英語聽書《白鯨記》第681期

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Wherefore, you must now have perceived that the front of the Sperm Whale's head is a dead, blind wall, without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever. Furthermore, you are now to consider that only in the extreme, lower, backward sloping part of the front of the head, is there the slightest vestige of bone; and not till you get near twenty feet from the forehead do you come to the full cranial development. So that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad. Finally, though, as will soon be revealed, its contents partly comprise the most delicate oil; yet, you are now to be apprised of the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests all that apparent effeminacy. In some previous place I have desCRIbed to you how the blubber wraps the body of the whale, as the rind wraps an orange. Just so with the head; but with this difference: about the head this envelope, though not so thick is of a boneless toughness, inestimable by any man who has not handled it. The severest pointed harpoon, the sharpest lance darted by the strongest human arm, impotently rebounds from it. It is as though the forehead of the Sperm Whale were paved with horses' hoofs. I do not think that any sensation lurks in it.

因此，你現(xiàn)在一定看得出，抹香鯨頭的正面就是一堵沒有窗的墻，既沒有一種器官，也沒有任何突出的特點。而且，你這時就得考慮到，只在頭部的正面的極低而后傾的部分，才稍微顯出骨胳的形跡，如果你不從前額更走近二十英尺，準看不到整個頭蓋的輪廓。所以這整個碩大的、無骨的一團東西就象一團棉絮。最后，雖則（不久就可發(fā)現(xiàn)）它那里面也含有一部分非常珍貴的鯨油；然而，你現(xiàn)在就將知道那種非常牢靠地裹住一切外表的很柔軟的東西的本質(zhì)了。在前文某個地方，我已經(jīng)給你描摹出，鯨脂包裹著鯨身，正如橘皮包裹著橘子。這只頭正是這般情況；不過，卻有這種不同之處：包著這只頭的那一層東西，雖然并不怎么厚，卻是一種無骨的堅韌體，是一種任何一個未曾觸摸到它的人所估量不出來的東西。力氣最大的人臂，使起最尖最快的標槍、魚槍，一碰上它就會萎靡地給彈回來。仿佛抹香鯨的前額釘上了馬蹄鐵。我認為那只頭根本就是毫無感覺的。

Bethink yourself also of another thing.

請你自己再想一想另外一樁事情吧。