英語聽書《白鯨記》第638期

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Oh, horrible vulturism of earth! from which not the mightiest whale is free.

多么貪得無厭的世界呵！哪怕威力無比的大鯨也逃不了這個劫數(shù)！

Nor is this the end. Desecrated as the body is, a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabouts: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held. There's your law of precedents; there's your utility of traditions; there's the story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in the air! There's orthodoxy!

然而，這并不算完結(jié)。盡管它的身軀遭到褻瀆，它那報仇的怨魂并未消散，仍在尸體上翱翔，好生嚇人。如果偶然被一只膽怯的兵艦或者冒失的探險船從遠(yuǎn)處看到，它雖是被群群的禽鳥弄得模糊不清，卻還在光天化日之下現(xiàn)出雪白一團(tuán)，滔天白浪盡在對它沖擊，于是人們馬上就會顫抖著手，把這條鯨的不再會傷害人的尸體，記在航海日志上——附近發(fā)現(xiàn)魚群，暗礁和危險物：得小心！這樣，說不定過了許多年后，船只還要避開那地方；象只傻山羊一躍跳過空隙一般，因?yàn)槟侵活I(lǐng)頭羊原來也是看到插有一根竹枝就跳將過去的。這就是你們的祖先立下來的規(guī)矩，這就是你們的傳統(tǒng)觀念的實(shí)用價值；這就是你們那上不著天，下不著地的古老的信念的頑固的殘余！這就是正統(tǒng)！

Thus, while in the life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world.

因此，大鯨活著的時候，它的身體在它的敵人看來，也許本來就是一種真正的恐怖，到了它死后，它那怨魂又變成人間的無能為力的恐慌了。

Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them.

你是相信鬼神的么，我的朋友？除了雞巷鬼（雞巷鬼——發(fā)生于一七六二年的倫敦的斯托克威爾的雞巷，當(dāng)時有個叫做巴生的人，聽見有人敲門，他就說是法尼。開思特（一個暴病致死的人）的鬼魂在敲門，全倫敦都大為驚慌，后來才發(fā)現(xiàn)原來是巴生自己的女兒（十二歲）在床上敲木板。），還有各式各樣的鬼，甚至比約翰遜博士（這里的約翰遜是指塞繆爾·約翰遜。）更有涵養(yǎng)的人都還相信鬼神咧。