英语听书《白鲸记》第746期
Out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels. Standing at the mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that CRImsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of the fire worshippers. As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of all beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence.
那只巨大的尾巴，从无底的深渊猛地一竖起来，好象是突然要攫取高高的上天那样。这就象我曾经在梦中看见威风凛凛的撒旦，从地狱的大火海里猛地抽出他那痛苦难挨的巨爪。不过，在凝望这种景致的时候，你尽可以有各式各样的心情；如果你是但丁式的人物，你就会想到许多恶魔；如果你是以赛亚的信徒，就会想到许多天使。有一回，在朝暾初动，海天一抹鲜红的时候，我站在我这艘船的桅顶上，看到东方有一大群鲸，全都向着太阳前进，一齐竖起裂片闪动了一会儿。当时我觉得，这样崇拜神明的庄严的场面，哪怕在拜火者的发源地——波斯，也从来没有见到过。如同托雷密·非罗派德（托雷密·非罗派德——埃及的马其顿王，即托雷密五世，其统治期间在公元前205—181年。）为亚洲的大象作证一样，我也要为大鲸作证，宣称它是万物中最虔诚的动物。因为根据朱巴王（朱巴王——非洲古国的努米底亚王，在公元前一世纪，努米底亚成为罗马的一个省。）的说法，古代那些战象总是在万籁俱寂中高举它们的大鼻子欢迎早晨。
The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality, much less the creatures to which they respectively belong.
在这一章中，偶然把大鲸拿来跟大象比较，不过，就大鲸的尾巴与大象的鼻子的某些形状说来，的确不应该把这两种位置相反的器官一视同仁，何况这两种动物还各有所宗。
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