英語聽書《白鯨記》第879期

And there seems no reason to doubt that if these elephants, which have now been hunted for thousands of years, by Semiramis, by Porus, by Hannibal, and by all the successive monarchs of the East— if they still survive there in great numbers, much more may the great whale outlast all hunting, since he has a pasture to expatiate in, which is precisely twice as large as all Asia, both Americas, Europe and Africa, New Holland, and all the Isles of the sea combined.

因此，如果這些大象，幾千年來已經(jīng)遭到了塞密拉密斯（塞密拉密斯——神話中的亞述皇后，以貌美、才智、妖嬈見稱，據(jù)說建立過巴比倫城，攻占過埃及，和許多亞洲及埃塞俄比亞的城市，最后攻印度而大敗。），波拉斯（波拉斯（公元前？—321？）——印度王子，為亞歷山大大帝所征服。），漢尼拔（漢尼拔（公元前247—183）——古迦太基的將軍。）以及東方一連串君主的獵捕后，而它們還能繼續(xù)大量存在的話，那么，對于大鯨的遠能經(jīng)受得了一切獵擊，就更沒有可以懷疑的理由了，因為大鯨有一個足資漫游的大草原，而這個大草原正是比亞洲，加上美洲，歐洲和非洲，新荷蘭，以及全世界各島各嶼的總面積還要大上一倍。

Moreover: we are to consider, that from the presumed great longevity of whales, their probably attaining the age of a century and more, therefore at any one period of time, several distinct adult generations must be contemporary. And what this is, we may soon gain some idea of, by imagining all the grave-yards, cemeteries, and family vaults of creation yielding up the live bodies of all the men, women, and children who were alive seventy-five years ago; and adding this countless host to the present human population of the globe.

而且，根據(jù)一般認為大鯨是長壽的看法，我們還得考慮一下它們可能會活到一百多歲，因此，在任何一段期間里，若干特殊的長輩一定就是同時代人了。由是，我們只消這么想一想，人間的一切墓地、墳場和家冢里所藏著的那些在七十五年前還活著的男女老幼的尸體，再把這一無數(shù)的隊伍加上現(xiàn)今地球上的人口，那么，這究竟是怎么一種情況，我們立刻就可以得到一些概念了。

Wherefore, for all these things, we account the whale immortal in his species, however perishable in his inpiduality. He swam the seas before the continents broke water; he once swam over the site of the Tuileries, and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. In Noah's flood he despised Noah's Ark; and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like the Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies.

因此，盡管有這些情況，不論這種鯨會有個別的死亡，我們還是應該把鯨類看做是一種不朽的動物。它在大陸還未突破洪水而出現(xiàn)之前就在海洋中游來游去，它還曾經(jīng)游過杜依勒利宮，溫莎宮，克里姆林宮從前的地基。在挪亞的洪水中，它根本就不把挪亞的方舟放在眼里；如果世界還會再發(fā)洪水，象荷蘭那樣，連老鼠都給淹得干干凈凈，那么，這種永存的鯨也還是會活下去，而且會高矗在赤道的洪水似的浪峰上，朝天噴出它的唾沫，表示蔑視呢。

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