英語聽書《白鯨記》 第270期

　　Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.

　　一路上再也沒發(fā)生什么值得一提的事;因此,在一段順利的航駛后,我們安抵南塔開特了。

　　Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse. Look at it-a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background. There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper. Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don't grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie; that they wear quicksand shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes; that they are so shut up, belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean, that to their very chairs and tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering as to the backs of sea turtles. But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.

　　南塔開特!你不妨拿出地圖來瞧一瞧。看它究竟是在這世界的哪個(gè)角落里;看它是怎樣一種形勢,它遠(yuǎn)離陸地,比厄梯斯通燈塔還要孤寂。你瞧。。。。。。它只不過是個(gè)小山丘,一彎沙地;全是沙灘,無依無靠。那些沙可夠你當(dāng)吸水紙用上二十年而綽有余裕。有些愛開玩笑的家伙會(huì)對你說:南塔開特人得在沙地上種雜草,因?yàn)槟莾簺]有天生的雜草;又說他們從加拿大運(yùn)來了薊草,他們?yōu)榱艘伦∫恢挥屯暗牧芽?得遠(yuǎn)涉重洋去找一只塞子;又說南塔開特人把幾片柴塊背來背去,猶如羅馬人背了幾個(gè)真正的十字架;這里的人都在屋前種菌,以便夏天在菌蔭下乘涼;又說什么一片青草就可成為一個(gè)綠洲,三片青草就足以成為走上一天的大草原;他們都穿著流砂的鞋子,有點(diǎn)象拉伯蘭人的雪靴;最后說是因?yàn)樗麄冞@么被海洋所困所圍,四面團(tuán)團(tuán)圍起而成為一個(gè)孤島,以致他們的臺(tái)子椅子往往都粘上了小貝殼,如同海龜?shù)谋成险持悮つ前恪？傊?這些夸張其詞的說法,無非是要表示南塔開特不能跟伊利諾斯州相提并論而已。

　　Look now at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was settled by the red-men. Thus goes the legend. In olden times an eagle swooped down upon the New England coast and carried off an infant Indian in his talons.

　　現(xiàn)在讓我們來看看紅種人怎樣在這個(gè)島上定居下來的那一奇特的傳說吧。傳奇上是這樣說的:古時(shí)候,有一只鷹突然猛飛下來,撲落在新英格蘭的海岸上,攫走了一個(gè)印第安的嬰孩。