英语听书《白鲸记》第638期

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Oh, horrible vulturism of earth! from which not the mightiest whale is free.

多么贪得无厌的世界呵！哪怕威力无比的大鲸也逃不了这个劫数！

Nor is this the end. Desecrated as the body is, a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabouts: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held. There's your law of precedents; there's your utility of traditions; there's the story of your obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in the air! There's orthodoxy!

然而，这并不算完结。尽管它的身躯遭到亵渎，它那报仇的怨魂并未消散，仍在尸体上翱翔，好生吓人。如果偶然被一只胆怯的兵舰或者冒失的探险船从远处看到，它虽是被群群的禽鸟弄得模糊不清，却还在光天化日之下现出雪白一团，滔天白浪尽在对它冲击，于是人们马上就会颤抖着手，把这条鲸的不再会伤害人的尸体，记在航海日志上——附近发现鱼群，暗礁和危险物：得小心！这样，说不定过了许多年后，船只还要避开那地方；象只傻山羊一跃跳过空隙一般，因为那只领头羊原来也是看到插有一根竹枝就跳将过去的。这就是你们的祖先立下来的规矩，这就是你们的传统观念的实用价值；这就是你们那上不着天，下不着地的古老的信念的顽固的残余！这就是正统！

Thus, while in the life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world.

因此，大鲸活着的时候，它的身体在它的敌人看来，也许本来就是一种真正的恐怖，到了它死后，它那怨魂又变成人间的无能为力的恐慌了。

Are you a believer in ghosts, my friend? There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them.

你是相信鬼神的么，我的朋友？除了鸡巷鬼（鸡巷鬼——发生于一七六二年的伦敦的斯托克威尔的鸡巷，当时有个叫做巴生的人，听见有人敲门，他就说是法尼。开思特（一个暴病致死的人）的鬼魂在敲门，全伦敦都大为惊慌，后来才发现原来是巴生自己的女儿（十二岁）在床上敲木板。），还有各式各样的鬼，甚至比约翰逊博士（这里的约翰逊是指塞缪尔·约翰逊。）更有涵养的人都还相信鬼神咧。