英语听书《海底两万里》第220期 第17章 海底森林(1)

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　　He regarded it as his own and had laid the same claim to it that, in the first days of the world, the first men had to their forests on land.  他把森林看作是他的，他把森林的所有权归他自己，像世界开辟的时候，最初出现的一批人霸占所有权一样。

　　Besides, who else could dispute his ownership of this underwater property? What other, bolder pioneer would come, ax in hand, to clear away its dark underbrush? 其实，又有谁能够跟他争这海底财产的所有权呢？哪有比他更大胆的开荒者，手拿着斧子，敢来这里砍伐荆棘，开垦田地呢？

　　This forest was made up of big treelike plants, and when we entered beneath their huge arches,  这森林中生长的都是高大的木本植物，当我们走到树，林中间阔大的拱形枝干之下，

　　my eyes were instantly struck by the unique arrangement of their branches-an arrangement that I had never before encountered. 我的眼光首先就被林中树枝排列的奇特形状所吸引，感到奇怪的是这种形状，我从来没有看见过。

　　None of the weeds carpeting the seafloor, none of the branches bristling³ from the shrubbery, crept, or leaned, or stretched on a horizontal plane.  林中地上并没有生长什么草，小树上丛生的枝权没有一根向外蔓延，也不弯曲垂下，也不向横的方面伸展。

　　They all rose right up toward the surface of the ocean. Every filament⁴ or ribbon, no matter how thin, stood ramrod straight.  所有草木都笔直伸向洋面。没有枝条，没有叶带，不管怎么细小，都是笔直的，像铁杆一般。

　　Fucus plants and creepers were growing in stiff perpendicular⁵ lines, governed by the density⁶ of the element that generated them.  海带和水藻，受到海水强大密度的影响，坚定不移地沿着垂直线生长。而且这些水草叉是静止不动的，

　　After I parted them with my hands, these otherwise motionless plants would shoot right back to their original positions. It was the regime of verticality⁷. 当我用手分开它们的时候，一放手，它们立即回复原来的笔直状态。这林子简直就是垂直线的世界。

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