Thereupon the little mermaid left the garden and went towards the roaring whirlpools at the back of which the witch lived.

于是，小美人鱼离开了花园，朝着女巫居住的咆哮漩涡中游去。

She had never been that way before;

她以前从来去过那里。

no flowers grew there, no seaweed, only the bare grey sands, stretched towards the whirlpools,

那里没有花，没有海藻，只有一直延伸到漩涡深处的灰色沙子。

which like rushing mill-wheels swirled round, dragging everything that came within reach down to the depths.

漩涡就像急速运转的水车疯狂旋转着，把进入的所有东西拖到海洋深处。

She had to pass between these boiling eddies to reach the witch's domain,

她必须穿这些危险的漩涡才能到达女巫的领土，

and for a long way the only path led over warm bubbling mud, which the witch called her ''peat bog.''

并且在那之后还要通过很长一段冒着热气和泡泡的沼泽地，女巫称其为“泥泞沼泽”。

Her house stood behind this in the midst of a weird forest.

她的房子坐落在一片怪异的森林中。

All the trees and bushes were polyps, half animal and half plant;

所有的树木和灌木丛都是珊瑚虫，一半是动物，一半是植物。

they looked like hundred-headed snakes growing out of the sand,

它们看起来像是从沙滩上长出的百头蛇，

the branches were long slimy arms, with tentacles like wriggling worms, every joint of which, from the root to the outermost tip, was in constant motion.

树枝是细长的纤细手臂，触角像蠕动的蠕虫，从根部到最外端的每个关节都在不停地运动。

They wound themselves tightly round whatever they could lay hold of and never let it escape.

他们紧紧地缠绕着自己的枝干。

The little mermaid standing outside was quite frightened,

站在外面的小美人鱼很害怕，

her heart beat fast with terror and she nearly turned back, but then she remembered the prince and the immortal soul of mankind and took courage.

恐惧令他心跳加速，几乎差点儿转身离开，但后来王子和人类不朽的灵魂令她再次鼓起勇气。