英语听书《白鲸记》第336期
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I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosophercannot, for his life, point out one single peacefulinfluence, which within the last sixty years hasoperated more potentially upon the whole broadworld, taken in one aggregate, than the high andmighty business of whaling. One way and another, ithas begotten events so remarkable in themselves,and so continuously momentous in theirsequential issues, that whaling may well beregarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb.It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue all these things. Let a handful suffice. Formany years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and leastknown parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, whereno Cooke or Vancouver had ever sailed. If American and European men-of-war now peacefullyride in once savage harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the whale-ship,which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted between them and the savages.They may celebrate as they will the heroes of Exploring Expeditions, your Cookes, YourKrusensterns; but I say that scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket, thatwere as great, and greater, than your Cooke and your Krusenstern. For in their succorlessempty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded,javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cooke with all his marines andmuskets would not willingly have willingly dared. All that is made such a flourish of in theold South Sea Voyages, those things were but the life-time commonplaces of our heroicNantucketers. Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three chapters to, these menaccounted unworthy of being set down in the ship's common log. Ah, the world! Oh, theworld!
我可以直率的断言,具有世界权威的哲学家,无论如何也不能指出在过去六十年来,有一种比声势浩大的捕鲸业更能影响整个世界的稳健的势力。总之,捕鲸业本身已经产生出了许多意义非常重大的事件,而且在它连续的发展中又不断有重大事件出现,使得捕鲸业足以被认为是能够自己怀孕传宗接代的埃及人的母亲。要把这种种事情一一罗列出来,那真是一件做不完做不尽的工作。只要提出几桩来也就够了。过去许多年来,捕鲸船已经成为探出地球上最荒僻。最不为人所知的地区的先锋队了。它探查出了许多地图上所找不到的。库克和范库弗的船只从来没有到过的海洋和群岛。如果现在欧美的兵舰能够平平安安地驶到那些曾经是蛮荒的港埠,请他们先对那些原来为他们开路的。首先在他们与野人间充当翻译的捕鲸船只鸣炮致敬吧。他们尽可以把你们那些库克,那些克鲁生斯丹恩俄国第一个环游世界的海军大将。他在一八○三年作首次环球航行,想探出俄国到中国的航线,三年结果,发现了一些岛屿,并以太平洋上一些岛屿命名为克鲁生斯丹恩群岛,又称爱露群岛。)歌颂为探险队的英雄;但是,我却认为无数从南塔开特来的佚名的船长们,才是伟大的,而且是比你们的库克和克鲁生斯丹恩更要伟大的英雄。因为,他们曾经赤手空拳。孤立无援地在蛮荒的噬人的海洋中,在地图上所找不到的。满布荆棘的岛屿的河滩边,跟那些为库克和他所有的船舶以及滑膛枪所决不敢面对的原始奇迹与恐怖苦斗过。凡是在古代的南海航行中显得非常了不起的事情,在我们这些英勇的南塔开特人看来,都完全是平淡无奇的事情。范库弗大书特书的一些冒险事情,往往是南塔开特人认为不配登入船只的普通航海日志上的事情。人生啊!人生啊!
