英語聽書《白鯨記》第1018期

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Here be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular whale, continued through day into night, and through night into day, is a thing by no means unprecedented in the South sea fishery. For such is the wonderful skill, prescience of experience, and invincible confidence acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nantucket commanders; that from the simple observation of a whale when last descried, they will, under certain given circumstances, pretty accurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to swim for a time, while out of sight, as well as his probable rate of progression during that period. And, in these cases, somewhat as a pilot, when about losing sight of a coast, whose general trending he well knows, and which he desires shortly to return to again, but at some further point; like as this pilot stands by his compass, and takes the precise bearing of the cape at present visible, in order the more certainly to hit aright the remote, unseen headland, eventually to be visited: so does the fisherman, at his compass, with the whale; for after being chased, and diligently marked, through several hours of daylight, then, when night obscures the fish, the creature's future wake through the darkness is almost as established to the sagacious mind of the hunter, as the pilot's coast is to him. So that to this hunter's wondrous skill, the proverbial evanescence of a thing writ in water, a wake, is to all desired purposes well nigh as reliable as the steadfast land.

這里必須說明一下，象這樣日以繼夜，夜以繼日，不住地追擊一條大鯨，在南海的捕魚業(yè)中，決不是件空前的事兒。因為這正是南塔開特船長中那些天生的大天才家，必須具有的絕技、先見之明和堅定的信心。他們從對最后一次所發(fā)見的鯨的簡單的觀察中，就能夠在一種特定的情況下，相當(dāng)精確地預(yù)言大鯨在看不到的時候，暫時繼續(xù)往哪個方向游去，也能算出這段期間內(nèi)大鯨的可能游速來。就這方面說來，倒有點象一個領(lǐng)港人，在他將要看不到海岸線的時候，他還是能夠熟知總的航勢，而且不久就可以重駛回來，不過稍為駛得比較遠些而已；就象這個領(lǐng)港人是站在他的羅盤旁，就當(dāng)時眼力所及地估計出海峽的準(zhǔn)確角度，以便更能正確地直駛向那遙遠的、一時雖還看不到、最后總會到達的岬崎，捕魚人也是這般模樣，守著他的羅盤，在搜索大鯨；因為經(jīng)過了白天對它進行了幾小時的追擊，又勤奮地記錄下來，那么，就是到了夜里，看不到那條鯨，可是，這東西在黑暗中的未來的動向，對那個敏銳的捕魚人說來，簡直就跟引港人對于海岸線一般，具有同樣的把握。因此，憑這種獵人的絕技，這種俗語所謂瞬息萬變的水情、航跡等情況的記錄，其實際效用簡直就同固定的陸地一樣可靠。