英語聽書《白鯨記》第746期

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Out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels. Standing at the mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that CRImsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of the fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of all beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence.

那只巨大的尾巴，從無底的深淵猛地一豎起來，好象是突然要攫取高高的上天那樣。這就象我曾經(jīng)在夢中看見威風凜凜的撒旦，從地獄的大火海里猛地抽出他那痛苦難挨的巨爪。不過，在凝望這種景致的時候，你盡可以有各式各樣的心情；如果你是但丁式的人物，你就會想到許多惡魔；如果你是以賽亞的信徒，就會想到許多天使。有一回，在朝暾初動，海天一抹鮮紅的時候，我站在我這艘船的桅頂上，看到東方有一大群鯨，全都向著太陽前進，一齊豎起裂片閃動了一會兒。當時我覺得，這樣崇拜神明的莊嚴的場面，哪怕在拜火者的發(fā)源地——波斯，也從來沒有見到過。如同托雷密·非羅派德（托雷密·非羅派德——埃及的馬其頓王，即托雷密五世，其統(tǒng)治期間在公元前205—181年。）為亞洲的大象作證一樣，我也要為大鯨作證，宣稱它是萬物中最虔誠的動物。因為根據(jù)朱巴王（朱巴王——非洲古國的努米底亞王，在公元前一世紀，努米底亞成為羅馬的一個省。）的說法，古代那些戰(zhàn)象總是在萬籟俱寂中高舉它們的大鼻子歡迎早晨。

The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality, much less the creatures to which they respectively belong.

在這一章中，偶然把大鯨拿來跟大象比較，不過，就大鯨的尾巴與大象的鼻子的某些形狀說來，的確不應該把這兩種位置相反的器官一視同仁，何況這兩種動物還各有所宗。