英語聽書《白鯨記》第671期

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Nevertheless, any one's experience will teach him, that though he can take in an undisCRIminating sweep of things at one glance, it is quite impossible for him, attentively, and completely, to examine any two things—however large or however small— at one and the same instant of time; never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other. But if you now come to separate these two objects, and surround each by a circle of profound darkness; then, in order to see one of them, in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it, the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness. How is it, then, with the whale? True, both his eyes, in themselves, must simultaneously act; but is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction? If he can, then is it as marvellous a thing in him, as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in Euclid. Nor, strictly investigated, is there any incongruity in this comparison.

話雖如此，任何一個人的經驗都會告訴他，盡管他一眼就可以無差別地看到一切事物，然而，要他同時一下子全神貫注而完整地細看任何兩件東西——不管是大是小——哪怕這兩件東西是并列在一起，彼此靠得很攏，都是完全不可能的。不過，如果你現在要把這兩樣東西給分別開來，而且各給加上漆黑的一圈，并且為了要看清這兩件東西中的一件，你就這樣一心一意只想看到這件東西，那么，另外那樣東西一定會因你的暫時的感覺而完全看不到了。這樣說來，大鯨又是怎么一種情況呢？不錯，鯨的兩只眼睛，就眼睛本身說來，一定是同時行動的；可是，難道它的頭腦會遠比人類更具有理解力、組合力而且更為敏感，能夠同時專注地看到兩樣不同的東西：一件在它這邊，一件卻在正相反的一方嗎？如果它能夠，那么，這就象一個人能夠同時解決歐幾里得兩個不同的論證問題一樣的不可思議了。不過，嚴格地考查一下，這種比喻也并不是毫不適當的。

It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales;

說起來，這也許是個跡近毫無根據的狂想，可是，我總覺得，有一些鯨，在遭到三四只小艇圍攻時，它們表現出來的那種格外躊躇不定的動作，那種畏縮而易陷于異乎尋常的驚駭的態(tài)度，正是它們的通性。