海底兩萬(wàn)里 第131期 第10章 水中人(2)

Gentlemen, he said in a calm, penetrating voice, I speak French, English, German, and Latin with equal fluency.

先生們，我會(huì)說(shuō)法語(yǔ)、英語(yǔ)、德語(yǔ)和拉丁語(yǔ)。

Hence I could have answered you as early as our initial interview,

我本來(lái)可以在我們初次會(huì)見的時(shí)候回答你們，

but first I wanted to make your acquaintance and then think things over.

不過我想先認(rèn)識(shí)你們，然后再考慮。

Your four versions of the same narrative, perfectly consistent by and large, established your personal identities for me.

你們把事實(shí)經(jīng)過復(fù)述了四遍，內(nèi)容完全相同，這使我肯定了你們的身份，

I now know that sheer chance has placed in my presence Professor Pierre Aronnax,

我現(xiàn)在知道，偶然的機(jī)會(huì)使得我碰見了負(fù)有出國(guó)作科學(xué)考察使命的巴黎博物館生物學(xué)教授彼埃爾·阿龍納斯先生，

specialist in natural history at the Paris Museum and entrusted with a scientific mission abroad, his manservant Conseil, and Ned Land, a harpooner of Canadian origin aboard the Abraham Lincoln, a frigate in the national navy of the United States of America.

他的仆人康塞爾以及北美合眾國(guó)海軍部林肯號(hào)戰(zhàn)艦上的魚叉手、加拿大人尼德·蘭。

I bowed in agreement. The commander hadn't put a question to me. So no answer was called for.

我點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，表示同意。船長(zhǎng)向我提的不是問題，我沒有必要回答。