英語聽書《白鯨記》第786期

As we glided nearer, the stranger showed French colors from his peak; and by the eddying cloud of vulture sea-fowl that circled, and hovered, and swooped around him, it was plain that the whale alongside must be what the fishermen call a blasted whale, that is, a whale that has died unmolested on the sea, and so floated an unappropriated corpse. It may well be conceived, what an unsavory odor such a mass must exhale; worse than an Assyrian city in the plague, when the living are incompetent to bury the departed. So intolerable indeed is it regarded by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it. Yet are there those who will still do it; notwithstanding the fact that the oil obtained from such subjects is of a very inferior quality, and by no means of the nature of attar-of-rose.

一等我們慢慢駛得更近時，就看到那艘陌生船的斜桁尖頂上掛有一面法國旗，同時從一群流云似的兀鷹直繞著它打旋、翱翔、猛撲的現(xiàn)象看來，船邊拖著的那條鯨顯然一定就是捕鯨人管它叫瘟鯨的東西，就是說，是一條未遭任何傷害而自己死在海里的鯨，所以那尸體也漂浮得跟一般死鯨不一樣。可想而知，這么一條龐然大物一定會發(fā)出多么難聞的臭味，比遭瘟疫的亞述城還要難聞（因為當時城里的活人都無法把死者埋葬）。這樣難受的氣味，難怪有些人以為，隨你怎樣勸，連貪心漢都也不愿意跟它停泊在一起。然而，居然還有人愿意這樣做；甚至不顧從這種鯨身上得來的油，質(zhì)地十分差，毫無玫瑰油氣的香味。

Coming still nearer with the expiring breeze, we saw that the Frenchman had a second whale alongside; and this second whale seemed even more of a nosegay than the first. In truth, it turned out to be one of those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion; leaving their defunct bodies almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil. Nevertheless, in the proper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will ever turn up his nose at such a whale as this, however much he may shun blasted whales in general.

隨著一陣有氣無力的微風，我們又駛得更近些了，我們看到那艘法國船邊還有第二條鯨，而這第二條鯨的味道，似乎比第一條還更不堪入鼻。實際上，這兩條成問題的鯨中，原來有一條似乎是患了一種非常厲害的胃弱癥，或者消化不良癥而枯死的。因此，那兩個死尸簡直已經(jīng)毫無油氣、顯得干癟癟了。然而，說正經(jīng)話，任何一個老練的捕鯨人，不管他看見一般瘟鯨，會怎么唯恐避之不及，可是，對這樣一條鯨，卻決不會稍加鄙視。

查看有聲讀物更多精彩內(nèi)容