英語聽書《白鯨記》第781期

A pision which, in the whale, is much like halving an apple; there is no intermediate remainder. Now as this law, under a modified form, is to this day in force in England; and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of Fast—and Loose-Fish, it is here treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty. In the first place, in curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance-that happened within the last two years.

鯨的這種分法，倒很象是把一只蘋果對半剖開來，中間一點也沒有剩留。因為這個法律，形式雖有所修改，卻直到今天還施行于英國；又因為這個法律，就各方面說來，都跟有主鯨和無主鯨這個總的法律精神有著奇特的矛盾，所以，在這里，根據(jù)英國鐵路當(dāng)局，特為準(zhǔn)備供皇族使用，而撥專款建造單獨車廂的這個謙恭原則，將其單獨列為一章。首先，為了好奇地證實上述法律迄今仍在施行，我想先把兩年前所發(fā)生的情況說給你聽。

It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore. Now the Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden. Holding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal emoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment his. By some writers this office is called a sinecure. But not so. Because the Lord Warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites; which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of them.

好象是多佛海峽（多佛海峽——法英之間的海峽。），或者散德維奇，還是辛格港（辛格港——包括英國東南部的五個大港，威廉一世時將這一帶劃成一個獨立的地區(qū)，成為一個"港口監(jiān)督"的管轄區(qū)。"港口監(jiān)督"必須貢獻船只給威廉一世，"港口監(jiān)督"則有許多特權(quán)如免稅。制定自己的地方法等。情形一直維持至十九世紀(jì)上期。），有幾個老實水手，在千辛萬苦的追擊后，終于把他們本來在距岸很遠(yuǎn)的地方所發(fā)現(xiàn)的一條上等的大鯨打死了，正想把它拖上海灘來。當(dāng)時，辛格港大概有一部分是屬于一種警察或者教區(qū)小吏性質(zhì)的，稱為"港口監(jiān)督"的轄區(qū)的。我相信他是直接秉承國王的命令行事的，凡屬有關(guān)辛格港地區(qū)的皇家收益都?xì)w他管。有些作家們管這個職司叫閑差?？墒?，事實卻不然。因為這個"港口監(jiān)督"一天到晚都在忙著塞滿他自己的腰包；他的腰包主要就是這樣塞滿的。

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