至于我，我不愿意把我如此奇特新颖的研究和我一起埋葬掉。我现在有权利写一部关于真正的海洋的书，而且这本书，我更愿意让它早些问世。
There once more, through the panels opening into these Caribbean waters ten meters below the surface of the wa一ves, I found so many fascinating exhibits to describe in my daily notes! Among other zoophytes there were Portuguese men-of-war known by the name Physalia pelagica, like big, oblong bladders with a pearly sheen, spreading their membranes to the wind, letting their blue tentacles drift like silken threads; to the eye delightful jellyfish, to the touch actual nettles that ooze a corrosive liquid. Among the articulates there were annelid worms one and a half meters long, furnished with a pink proboscis, equipped with 1,700 organs of locomotion, snaking through the waters, and as they went, throwing off every gleam in the solar spectrum. From the fish branch there were manta rays, enormous cartilaginous fish ten feet long and weighing 600 pounds, their pectoral fin triangular, their midback slightly arched, their eyes attached to the edges of the face at the front of the head; they floated like wreckage from a ship, sometimes fastening onto our windows like opaque shutters.
目前我们还是在老地方，在安第列斯一群一岛的水波下10米处。透过打开的嵌板，我看到了多少我应该记入我的日记的有趣海产啊！在植虫动物中，有一些名叫海扁筒的船形腔肠类动物，这是一种肥一大的长方形囊袋状动物闪着螺细质光泽，在风中展开它们的膜蓝一色一的触须像丝线一般浮在水面上，用眼看是迷人的水母，用手一摸一却是分一泌着腐蚀一性一汁液的真正荨麻。在节肢动物中，有一些长1米半，有一条玫瑰一色一的鼻子和1700个运动器一官的环节动物， 它们在水中蛇行着，经过时闪着像一陽一光般的微光。在鱼类动物中，有一些蝠鲼，这是一种长10英尺，重600磅的巨型软骨鱼，它的一胸一鳍是三角形的，背部中间有点驼，眼睛挤在脸部的前顶端上；它们像一条船骸一样浮在水面上，有时又像一块不透明的窗板一样，挡在我们的玻璃窗前。