Right your helm! Engines forward! Commander Farragut called.

法拉古舰长喊:舵向右，向前开!

These orders were executed, and the frigate swiftly retreated from this core of light.

以上命令执行了，战舰很快离开了发光的中心。

My mistake. It wanted to retreat, but the unearthly animal came at us with a speed double our own.

我弄错了。我们船要走开，但那神秘的动物却以加借的速度逼近来。

We gasped. More stunned than afraid, we stood mute and motionless. The animal caught up with us, played with us.

我们气都喘不过来。当时，惊呆更甚于恐惧，弄得我们静默不动。

It made a full circle around the frigate--then doing fourteen knots-and wrapped us in sheets of electricity that were like luminous dust.

这个动物好像开玩笑似的在海面上向我们冲来。它绕着战舰，并且把船罩在像光尘一样的电光网中。

Then it retreated two or three miles, leaving a phosphorescent trail comparable to thoseswirls of steam that shoot behind the locomotive of an express train.

然后它走出两三海里远，后面拖着一条磷光的尾巴，好像快车的机车留在后面的一团团烟雾般的气体。

Suddenly, all the way from the dark horizon where it had gone to gather momentum, the monster abruptly dashed toward the Abraham Lincoln with frightening speed,

忽然间，这个怪物从天边的尽头。以惊人的速度突然向林肯号冲来，在离船身二十英尺的海而上又突然停住，

stopped sharply twenty feet from our side plates, and died out-not by diving under the water,

光全灭了—不是潜入水中，因为它的光不是慢慢地消散，

since its glow did not recede gradually-but all at once, as if the source of this brilliant emanation had suddenly dried up.

而是猝然地，像光的来源陡然断了一般!