英語聽書《白鯨記》第795期

I have it, I have it, cried Stubb, with delight, striking something in the subterranean regions, "a purse! a purse!"

我搞到了——我搞到了——斯塔布喜形于色地說道，同時在那底里戳一樣?xùn)|西，"一只荷包，一只荷包！"

Dropping his spade, he thrust both hands in, and drew out handfuls of something that looked like ripe Windsor soap, or rich mottled old cheese; very unctuous and savory withal. You might easily dent it with your thumb; it is of a hue between yellow and ash color. And this, good friends, is ambergris, worth a gold guinea an ounce to any druggist. Some six handfuls were obtained; but more was unavoidably lost in the sea, and still more, perhaps, might have been secured were it not for impatient Ahab's loud command to Stubb to desist, and come on board, else the ship would bid them good-bye.

他放下他的鏟子，把兩只手都插了進去，拉出一大把樣子象紅潤的溫莎香皂（溫莎香皂——一種褐色的香皂。）或者象芳醇斑斕的陳乳酪般的東西；氣味十分馥郁芬芳。這東西只消用大拇指一捏，就一下子可以把它捏出一個凹痕來；它是一種色澤介于黃灰兩色之間的東西。老朋友呀，這就是龍誕香呀，拿去賣給隨便哪一個藥房老板，可就一兩值一個幾尼。他已抓到了六大把；不過落在海里的還不止這些，而且，要不是亞哈不耐煩地高聲命令斯塔布歇手，快上船來，否則，船就要跟他們再會了的話，撈到的也許還要多些。

Chapter 92 Ambergris

第九十二章 龍涎香

Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject. For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the learned. Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct.

且說這種龍誕香，是一種十分珍奇的東西，也是非常重要的商品，因此，在一七九一年，有一個南塔開特人科芬船長還為此而受過英國眾議院法庭的審問。因為在當(dāng)時，事實上也可說是直至晚近，龍涎香的真正來源，在學(xué)者們看來，正如琥珀一般，還是個問題。雖然龍誕香這個詞兒就是法文的灰琥珀的復(fù)合詞，然而，這兩樣?xùn)|西卻是完全不同的。

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