英語聽書《白鯨記》 第132期

And if the idea of peril so much enhances thepopular conceit of the soldier's profession; let meassure ye that many a veteran who has freelymarched up to a battery,

和那些尸臭沖天的戰(zhàn)場比起來，捕鯨船上滑溜溜的甲板不知要干凈多少倍呢!那些操縱殺人武器的士兵們回到后方時，會受到人們的熱烈歡迎，肉林酒池的招待會讓他們昏昏然。

would quickly recoil at the apparition of the spermwhale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over hishead.

不過，如果讓他們?nèi)ッ鎸δㄏ泠L的尾巴，大概沒有幾個還能站住腳而不癱在地上。

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

人類頭腦中的恐怖觀念，無論如何也是不能與神秘的上帝奇觀相比較的。

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

當(dāng)然，人們在意識到那些照耀我們這個星球的燈燭都是由鯨魚油制成的時候，還是對我們這樣的人心懷敬意的，因為我們的勞動為大家?guī)砹斯饷鳌?/p>

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!

那么就讓我們來看看捕鯨者都是些什么人，他們的所作所為究竟如何吧。

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

不過，以下幾個史實也許需要重申一下：

Why did the Dutch in De Witt's time have admirals of their whaling fleets? Why did Louis XVI.of France, at his own personal expense,

在荷蘭的德·威特時代，捕鯨船上設(shè)有大將軍銜的軍官;

fit out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or two offamilies from our own island of Nantucket?

路易十六自己掏錢雇了許多南塔開特人到敦刻爾克購置了捕鯨船;