英语听书《白鲸记》 第335期

And if the idea of peril so much enhances thepopular conceit of the soldier's profession;

许多军队一从这种战场上回来,就在太太们的掌声中开怀畅饮。如果由于一般人把当兵看成是种危险的职业,因而大大抬高了他们的骄气的话,那么,

let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freelymarched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at theapparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanninginto eddies the air over his head.

我敢说,许多原来是毫无所谓地跨上炮台的老兵,一碰上那在他头顶刮起小旋风的。幽灵似的抹香鲸的巨大尾巴时,却会立刻畏缩起来。

For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors andwonders of God!

因为人类所能理解的恐怖,怎能同上帝的奇观和恐怖结合在一起的东西相比呢!

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us theprofoundest homage;

但是,世间虽然瞧不起我们这些捕鲸者,却又不知不觉地对我们寄以最深切的敬意;而且还给以无限的崇拜呢!

yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn roundthe globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!

因为,差不多一切照耀整个地球的,以及照耀在那许多圣殿之前的大小灯烛,都得归于我们的功劳!

But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of scales; see what we whalemen are,and have been.

不过,我们不妨再从另一种角度来观察这事情;把它放到各种天平上衡量一番;看看我们这些捕鲸者究竟是些什么人,干下了些什么事情。

Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whaling fleets?

在德。威特时代的荷兰,为什么捕鲸队会有大将?

Why did Louis XVI of France, at his own personal expense, fit out whaling ships from Dunkirk,and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of Nantucket?

法国的路易十六,为什么要自掏腰包到敦刻尔克去置办一些捕鲸船,还到我们南塔开特来礼邀几十份人家到敦刻尔克去?

Why did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of1,000,000 pounds?

英国在一七五○年到一七八八年间,为什么付给捕鲸者的奖金竟高达一百万英镑呢?

And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of America now outnumber all the rest of thebanded whalemen in the world;

最后,我们美国的捕鲸者的数目现在怎样会超过世界所有捕鲸者的总数;

sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen thousand men; yearlyconsuming 00824,000,000 of dollars;

捕鲸队的船只多达七百艘;人数多达一万八千人;每年耗费四百万美元;

the ships worth, at the time of sailing, 20,000,000 dollars;

当时航行的船只价值二千万美元!

and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of 00847,000,000 dollars.

每年有高达七百万美元的收获输进我们的港口。

How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?

如果不是由于捕鲸业的威力,哪来的这一切呢?