不過(guò),因?yàn)檫@個(gè)碩大的腦殼占著整個(gè)骷髏非常大的比例;它又是極其復(fù)雜的部分;同時(shí),在這方面,本章又不想再重復(fù),所以在我說(shuō)下去的時(shí)候,你必須時(shí)刻把它謹(jǐn)記在心,或者謹(jǐn)慎地挾在腋窩里,否則,你對(duì)于我們將要觀察的整個(gè)結(jié)構(gòu),就將不能獲得全豹。
In length, the Sperm Whale's skeleton at Tranque measured seventy-two feet: so that when fully invested and extended in life, he must have been ninety feet long; for in the whale, the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body. Of this seventy-two feet, his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet, leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone. Attached to this back-bone, for something less than a third of its length, was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals.
托朗郭那條抹香鯨骷髏的長(zhǎng)度是七十二英尺;所以,當(dāng)它有頭有尾。是一只活生生的東西的時(shí)候,它一定就有九十英尺長(zhǎng);因?yàn)轹L骷髏跟活鯨比起來(lái),長(zhǎng)度總得縮小五分之一。在這七十二英尺中,它的腦殼和嘴巴要占去二十英尺,那根背脊骨大約也有五十英尺。跟這根背脊骨相連的,長(zhǎng)度只有脊骨三分之一不到點(diǎn),就是那個(gè)一度裹住它的重要器官的。滿是肋骨的大圍籃。
To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine, extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks, when only some twenty of her naked bow-ribs are inserted, and the keel is otherwise, for the time, but a long, disconnected timber.
在我看來(lái),這個(gè)象牙圍墻似的大胸脯,有著平坦的長(zhǎng)椎骨,一條直線似的從那中間老遠(yuǎn)地伸展出去,可真象一只剛造好的、放在造船架上的大船殼,只消給它插上一二十根光堂堂的船頭肋骨,暫時(shí)把那根龍骨換上一根不相連接的長(zhǎng)木頭就行了。