英語聽書《白鯨記》第875期

But will any whaleman believe these stories? No. The whale of to-day is as big as his ancestors in Pliny's time. And if ever I go where Pliny is, I, a whaleman (more than he was), will make bold to tell him so. Because I cannot understand how it is, that while the Egyptian mummies that were buried thousands of years before even Pliny was born, do not measure so much in their coffins as a modern Kentuckian in his socks; and while the cattle and other animals sculptured on the oldest Egyptian and Nineveh tablets, by the relative proportions in which they are drawn, just as plainly prove that the high-bred, stall-fed, prize cattle of Smithfield, not only equal, but far exceed in magnitude the fattest of Pharaoh's fat kine; in the face of all this, I will not admit that of all animals the whale alone should have degenerated.

但是，可有任何一個捕魚人相信這些說法么？沒有。現(xiàn)代的鯨正跟普利尼時代的它的祖先一般大小。如果我能夠跑到普利尼那地方去，我，作為一個捕鯨人（這就比他強了），一定會斗膽跟他這樣說。因為我就不明白：為什么那些甚至早在普利尼還未出世的幾千年前就埋葬起的、已在棺材里的埃及木乃伊，其大小甚至還不及那些穿著輕軟鞋的現(xiàn)代的肯塔基人，同時，為什么那些雕刻在古埃及和尼尼微的石碑上的牲畜動物（就所雕刻的相對的比例說來），恰好明明白白地證明出那種斯密斯非爾德（斯密斯非爾德——十二世紀(jì)開始的倫敦斯密斯非爾德區(qū)的一個著名牲畜市場。據(jù)說在一八四九年，在每周售出的四千只畜群中，每只平均重量為六百四十磅。）的純種、用干草飼養(yǎng)的超等牲畜，不僅在體軀上相等于、而且遠(yuǎn)超于法老時代的肥大的母牛（參閱《舊約·創(chuàng)世記》第四十一章一至三十三節(jié)，法老夢見七只肥牛，又夢見七只瘦牛，隨后召約瑟來解夢。約瑟說七年是豐年，七年是荒年。），在這一切事實面前，我不承認(rèn)在各種動物中，獨獨大鯨竟會退化了。

But still another inquiry remains; one often agitated by the more recondite Nantucketers. Whether owing to the almost omniscient look-outs at the mast-heads of the whaleships, now penetrating even through Behring's straits, and into the remotest secret drawers and lockers of the world; and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along all continental coasts; the moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc; whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff.

但是，還有另一個值得追究的問題，也是一個經(jīng)常為那些比較高深的南塔開特人所提出的問題。究竟是否因為捕鯨船桅頂上那些幾乎是無所不知的守望者，一會兒甚至長驅(qū)直入白令海峽，一會兒又沖進(jìn)了世界的最荒僻的角角落落；無數(shù)的標(biāo)槍和捕鯨槍都擲遍了各處的海岸的緣故；值得討論的地方就是，究竟鯨能否長期經(jīng)受得起這樣無所不至的追擊，這樣無情的打擊；還是到頭來它一定不會從海里絕跡，而那條最后的鯨，也不至于象一個最后的人那樣，吸起他的最后一筒煙后，就此連他自己也在最后一口煙里煙消霧散了呢。

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