英語聽書《白鯨記》第799期

But all this is quite different from a South Sea Sperm Whaler; which in a voyage of four years perhaps, after completely filling her hold with oil, does not, perhaps, consume fifty days in the business of boiling out; and in the state that it is casked, the oil is nearly scentless. The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by no means creatures of ill odor; nor can whalemen be recognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew in the company, by the nose. Nor indeed can the whale possibly be otherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high health; taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it is true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm Whale's flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be to that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?

不過，所有這些做法，都跟南海的捕抹香鯨者完全不同；南海漁船，在四年的航程中，也許花在煉油的工作上還不消五十天，就把船艙里都裝足了油，而且按照它裝進了桶的情況說來，那些油已差不多是毫無氣味了。事實上，不管死鯨活鯨，只要處理得當，鯨決不是一種有臭味的動物；而且捕鯨人也不可能讓人家用鼻子一嗅就嗅出來，象中世紀的人，用鼻子在人群里一嗅，就可以把猶太人給偵察出來那樣。同時，鯨也確實不可能是不芬芳撲鼻的，因為，一般說來，它的身體如此壯??；有充分的運動；始終過著戶外生活；雖則實際上，它很難得過露天生活。我認為，一條抹香鯨的尾巴在水上一甩動，就會發(fā)散出一種香氣來，猶如一個渾身麝香氣味的太太，在暖洋洋的會客室里，沙沙地抖動她的衣服一樣。那么，就它的身軀之碩大說來，我將拿什么來比喻抹香鯨的芬芳氣味呢？難道不該把它比做那只有著珠寶似的象牙、發(fā)散著沒藥香味、被牽到印度一個城鎮(zhèn)去對亞歷山大大帝表示敬意的著名大象（公元前三二七年，亞歷山大大帝擊敗印度君主波魯斯后，印度各地都出現(xiàn)上述獻象情況。）嗎？

查看有聲讀物更多精彩內容