英語聽書《白鯨記》第749期

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By the straits of Sunda, chiefly, vessels bound to China from the west, emerge into the China seas.

船只駛向中國，主要就是從西循巽他海峽進入中國海。

Those narrow straits of Sunda divide Sumatra from Java; and standing midway in that vast rampart of islands, buttressed by that bold green promontory, known to seamen as Java Head; they not a little correspond to the central gateway opening into some vast walled empire: and considering the inexhaustible wealth of spices, and silks, and jewels, and gold, and ivory, with which the thousand islands of that oriental sea are enriched, it seems a significant provision of nature, that such treasures, by the very formation of the land, should at least bear the appearance, however ineffectual, of being guarded from the all-grasping western world. The shores of the Straits of Sunda are unsupplied with those domineering fortresses which guard the entrances to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Propontis. Unlike the Danes, these Orientals do not demand the obsequious homage of lowered top-sails from the endless procession of ships before the wind, which for centuries past, by night and by day, have passed between the islands of Sumatra and Java, freighted with the costliest cargoes of the east. But while they freely waive a ceremonial like this, they do by no means renounce their claim to more solid tribute.

那個狹小的巽他海峽，把蘇門答臘與爪哇給隔開來；而攔在那兩個壁壘似的大島的中間，卻被那個終年碧綠、水手們管它叫爪哇岬的突出的海岬撐住著；它很象通向一種城墻高筑的大帝國的大城門，而且就那些取之不盡的財富，香料、絲綢、珠寶、黃金和象牙說來，東方大洋的無數(shù)島嶼，正是借這些東西而富裕起來的，這似乎就是得天獨厚的重要物質(zhì)，這樣一些財寶，由于這種地理形勢，至少就具有一種小心戒備的外表（不管是否有效），免得遭受西方世界的巧取豪奪。巽他海峽的沿海一帶，并沒有設(shè)備許多象防守地中海，波羅的海，普羅蓬提斯海的入口那樣的作威作福的要塞。這些東方人，跟丹麥人不一樣，他們并不要求那些順風(fēng)而來，行列無盡無止的船只，對他們放下中桅帆，以示諂媚的敬意，那些船只在過去幾百年間，都已經(jīng)不分晝夜，滿載著東方最貴重的貨物，穿過蘇門答臘和爪哇間的許多島嶼了。不過，他們雖然自愿放棄如此的禮儀，可決不會放棄更可靠的貢禮的要求。