英语听书《白鲸记》第871期

When I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks, jaws, ribs, and vertebrae, all characterized by partial resemblances to the existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on the other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical Leviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back to that wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun; for time began with man. Here Saturn's grey chaos rolls over me, and I obtain dim, shuddering glimpses into those Polar eternities; when wedged bastions of ice pressed hard upon what are now the Tropics; and in all the 25,000 miles of this world's circumference, not an inhabitable hand's breadth of land was visible. Then the whole world was the whale's; and, king of creation, he left his wake along the present lines of the Andes and the Himmalehs. Who can show a pedigree like Leviathan? Ahab's harpoon had shed older blood than the Pharaoh's. Methuselah seems a schoolboy. I look round to shake hands with Shem. I am horror-struck at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the unspeakable terrors of the whale, which, having been before all time, must needs exist after all humane ages are over.

当我置身在这些大鲸的骷髅、头壳、牙齿、嘴巴、肋骨和脊骨堆里时，我看到全都多少有点跟现存的那些海里巨兽相似的特征，不过，同时，另一方面，也有跟那些早已湮灭的反年纪的大鲸，它们的难测的先辈相似的特点。我仿佛被一阵洪水泛回到那种奇妙的时期里去了，那是早在时间本身还刚开始的时候，因为时间总是与人类共始。这时我头上滚着土星的阴惨的浑沌之气，我朦胧而战颤地瞥到那些北极的永久不变的事物，当时冰霜象楔形的棱堡似的紧压着现在称做热带的地方；而在整个二万五千英里的世界圆周中，却连一小片可以居住的地方都看不到。当时整个世界是大鲸的世界；而万物之灵的人已沿着现在的安第斯和喜马拉雅山脉走去了。谁能给象大鲸这样的生物提出家系来呢？亚哈（亚哈——这里是指《旧约》所载以色列的第七代王。）的标枪早在法老（法老——古代埃及国王。）的标枪之先染了血滴。玛土撒拉（玛土撒拉——挪亚洪水时代的族长，活到九百六十九岁，见《旧约·创世记》第五章二十七节。）似乎还是个小学生呢。我四处寻找，想跟闪（闪——挪亚的长子；见《旧约·创世记》第五章三十二节。）握一握手。我给这些摩西以前的（摩西以前——典出《旧约·出埃及记》中，上帝遣摩西到埃及把以色列人带出来。）、来路不明的大鲸那种不可言喻的恐怖吓慌了，它既然是早就一直存在着，那就一定会在人类已经消灭以后的年代里继续存在下去了。

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