評論
打印
That same ocean rolls now; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of last year. Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.
現在這個白浪滔滔的海洋，卻就是上一年毀掉了許多失事船只的同一個海洋。是呀，愚蠢的人類，挪亞的洪水（挪亞的洪水——《舊約·創世記》上稱在挪亞整六百歲時，正值洪水泛濫。）可還沒有消退；這個美好的世界還有三分之二是它的領域呢。
Where in differ the sea and the land, that a miracle upon one is not a miracle upon the other? Preternatural terrors rested upon the Hebrews, when under the feet of Korah and his company the live ground opened and swallowed them up for ever; yet not a modern sun ever sets, but in precisely the same manner the live sea swallows up ships and crews.
難道說因為海跟陸有所不同，所以前者的奇跡就未必也是后者的奇跡嗎？當不可思議的恐怖降臨在希伯來人的身上時，可拉和他的屬下們腳下的地面就開了口，把他們全都永遠吞掉了（指可拉和其屬下要攻擊摩西而受罰，事見《舊約·民數記》第十六章。）；現代的太陽雖然從來沒有沉落過，可是海洋恰恰是以同樣的方法把船只和水手都吞掉了。
But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own off-spring; worse than the Persian host who murdered his own guests; sparing not the creatures which itself hath spawned. Like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks, and leaves them there side by side with the split wrecks of ships. No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe.
但是，海洋不僅是那跟它敵對的人類的仇人，而且也是它自己的子孫的死對頭；它比之那個謀害了他的貴賓的波斯主人還要壞（據百周年紀念版注：作者可能指古波斯呂底亞的統治者奧里奧底斯，他在公元前五一五年，誘騙薩摩斯的暴君波利克拉底斯來到宮中，然后把他處以磔刑。），對它自己所生的生物也不肯饒命。它象一只野性勃發的雌老虎，在叢林里翻翻騰騰地把它自己的小老虎壓死了一樣，海洋也是這樣洶涌奔騰，連最有威力的大鯨也給沖得撞上礁石，跟四分五裂的破船并排撇在那里。除了它才能控制自己以外，誰都支配不了它，控制不了它。它象一匹發瘋的戰馬，呼呼喘喘地使它的騎手喪命，這個無主的海洋蹂躪了地球。
