英语听书《白鲸记》第698期
Chapter 80 The Nut
第八十章 脑袋
If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphinx, to the phrenologist his brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square.
如果说，从相术上说来，抹香鲸是只狮身男头的巨像的话，那么，在骨相学家看来，它那脑瓜子就好象是无法弄成方形的几何学上的圆圈了。
In the full-grown creature the skull will measure at least twenty feet in length. Unhinge the lower jaw, and the side view of this skull is as the side view of a moderately inclined plane resting throughout on a level base. But in life—as we have elsewhere seen—this inclined plane is angularly filled up, and almost squared by the enormous superincumbent mass of the junk and sperm. At the high end the skull forms a crater to bed that part of the mass; while under the long floor of this crater—in another cavity seldom exceeding ten inches in length and as many in depth reposes the mere handful of this monster's brain. The brain is at least twenty feet from his apparent forehead in life; it is hidden away behind its vast outworks, like the innermost citadel within the amplified fortifications of Quebec. So like a choice casket is it secreted in him, that I have known some whalemen who peremptorily deny that the Sperm Whale has any other brain than that palpable semblance of one formed by the cubic-yards of his sperm magazine. Lying in strange folds, courses, and convolutions, to their apprehensions, it seems more in keeping with the idea of his general might to regard that mystic part of him as the seat of his intelligence.
一条茁壮的大鲸，它的脑壳，量起来至少有二十英尺长。把它的下巴拆下来，这只脑壳的侧面图就跟一个普通斜面体完全搁在平板上的侧面图一样。但是，就活鲸说来——一如我们已在其它地方认识到的一样——这种斜面图是突出而丰满的，而且，由于那里边还有大块块的脑块和鲸脑而显得差不多是方形的。在脑壳隆起的地方，还有一只藏着那大块块东西的大坑：而在这个大坑的长长的底板下——在另一个横直还不到十英寸的窝窝中——就有这只巨兽那种不过是一捧的脑髓。活鲸的脑髓至少距开它那突出的前额有二十英尺的距离，它深藏在它的巨大的外堡后面，直象是秘藏在魁北克那些广阔的要塞里的城堡一样。它真象是身上藏有一只精巧的首饰箱。据我所知，有些捕鲸人还武断地否认抹香鲸有什么头脑，认为它只有一只外表很为明显、由好几立方码的鲸脑宝库所形成的东西而已。至于它那盘绕得古里古怪、重重叠叠、曲曲折折的情况，根据他们的理解，似乎更使得人们对它怀有威力奇大的感觉，以至于把它那神秘的部分看做是它的情报机关的所在地。
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