英语听书《白鲸记》第861期

But soon my line was out; and following it back, I emerged from the opening where I entered. I saw no living thing within; naught was there but bones.

可是，不一会，我的麻线拉完了；只得顺着麻线打回头，从刚才进去的那个缺口出来。我看不到里面有什么生物；看来看去只是一些骨头。

Cutting me a green measuring-rod, I once more ped within the skeleton. From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the altitude of the final rib, "How now!" they shouted; "Dar'st thou measure this our god! That's for us." "Aye, priests—well, how long do ye make him, then?" But hereupon a fierce contest rose among them, concerning feet and inches; they cracked each other's sconces with their yard-sticks— the great skull echoed—and seizing that lucky chance, I quickly concluded my own admeasurements.

我砍了一根碧绿的量竿，又再一次地跑到骷髅里面去。那些僧人从脑壳的弓形裂口上，看到我在量着最后一根肋骨的高度。"怎么啦！"他们都叫嚷道；"你竟胆敢量起我们这个大神来！那是要我们来量的。""啊，僧人们——那么，你们量的长短是多少呀？"于是乎，他们就掀起一阵有关尺寸的激烈的争辩；他们用量码敲打着彼此的脑袋——弄得那只大脑壳也发出了回声——我抓住这个大好机会，连忙结束我自己的度量工作。

These admeasurements I now propose to set before you. But first, be it recorded, that, in this matter, I am not free to utter any fancied measurements I please. Because there are skeleton authorities you can refer to, to test my accuracy. There is a Leviathanic Museum, they tell me, in Hull, England, one of the whaling ports of that country, where they have some fine specimens of fin-backs and other whales. Likewise, I have heard that in the museum of Manchester, in New Hampshire, they have what the proprietors call "the only perfect specimen of a Greenland or River Whale in the United States." Moreover, at a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale, but of moderate size, by no means of the full-grown magnitude of my friend King Tranquo's.

我现在打算把量来的这些尺寸告诉你们。不过，首先请把它记下来，因为在这方面，我所想说的尺寸是不能随便乱说的。因为骷髅的权威家有的是，你尽可以去请教他们，以检验我是否量得准确。据说，在英国的赫尔（赫尔——在英国约克郡边境的一个商港。），在英国这个捕鲸港，有个大鲸博物馆，在那里，陈列有几只脊鳍鲸和其它大鲸的颇为精美的标本。同样地，我也听到人们说，在新罕布什尔的孟彻斯特博物馆中，也陈列有一些物主管它叫"美国唯一的格陵兰或者河鲸的地道标本"。而且，在英国的约克郡，有一个叫做伯顿·康斯特布尔的地方，有某一位叫做克利福德·康斯特布尔爵士的，家里藏有一只抹香鲸的骷髅，不过，那是一条中型的鲸，绝不能跟我的朋友托朗魁王那只茁壮的巨物相比。

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