╗ ╚ 【書名】：The Poseidon Adventure海神號遇險記 【作者】：[美] Paul Gallico保羅·葛里克 【類型】：電影原著、災難小說 【簡介】： 一套「五十年前超級賣座」、災難級數程度與「鐵達尼號」不相伯仲的海難電影—— [yt]bidQ-RTxAIY[/yt] １９７２The Poseidon Adventure 宣傳片 With nightfall, the sky had become overcast and the surface of the flattened sea had an oily quality which was distasteful to the Master, as though a leaden-coloured skin had formed over it. When his ship entered the zone of total darkness he sent a second man up into the Crow’s nest and posted two young officers permanently at the radar screen... 夜幕降臨，天空陰雲密布，平靜的海面泛著一層油膩的光澤，彷彿蒙上了一層鉛灰色的薄膜，令船長十分厭惡。當他的船進入完全黑暗的區域時，他派了第二個人登上瞭望台，並安排兩名年輕軍官常駐雷達屏幕前… The executive, who was second-in-command and a more stolid person, could not imagine what was bugging the skipper or keeping him striding nervously. Thrice he had asked whether the second lookout had been posted. Each time he passed the radar screen, he glanced into it. He was like a man driving a car who, checking his rear vision mirror before making a turn, does not quite believe it when he sees there is no one behind him. 這位副手個性沉穩，難以理解船長究竟在煩心什麼，為何步履不停，如此緊張。他已經三次詢問第二瞭望員是否已就位。每次經過雷達螢幕時，他都會瞥一眼。他就像一個司機，轉彎前查看後視鏡，卻發現後方空無一人，不禁有些難以置信。 From time to time he went out on to the port bridge wing, which projected out over the water and looked down upon the oily sea, reflecting the speeding string of lights of his ship keeping pace with him on its surface. The news of the minor quake had made him conscious of what lay below. His charts showed that the submerged mountain peaks of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, extending in a gigantic letter ‘S’ ten thousand miles from Iceland to the edge of the Antarctic, at that point were a mile and a half beneath his keel. 他不時走到左舷的駕駛台翼上，那翼翼伸入水面，俯瞰著油光鑼亮的海面，映照著他那艘船疾馳而過的燈光，燈光在海面上與他並駕齊驅。剛才那場小地震的消息讓他意識到水下究竟隱藏著什麼。他的海圖顯示，從冰島延伸到南極邊緣，綿延一萬英里，形似巨大字母「S」的大西洋中脊，此刻就在他船底一英里半的地方。 …… At exactly eight minutes past nine, this fault already weakened by the preliminary tremor, now without warning shifted violently and slipped a hundred or so feet, sucking down with it some billions of tons of water. 九點零八分，這條斷層在先前的震動下已經變得脆弱，現在毫無預兆地劇烈移動並滑落了大約一百英尺，同時帶走了數十億噸水。 If the Poseidon had not been shuddering so from the power she was generating, the bridge might have felt the sudden jolt of earthquake shock echoing upwards, though its force was downwards... 如果「海神號」沒有因為自身強大的動力而劇烈震顫，艦橋或許會感受到那股突如其來的地震衝擊波向上迴盪，儘管其作用力是向下的．．． For a moment they experienced that sickening feeling at the pit of the stomach when an elevator lift drops too quickly, as the ship, sucked into the trough of the sea’s sudden depression, lurched downward and began to heel. At the same time there was some babbling from the telephone to the crow’s-nest and the Third Officer at the radar screen gave an unbelieving shout of “Sir!” as, eyes popping from his head, he pointed to the blips which showed them about to run into a solid obstacle that had not been there a minute before. 那一刻，他們感到一陣噁心，就像電梯急速下墜時胃裡翻江倒海一樣。船身被捲入海浪驟然下降的波谷，猛地向下傾斜。與此同時，電話那頭傳來一陣嘈雜的聲音，三副在雷達屏幕上驚呼一聲「長官！」，他瞪大了眼睛，指著屏幕上的小光點，那裡顯示他們即將撞上一個一分鐘前還不存在的堅硬障礙物。 The Captain tried to run in from the end of the bridge wing, but it was already going uphill. He heard the clang of the engine-room telegraph as the executive reached the levers and the order. “Right full rudder! All engines full astern!” the almost automatic reaction to an obstacle dead ahead. 船長試著從艦橋翼的末端跑過來，但船已經上坡了。他聽到機艙電報機的叮噹聲，那是主管趕到操縱桿那裡下達的命令：「右舵全開！所有引擎全速倒車！」這是面對正前方障礙物幾乎是本能的反應。 And so when the S.S. Poseidon met the gigantic, upcurling, seismic wave created by the rock slip, she was more than three-quarters broadside, heeling farther from the turn. Top heavy and out of trim, she did not even hang for an instant at the point of no return, but was rolled over, bottom up, as swiftly and easily as an eight-hundred ton trawler in a North Atlantic storm. 因此，當「海神號」遭遇由岩崩引發的巨大、向上翻捲的地震波時，她已經橫向傾斜超過四分之三，而且傾斜角度比轉彎處還要大。由於船頭重心過高且失去平衡，她在無法挽回的臨界點甚至沒有一刻懸停，而是像一艘八百噸的拖網漁船在北大西洋風暴中一樣，迅速而輕鬆地被翻了個底朝天。 The first intimation the scattering of passengers in the dining-saloon had of impending catastrophe was the sudden drop of the thick carpeted floor from beneath their feet. Chairs and tables tilted them forward or sideways, revealing a dizzying abyss before they were catapulted downwards into it. 餐車裡乘客四散奔逃，他們意識到即將發生災難的第一個跡象，就是腳下厚厚的地毯突然塌陷。椅子和桌子向前或向側面傾斜，露出一個令人眩暈的深淵，然後他們就被拋了下去。 Simultaneously the ship screamed. 同時，船發出刺耳的尖叫聲。 The scream, long-drawn-out and high-pitched, was compounded of the agony of humans in mortal fear and pain, the shattering of glass and breaking crockery, the clashing, cymbal sound of metal trays and pots and pans mingled with the crashing of dishes, cups, knives, forks and spoons hurled, some with deadly missile eftect, from the dining-room tables. 那聲淒厲的尖叫聲，悠長而尖銳，夾雜著人類在極度恐懼和痛苦中的哀嚎，玻璃破碎、陶器破碎的聲音，金屬托盤、鍋碗瓢盆碰撞的鐃鈸聲，以及從餐桌上飛出的碗碟、杯子、刀叉和勺子的撞擊聲，其中一些還具有致命的投擲效果。 The scream mounted to a crescendo as every object in the ship not fastened was carried away in that sickening whip that laid her over on her side. 尖叫聲越來越大，船上所有沒有固定住的東西都被那令人作嘔的鞭子捲走，她也隨之側身倒下。 Service doors from the kitchens and pantries swung open and the metallic protest of copper cauldrons, steamers, Dutch ovens and cooking utensils bounding and rebounding down the canting floor, added to the deafening chaos of sound through which penetrated one high, animal cry of anguish which preceded a cook’s dying from scalding. 廚房和食品儲藏室的服務門猛地打開，銅鍋、蒸籠、荷蘭烤爐和烹飪用具在傾斜的地板上彈跳碰撞的金屬聲，加劇了震耳欲聾的混亂聲響，其中一聲高亢的、如同野獸般的痛苦嚎叫穿透了這混亂，那是廚師被燙傷致死的預兆。 The Beamer and his girl came tumbling down the 118-foot width of the two-storey dining-saloon, turning over and over in slow motion like clowns in a contortionist act, breaking their descent clutching at chairs and tables that had suddenly assumed the vertical. They fell from starboard down to port and then, as the ship completed its revolution, slid another twenty feet, the height of the room, to land dazed, bruised but uninjured in a tangle of arms and legs with the Rosens, Muller, and Mike and Linda Rogo. 比默和他的女友從118英尺寬的兩層餐廳裡滾了下來，像雜技演員一樣慢動作地翻滾著，他們緊緊抓住突然豎起的桌椅才止住下墜。他們從右舷摔到左舷，然後隨著船身旋轉，又滑落了20英尺——也就是房間的高度——最後暈頭轉向地摔在地上，身上有些擦傷，但幸運的是毫髮無損，和羅遜夫婦、穆勒夫婦以及邁克和琳達·羅戈夫婦糾纏在一起。 It was that first drop varying from fifty to over a hundred feet, the full breadth of the ship, that either crippled or killed those passengers and serving stewards who had the misfortune to be near the centre or the far starboard side of the ship as she careened over to port. 正是這第一次落差，從五十英尺到一百多英尺不等，相當於船的整個寬度，導致那些不幸靠近船中心或右舷的乘客和乘務員受傷或喪命，當時船正向左舷傾斜。 The more fortunate ones were those at the side tables to port. Muller, Belle and Manny Rosen were simply spilled out of their chairs. The Shelbys and the occupants of the grab-bag table had not much farther to go and were able to break their descent by holding on for a moment to their seats. Manny Rosen landed upon the rectangle of the window with nothing between him and the green sea but the thick glass. 比較幸運的是那些坐在左舷邊桌的人。穆勒、貝爾和曼尼·羅遜直接被甩出了椅子。謝布利一家和那些坐在自助桌旁的人也沒怎麼往下摔，他們抓住椅子，才勉強止住了下墜的勢頭。曼尼·羅遜則直接摔在了長方形的窗戶上，他和碧綠的大海之間只有厚厚的玻璃。 But so swift and continuous was the capsizing, that before the pressure of the water could fracture it, the Poseidon’s entire superstructure came thundering down, burying itself in the sea. The port windows, now starboard, were raised up and cleared themselves. Manny, clutching wildly at Belle, found himself sliding head-first along with the Rogos, the Shelbys and the others, down the slanting side of the vessel to land on the glass-covered ceiling amidst a mass of broken china, trays, cutlery and food. The topmost branches of the Christmas tree which had come tumbling out of its tub, the ornamental star affixed to its peak unbroken, fell upon them. 但翻船的速度如此之快、如此之快，以至於在海水的壓力將其壓碎之前，「海神號」的整個上層建築就轟然倒塌，沉入了海水之中。原本位於左舷的窗戶，現在變成了右舷的窗戶，它們被抬了起來，並自動清理乾淨。曼尼緊緊抓住貝爾，發現自己和羅戈一家、謝布利一家以及其他人一起，頭朝下順著傾斜的船舷滑了下去，最後落在了玻璃覆蓋的天花板上，周圍散落著大量的碎瓷器、托盤、餐具和食物。從花盆裡掉出來的聖誕樹最頂端的樹枝，頂端裝飾的星星完好無損地落在了他們身上。 The moment of sealed-in quiet that followed the death cry of the ship contained more of horror and menace than the nerve-shattering clamour, for it uncovered the small, helpless noises of the injured and dying: murmurs, moans, pleadings, the occasional tinkling drop of some errant utensil that had lagged behind and the rolling about in the pantries of pots that had not yet managed to come to rest. 船只發出死亡的哀鳴之後，隨之而來的是一陣令人窒息的寂靜，這寂靜比令人神經崩潰的喧囂更令人恐懼和不安，因為它揭示了受傷和垂死之人發出的細小而無助的聲音：低語、呻吟、懇求，偶爾掉落的餐具叮噹作響，以及尚未落到地上的鍋碗瓢盆在食品儲藏室裡滾動的聲音。 During the instant, just as it appeared that the ship was about to blow herself apart before the final plunge, Mike Rogo was heard to say, “Jesus Christ! Someone get off my leg, will you?” 就在那一瞬間，眼看飛船就要在最終墜落前解體的時候，人們聽到邁克·羅戈說：「我的天哪！誰來把我的腿從我腿上拿開，好嗎？」 Thereupon there occurred an appalling explosion initiating a series of detonations as three of her boilers blew up. 隨後發生了可怕的爆炸，引發了一連串的爆炸，她的三個鍋爐爆炸了。 If the first outcry of the stricken vessel had been a shriek, her second following the explosions was a shattering, ear-rending roar as her innards broke away. 如果說遇難船只發出的第一聲尖叫是一聲慘叫，那麼爆炸後發出的第二聲尖叫則是一聲震耳欲聾的巨響，那是船體內部結構破碎的聲音。 …… …… The engine room came apart more slowly, as the heavy turbines, dynamos, generators and pumps hanging downwards, imposed an intolerable strain upon the steel that clamped them to the floor. With the grinding outcry ot tortured metal, they began to crash down the ship-high rectangular shaft over the engine room and through the glass roof to join the boilers at the bottom of the sea. 機艙的崩塌速度較為緩慢，沉重的渦輪機、發電機、蒸汽發電機和水泵向下懸掛，對固定在地板上的鋼架施加了難以承受的壓力。隨著金屬發出刺耳的摩擦聲，它們開始沿著機艙上方與船體齊高的矩形豎井墜落，穿過玻璃頂棚，最終與海底的鍋爐匯合。 Some of these, instead of dislodging completely, fractured to slide sideways and tangle with yet other break-away parts to jam together in a mass of tangled steel, torn piping and uncovered armatures. The S.S. Poseidon seemed to be retching up her bowels in mortal agony. 有些部件沒有完全脫落，而是斷裂後橫向滑動，與其他脫落的部件纏繞在一起，形成一團亂麻般的鋼鐵、撕裂的管道和裸露的骨架。 「海神號」彷彿在承受著巨大的痛苦，嘔吐不止。 出版年：1972年 This is a tense and dramatic novel of a gigantic ocean liner—a floating Grand Hotel—and its passengers’ struggle to survive when bizarre disaster strikes at sea. 這是一部緊張刺激的小說，講述了一艘巨型遠洋客輪——一座漂浮的豪華酒店——在海上遭遇離奇災難時，船上的乘客們為了生存而奮鬥的故事。 那是末日的開端──12 月 26 日清晨七點。 「海神號」結束了聖誕節期間前往非洲和南美洲港口的航行，正返回家鄉。這將是最後一次可怕的航程，十五位平凡卻最終變得不平凡的人，將經歷一場身心俱疲的惡夢。他們被困在即將沉沒的船上，在愛、恨和絕望交織的黑暗時刻裡，他們面對著只有征服過地球各個角落的冒險家才能遇到的重重阻礙。在這場驚心動魄的經歷結束後，倖存者們都已脫胎換骨，變成了與生前截然不同的人。 保羅·加利科的作品之所以深受喜愛，是因為他筆下充滿了人文關懷和深刻理解，而這些特質也都傾注在了這部引人入勝的敘事作品中。 在這部非凡的小說中，與他以往的作品截然不同，它揭示了人類勇氣和不屈不撓的精神的本質。 |
