25 地中海四十八小时(12)

Crossing through the lounge, I arrived at the door, contrived in one of the canted corners, that opened into the captain's stateroom.

在客厅中这样走来走去,我走近门边,这门在屋角墙上,是通船长的舱房的。

Much to my astonishment, this door was ajar.

我很惊异,这门半开着。

I instinctively recoiled. If Captain Nemo was in his stateroom, he might see me.

我自然而外地退回来。如果尼摩船长在里面,他可能看见我。

But, not hearing any sounds, I approached. The stateroom was deserted. I pushed the door open. I took a few steps inside. Still the same austere, monastic appearance.

同时我听不见声响,我走近前去,但房中没有人。我推开门,走进几步,房中还是那朴实严肃的情景,隐士僧家的风味。

Just then my eye was caught by some etchings hanging on the wall, which I hadn't noticed during my first visit.

这时候,房中墙上挂着的几幅我第一次进来没有留心到的铜版画引起我眼光的注意,

They were portraits of great men of history who had spent their lives in perpetual devotion to a great human ideal:

那是肖像画,历史上伟大人物的画像,他门一生是永远忠诚于献身人类这个伟大思想的:

Thaddeus Kosciusko, the hero whose dying words had been Finis Poloniae; Markos Botzaris, for modern Greece the reincarnation of Sparta's King Leonidas;

他是哥修斯哥,听到“波兰完了”的喊声就跌倒的英雄;波查里斯,近代希腊的列盎尼达斯;

Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's defender; George Washington, founder of the American Union; Daniele Manin, the Italian patriot;

俄康乃尔,尔兰独立的保卫者:华盛顿,北美合众国的创始人;马宁,意大利的国志士;

Abraham Lincoln, dead from the bullet of a believer in slavery; and finally, that martyr for the redemption of the black race, John Brown, hanging from his gallows as Victor Hugo's pencil has so terrifyingly depicted.

林肯,被拥护奴隶制的人所刺杀的美国总统;最后,那位主张黑人解放的殉道者约翰·布朗,吊在绞架上,就像维克多·雨果用铅笔画出来的那个很可怕的样子。

What was the bond between these heroic souls and the soul of Captain Nemo?

在这些英雄人物的心灵和尼摩船长的心灵中间有什么联系呢?

From this collection of portraits could I finally unravel the mystery of his existence?

究竟从这一肖像画中,我可能找出他生平的秘密来吗?

Was he a fighter for oppressed peoples, a liberator of enslaved races?

他是被压迫人民的保护者,奴隶种族的解放者吗?

Had he figured in the recent political or social upheavals of this century? Was he a hero of that dreadful civil war in America, a war lamentable yet forever glorious?

他是现世纪最近政治的或社会动荡中的一位人物吗?他是这次可悲的和永远是光荣的、美洲可怕战中的一位英雄吗?