英语听书《白鲸记》第696期
Few are the foreheads which like Shakespeare's or Melancthon's rise so high, and descend so low, that the eyes themselves seem clear, eternal, tideless mountain lakes; and all above them in the forehead's wrinkles, you seem to track the antlered thoughts descending there to drink, as the Highland hunters track the snow prints of the deer. But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature. For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is revealed; no nose, eyes, ears, or mouth; no face; he has none, proper; nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men. Nor, in profile, does this wondrous brow diminish; though that way viewed its grandeur does not domineer upon you so. In profile, you plainly perceive that horizontal, semi-crescentic depression in the forehead's middle, which, in a man, is Lavater's mark of genius.
有着象莎士比亚或者是梅朗克吞（菲利甫·梅朗克吞（1497—1560）——德国的路德教派的改革者。）那样高高隆起、低低下降的额头的终究是为数不多。他们的眼睛始终象是清澈无浪的湖面，而且在他们的额头上的皱纹中，似乎使人可以找到那些正从额头上滑下来饮水的长有鹿角似的思想，一如高地的猎户找到雪地里的鹿脚印那样的。可是，就大抹香鲸说来，它额头上这种又高耸又威严，一如神灵的仪表却是不胜缕述的，所以朝它一望，就使人从它那整个面貌中，感到有一种比之看到其它任何生物的额头更具有非常恐怖的神力。因为任何一点都教人看不真切，一点也看不到那明显的面貌；它既没有鼻子，眼睛，耳朵，也没有嘴巴，面孔；总之，从严格的意义上说，它什么都没有；它什么都没有，只有一个有如辽阔的苍穹的前额，莫名其妙地打着褶裥，不声不响地一折下去就叫小艇、大船和人都送了终。而且从侧面看去，这个额头的怪相也毫不减色；虽然就那样看来，它那壮丽的神气好象不大教人觉得咄咄可怕。不过，从侧面看去，人们却可以清晰地看到它前额正中那种横式的。半弯形的凹状，这个，就人类说来，就是拉瓦特的所谓天才的表征。
But how? Genius in the Sperm Whale? Has the Sperm Whale ever written a book, spoken a speech? No, his great genius is declared in his doing nothing particular to prove it.
可是，这怎么啦？抹香鲸也有天才？难道抹香鲸曾著过一本书，发表过一篇演讲么？不，它的伟大的天才是表现在它那一点也没有特别可加证实的行为上。
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