英语听书《白鲸记》第436期

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For not only do fabulous³ rumors naturally grow out of the very body of all surprising terrible events,as the smitten⁴ tree gives birth to its fungi⁵;  因为一切无稽的谣言不仅是由各种可怖的事件本身自然而然地产生出来的,有知一棵烂树长出菌子;

but, in maritime⁶ life, far more than in that of terra firma, wild rumors abound⁷, wherever there is any adequate reality for them to cling to.  而且,海上生活,远跟陆上生活不同,只要稍有根据,流言便满天飞。

And as the sea surpasses the land in this matter, so the whale fishery surpasses every other sort of maritime life, in the wonderfulness and fearfulness of the rumors which sometimes circulate there.  由于海洋在这种事情上是超过陆地上的,因此,在它有时所传布出来的谣言中,就其离奇性和可怖性说来,捕鲸业也远超于其他各种海上生活。

For not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness⁸ hereditary⁹ to all sailors;  因为,就整个捕鲸者说来,他们不但没有摆脱一切水手那种愚昧和迷信的传统,

but of all sailors, they are by all odds¹⁰ the most directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly¹¹ astonishing in the sea;  而且在一切水手中,数捕鲸者最会跟海上任何骇人听闻的事情更有直接的关系,

face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels¹², but, hand to jaw¹³, give battle to them.  他们不但亲眼看到海上最惊人的奇迹,还亲自跟它们作过肉搏。

Alone, in such remotest waters, that though you sailed a thousand miles, and passed a thousand shores, you would not come to any chiselled¹⁴ hearth-stone, or aught hospitable¹⁵ beneath that part of the sun;  更何况在这种最荒僻的海洋上,虽则航驶了一千英里,经过了一千个海岸,在那种地方却碰不到一份人家,得不到任何的招待;

in such latitudes¹⁶ and longitudes¹⁷, pursuing too such a calling as he does, the whaleman is wrapped by influences all tending to make his fancy pregnant with many a mighty¹⁸ birth.  在那样的地方,干着他们这种行当,捕鲸者都受到各种势力的包围,这种势力全都存心要使他们的想象孕育着许多重大的新传说。

No wonder, then, that ever gathering¹⁹ volume from the mere²⁰ transit²¹ over the wildest watery²² spaces, the outblown rumors of the White Whale did in the end incorporate with themselves all manner of morbid²³ hints, and half-formed foetal suggestions of supernatural agencies, which eventually invested Moby Dick with new terrors unborrowed from anything that visibly appears.  于是,难怪这种关于白鲸的迎风而胀的谣言,只消一掠过茫茫大洋便日长夜大了,而且到头来还跟各种可怕的暗示结合起来,教人联想到是半脱胎于神力的作用,终于给莫比－迪克加上许多基本是肉眼所不能见的新恐怖了。

So that in many cases such a panic did he finally strike, that few who by those rumors, at least, had heard of the White Whale, few of those hunters were willing to encounter the perils²⁴ of his jaw. 因此,在许多场合,白鲸的确终于引起了如此这般的恐慌,使得少数捕鲸者至少听到过有关白鲸的这种谣言,又有少数捕鲸者则甘愿去冒它那张大嘴的险。

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