英语听书《白鲸记》第697期

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It is moreover declared in his pyramidical silence. And this reminds me that had the great Sperm Whale been known to the young Orient World, he would have been deified by their child-magian thoughts. They deified the crocodile of the Nile, because the crocodile is tongueless; and the Sperm Whale has no tongue, or at least it is so exceedingly small, as to be incapable of protrusion. If hereafter any highly cultured, poetical nation shall lure back to their birth-right, the merry May-day gods of old; and livingly enthrone them again in the now egotistical sky; in the now unhaunted hill; then be sure, exalted to Jove's high seat, the great Sperm Whale shall lord it.

而且是表现在它那种莫测高深的缄默上。说到这里，教我想起如果年轻的东方人看到过大抹香鲸的话，那么，在他们那童稚未开的思想中，一定会把它奉为神明。他们因为鳄鱼没有舌头，而把尼罗河的鳄鱼奉为神明，抹香鲸就正是没有舌头，或者至少可以说是舌头极小，小得伸都伸不出来。如果此后有任何一个文化发达、富有诗趣的民族要诱人回复到他们的生得权上去，去过那古代的快活的五朔群神节（五朔节——五月一日，系从前欧洲的节日，是日大家以花冠饰在"五月后"的头上，或者在饰满花朵的"五月柱"边跳舞。），兴致勃勃地想再把他们升到现在这个自私自利的天上；安到现在这个人迹罕到的小丘里；那么，即使把他们捧到约芙的高座上，大抹香鲸还是高出于他们的。

Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man's and every being's face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale's brow? I but put that brow before you. Read if it if you can.

尚波利翁（让·弗朗索瓦·尚波利翁（1790—1832）——法国的埃及学家。）认得出那些曲曲皱皱的花岗岩上的象形文字。但是，却没有一个尚波利翁能从一切人类，一切生物的面孔中辨认出埃及来。相术这东西，正如其它各种人间的学问一样，只不过是一种传说而已。于是，如果说是懂得了三十种语言的威廉·琼斯爵士（威廉·琼斯（1746—1794）——英国的东方通。），连在最简单的农民的面孔上，都还看不出那种比较奥妙、难解的意义来，那么，怎能希望一个目不识丁的以实玛利懂得抹香鲸的额头上那种可怕的预言呢？我只不过是把那只额头摆在你的面前。你如力能胜任，就去研究它吧。