英語聽書《白鯨記》第698期

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Chapter 80 The Nut

第八十章 腦袋

If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist his brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square.

如果說，從相術(shù)上說來，抹香鯨是只獅身男頭的巨像的話，那么，在骨相學(xué)家看來，它那腦瓜子就好象是無法弄成方形的幾何學(xué)上的圓圈了。

In the full-grown creature the skull will measure at least twenty feet in length. Unhinge the lower jaw, and the side view of this skull is as the side view of a moderately inclined plane resting throughout on a level base. But in life—as we have elsewhere seen—this inclined plane is angularly filled up, and almost squared by the enormous superincumbent mass of the junk and sperm. At the high end the skull forms a crater to bed that part of the mass; while under the long floor of this crater—in another cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in length and as many in depth reposes the mere handful of this monster's brain. The brain is at least twenty feet from his apparent forehead in life; it is hidden away behind its vast outworks, like the innermost citadel within the amplified fortifications of Quebec. So like a choice casket is it secreted in him, that I have known some whalemen who peremptorily deny that the Sperm Whale has any other brain than that palpable semblance of one formed by the cubic-yards of his sperm magazine. Lying in strange folds, courses, and convolutions, to their apprehensions, it seems more in keeping with the idea of his general might to regard that mystic part of him as the seat of his intelligence.

一條茁壯的大鯨，它的腦殼，量起來至少有二十英尺長。把它的下巴拆下來，這只腦殼的側(cè)面圖就跟一個(gè)普通斜面體完全擱在平板上的側(cè)面圖一樣。但是，就活鯨說來——一如我們已在其它地方認(rèn)識(shí)到的一樣——這種斜面圖是突出而豐滿的，而且，由于那里邊還有大塊塊的腦塊和鯨腦而顯得差不多是方形的。在腦殼隆起的地方，還有一只藏著那大塊塊東西的大坑：而在這個(gè)大坑的長長的底板下——在另一個(gè)橫直還不到十英寸的窩窩中——就有這只巨獸那種不過是一捧的腦髓。活鯨的腦髓至少距開它那突出的前額有二十英尺的距離，它深藏在它的巨大的外堡后面，直象是秘藏在魁北克那些廣闊的要塞里的城堡一樣。它真象是身上藏有一只精巧的首飾箱。據(jù)我所知，有些捕鯨人還武斷地否認(rèn)抹香鯨有什么頭腦，認(rèn)為它只有一只外表很為明顯、由好幾立方碼的鯨腦寶庫所形成的東西而已。至于它那盤繞得古里古怪、重重疊疊、曲曲折折的情況，根據(jù)他們的理解，似乎更使得人們對(duì)它懷有威力奇大的感覺，以至于把它那神秘的部分看做是它的情報(bào)機(jī)關(guān)的所在地。