英语听书《白鲸记》第798期

Because those whalemen did not then, and do not now, try out their oil at sea as the Southern ships have always done; but cutting up the fresh blubber in small bits, thrust it through the bung holes of large casks, and carry it home in that manner; the shortness of the season in those Icy Seas, and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed, forbidding any other course. The consequence is, that upon breaking into the hold, and unloading one of these whale cemeteries, in the Greenland dock, a savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising from excavating an old city graveyard, for the foundations of a Lying-in Hospital.

因为那些捕鲸人，不论在当时和现在，都不象南海渔船所经常做的那样，先在海上把油熬好；而是把那些生鲸脂砍成一小块一小块，朝大桶口掷下去后，就那样把它装回家来；由于在那种冰天雪地的海洋中，猎季短促，经常遭到突然而来的猛烈的风暴的打击，没能采取任何其它办法，结果是，一打开船舱，把这些一块块的尸肉卸上格陵兰码头时，就发散出一种类似于为了构筑产科医院的地基，把城里的古坟挖掉后所发出来的味道（据百周年纪念版注：匹茨堡的古墓地于1850—1851年间迁移至另一新址。原址造了一个中学，并未建造产科医院，作者在这里只是为了强调以死人的墓地为活人派用场而故意扯上的。）。

I partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against whalers may be likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland, in former times, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg, which latter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great work on Smells, a text-book on that subject. As its name imports (smeer, fat; berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to afford a place for the blubber of the Dutch whale fleet to be tried out, without being taken home to Holland for that purpose. It was a collection of furnaces, fat-kettles, and oil sheds; and when the works were in full operation certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor.

我还不免要这样推测，这种对捕鲸船的恶意攻击，还可以同样地归之于昔时的格陵兰海岸上，有一个叫做斯麦楞堡或者斯迈楞堡的荷兰村庄的缘故，斯迈楞堡这名称也就是曾经被那个博学的福戈、冯、斯拉克（据百周年纪念版注：这里又是作者对斯哥斯比开的玩笑，斯拉克即斯哥斯比。）用在他那论嗅觉的巨著上（论嗅觉的一本教科书）的一个名称。就那名称的含义上说来（斯迈就是油脂；堡就是腌藏），因为这个村庄，乃是为了使荷兰捕鲸队有个炼油处所而设置的，让他们可以不必把鲸脂拿回荷兰去炼制。在这个庄子上，有许多大灶。油锅和油库，当这种工作全面进行时，当然就发出一种不很好闻的味道了。

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