英語聽書《白鯨記》第813期

And an idol, indeed, it is; or rather, in old times, its likeness was. Such an idol as that found in the secret groves of Queen Maachah in Judea; and for worshipping which, King Asa, her son, did depose her, and destroyed the idol, and burnt it for an abomination at the brook Kedron, as darkly set forth in the 15th chapter of the First Book of Kings.

說它是一個(gè)偶像吧，倒也真象，可是說得更恰切些，倒象是古代的偶像。這樣一個(gè)偶像，跟在猶大的瑪迦太后的秘密的叢林里找到的那東西一模一樣；而且由于她崇拜這種偶像，還遭到了她兒子亞撒王的貶黜，把她的偶像拿到汲淪溪邊作為一種棄物而燒毀了，一如《列王紀(jì)上》第十五章所模糊地記載著的一樣。（參閱《舊約·列王紀(jì)上》第十五章九節(jié)至十五節(jié)。）

Look at the sailor, called the mincer, who now comes along, and assisted by two allies, heavily backs the grandissimus, as the mariners call it, and with bowed shoulders, staggers off with it as if he were a grenadier carrying a dead comrade from the field. Extending it upon the forecastle deck, he now proceeds cylindrically to remove its dark pelt, as an African hunter the pelt of a boa. This done he turns the pelt inside out, like a pantaloon leg; gives it a good stretching, so as almost to double its diameter; and at last hangs it, well spread, in the rigging, to dry. Ere long, it is taken down; when removing some three feet of it, towards the pointed extremity, and then cutting two slits for arm-holes at the other end, he lengthwise slips himself bodily into it. The mincer now stands before you invested in the full canonicals of his calling. Immemorial to all his order, this investiture alone will adequately protect him, while employed in the peculiar functions of his office.

那么，請(qǐng)瞧一瞧那個(gè)叫剁肉手的水手吧，他現(xiàn)在由兩個(gè)同伴扶著走過來了，背上沉重地背著水手們稱做"大法衣"的兩件東西，拱起兩肩，蹣蹣跚跚，仿佛是個(gè)背著一具戰(zhàn)友的尸體從戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)回來的擲彈兵。他把它鋪在船頭樓的船板上后，就著手象滾圓筒一般剝它的黑皮，象非洲的獵戶在剝大蛇皮那樣。剝過了后，他把它兜里翻個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)身，象老丑角的一條細(xì)腿子；于是將它用勁一拉，差不多把直徑拉大了一倍；最后把它掛起來，張?jiān)谒骶呱狭栏?。再隔一?huì)，又把它拿下來；把它尖尖一端切掉了三英尺左右，又在另一端割了兩塊做臂洞的裂口，他的身體就筆直地鉆了進(jìn)去?，F(xiàn)在站在你面前的這個(gè)剁肉手就是個(gè)穿上全副法衣的法師了。按照他所有的古老的法規(guī)說來，他在執(zhí)行這一特殊的差使時(shí)，單是這件法衣就足以適當(dāng)?shù)乇Ｗo(hù)他了。

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