英語聽書《白鯨記》 第337期

Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between Europe and the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast. It was the whalemen who first broke through the jealous policy of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies; and, if space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.

在合恩角的捕鯨業(yè)發(fā)達(dá)之前,歐洲與豐饒連綿的西班牙各地間在太平洋沿線的交往,還不是什么商業(yè)行為而只是殖民事業(yè),除了殖民事業(yè),可說沒有什么其它的交往。首先打破了西班牙王朝的妒忌政策,接觸這些殖民地的就正是捕鯨者;如果不是篇幅所限,我還可以明白地舉出怎樣通過這些捕鯨者,才終于把秘魯。智利和玻利維亞從舊西班牙的羈軛下解放了出來,并在這些國家里建立了永遠(yuǎn)的民主政體種種事實(shí)。

That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the whaleman. After its first blunder-born discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships, long shunned those shores as pestiferously barbarous; but the whale-ship touched there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony. Moreover, in the infancy of the first Australian settlement, the emigrants were several times saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the whale-ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters. The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same truth, and do commercial homage to the whale-ship, that cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant, and in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their first destinations. If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.

澳大利亞,等于是在地球的另一邊的美洲,它是由捕鯨人給帶到文明世界來的。在一個(gè)荷蘭人初次出于錯(cuò)誤而發(fā)現(xiàn)了澳洲后,所有其它船只都把那些海岸當(dāng)作有傳染病的蠻荒之地而長久對(duì)之遠(yuǎn)避;可是,捕鯨船卻開到那里去了。捕鯨船才是現(xiàn)在那大塊殖民地的真正的母親。而且,在澳洲殖民地的搖籃時(shí)代,那些移民者數(shù)度由于幸遇捕鯨船停泊在他們的海面上,施舍給他們硬面包,才得免于饑饉。玻利尼西亞的無數(shù)島嶼都承認(rèn)這一事實(shí),并向捕鯨船致以商業(yè)上的敬意;它們?yōu)槟翈熀蜕倘碎_了路,還有把原始的傳教事業(yè)帶到他們初到的地方去的事例。如果那個(gè)閉關(guān)自守的日本會(huì)成為一個(gè)好客的地方,那完全得歸功于捕鯨船;因?yàn)椴饿L船已經(jīng)駛到它的大門口了。

But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.

在所有這些事實(shí)面前,如果你還是認(rèn)為捕鯨業(yè)在審美觀念上說來,跟這些事情毫無什么了不起的聯(lián)系,那么,我就要跟你決斗個(gè)五十回合,每回都把你打得人仰馬翻。丟盔棄甲。