英語聽書《白鯨記》第588期

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Whatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected with the sight of this object, certain it is, that a glimpse of it being so very unusual, that circumstance has gone far to invest it with portentousness. So rarely is it beheld, that though one and all of them declare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean, yet very few of them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature and form; notwithstanding, they believe it to furnish to the sperm whale his only food. For though other species of whales find their food above water, and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the spermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the surface; and only by inference is it that any one can tell of what, precisely, that food consists. At times, when closely pursued, he will disgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid; some of them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length. They fancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings by them to the bed of the ocean; and that the sperm whale, unlike other species, is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it.

不管一般捕抹香鯨者一看到這種東西，怎樣懷有各種各樣的迷信的想法，有一點可以肯定的是，因為看到這種東西，機會如此難得，所以一看到了，就認(rèn)為是種不祥之兆。這樣難得一見的東西，雖然大家都一致聲稱它是海里的最大的生物，然而，對它的真相，哪怕只有非常模糊的概念的，卻是為數(shù)寥寥，盡管他們還認(rèn)為：它是抹香鯨的唯一的食料。因為雖則別種鯨都在水面上找尋食料，它們吃東西的時候，人們也許可以看到，而抹香鯨卻不知在何處的水底下獲得它的全部食料；人們只能憑推斷才說得出它究竟是吃些什么食料；有時在它被窮追猛擊的時候，它往往會吐出一種大家認(rèn)為是大烏賊魚的殘臂的東西來；其中有些竟長達(dá)二三十英尺以上。人們認(rèn)為這種有著這些手臂的巨物，通?？偸怯眠@些手臂緊攀在海底里；同時也認(rèn)為，抹香鯨不象別種鯨那樣，它長有牙齒，能夠攻擊和撕裂這種大烏賊魚。

There seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid.

這里倒似乎有根據(jù)可以認(rèn)為逢托波丹主教（逢托波丹主教即伊立克。逢托波丹（1698—1764）——丹麥歷史學(xué)家，地志學(xué)家和哥本哈根大學(xué)的神學(xué)教授，著有《挪威博物史》和一些丹麥的歷史地理神話的書。）所稱的大克拉更（克拉更——相傳是斯堪的納維亞，尤其是在挪威海中出現(xiàn)的怪物。）終究應(yīng)該屬于大烏賊類了。