英語聽書《白鯨記》 第287期

So that there are instances among them of men,who, named with Scripture names--a singularlycommon fashion on the island-- and in childhoodnaturally imbibing the stately dramatic thee andthou of the Quaker idiom; still, from the audacious,daring, and boundless adventure of theirsubsequent lives, strangely blend with theseunoutgrown peculiarities, a thousand bold dashes ofcharacter, not unworthy a Scandinavian sea-king, ora poetical Pagan Roman. And when these thingsunite in a man of greatly superior natural force,with a globular brain and a ponderous heart; who has also by the stillness and seclusion ofmany long night-watches in the remotest waters, and beneath constellations never seen here atthe north, been led to think untraditionally and independently; receiving all nature's sweet orsavage impressions fresh from her own virgin voluntary and confiding breast, and therebychiefly, but with some help from accidental advantages, to learn a bold and nervous loftylanguage--that man makes one in a whole nation's census-- a mighty pageant creature,formed for noble tragedies. Nor will it at all detract from him, dramatically regarded, if either bybirth or other circumstances, he have what seems a half wilful overruling morbidness at thebottom of his nature. For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness.Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease. But, as yet we have notto do with such an one, but with quite another; and still a man, who, if indeed peculiar, it onlyresults again from another phase of the Quaker, modified by individual circumstances.

所以,在男人中間便有許多以《圣經(jīng)》上的名字來做名字的情形...這是這個海島特別普遍的風(fēng)尚...他們在少年時代,自然而然地吸收了桂克那種莊嚴(yán)而格外動人的你和您的習(xí)語;而且他們以后那種大膽。悍和充滿無窮冒險的生活,同這些不因年齡增長而喪失的特點奇妙地混合起來,就形成一種橫沖直撞的性格,足以成為一個斯堪的納維亞的海王,或是一個富有詩人氣質(zhì)的異教的羅馬教徒。當(dāng)這些東西同一個圓顱和沉思而具有巨大的超自然力的人物結(jié)合起來的時候,這個人,一方面曾在最遙遠(yuǎn)的海洋擔(dān)任過多次漫長的值夜,過著靜止而隱遁的生活,又曾在北方的星空下過著同這里截然不同的生活,而能不按傳統(tǒng)地獨立思考;一方面又得到剛由大自然的純潔。自由和誠摯的胸懷所產(chǎn)生出來的一切天然的溫和或者?悍的印象,因而主要由此(不過,也靠了種種偶然的機(jī)會)學(xué)得了一種豪壯而簡勁的語言。這樣的人便成為整個民族人口的唯一的人物...也是一個為崇高的悲劇而形成的偉大壯麗的人物。如果從戲劇觀點上說來,不論是天生的或者是其它環(huán)境,都絲毫損傷不了他,他的天性的深處似乎有一種近似故意要支配別人的病態(tài)心理。因為在悲劇意義上說來,凡是偉大的人物,都是由一種病態(tài)心理所形成的。千萬要記住,年青有為的人們,人類的偉大性,其實不過是疾病。不過,我們迄今還沒有碰到這樣的人物,碰到的是跟這完全不同的人物;然而,如果有一個果真是特殊的。從獨特的環(huán)境脫胎出來的人,那也不過又是另一種桂克型的人物。