英語聽書《白鯨記》第271期

　　With loud lament the parents saw their child borneout of sight over the wide waters. They resolved tofollow in the same direction. Setting out in theircanoes, after a perilous passage they discovered theisland, and there they found an empty ivorycasket,the poor little Indian's skeleton.

　　那嬰孩的父母高聲慟哭地眼看他們的小孩被拖過了遼闊的海洋而消逝了。他們決定循著那個方向去找。他們坐著獨木小舟出發(fā),經過千難萬險的航行后,發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個小島,他們在這里找到了一只空的象牙盒子似的東西...那個可憐的小印第安人的骸骨。

　　What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on a beach, should take to the sea for alivelihood! They first caught crabs and quahogs in the sand; grown bolder, they waded out withnets for mackerel; more experienced, they pushed off in boats and captured cod; and at last,launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world; put an incessant belt ofcircumnavigations round it; peeped in at Behring's Straits; and in all seasons and all oceansdeclared everlasting war with the mightiest animated mass that has survived the flood; mostmonstrous and most mountainous! That Himmalehan, salt-sea, Mastodon, clothed with suchportentousness of unconscious power, that his very panics are more to be dreaded than hismost fearless and malicious assaults!

　　那么,這些南塔開特人,生在河灘,出海謀生,就不足為奇了!他們起先在沙灘上捉蟹摸蛤,后來膽子逐漸大了,就涉過淺水灘,用網去捕青花魚;等到閱歷較深,他們就劃起小艇出去捕捉鳘魚了;最后,就在海上駛著一隊隊的大船,去探索這個水族世界,繞著它不斷地兜來巡去;悄悄地窺探一下白令海峽;一年四季都在各大洋里跟那些在大洪水時代幸存下來的最富生氣的水族;跟那些最可怕。最巨大的水族作永無盡止的斗爭!而那種不知賦有多大的威力,高大如喜馬拉雅山的古鹽海的乳齒象,它之所以叫人懼怕,與其說是由于它那最無畏最兇殘的暴行,不如說是由于它的形體!

　　And thus have these naked Nantucketers, these sea hermits, issuing from their ant-hill in thesea, overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders; parcelling out amongthem the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland. LetAmerica add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada; let the English overswarm all India,and hang out their blazing banner from the sun; two thirds of this terraqueous globe are theNantucketer's.

　　于是,從他們那海洋上的蟻冢中就不斷地涌現(xiàn)出這些赤身裸體的南塔開特人,這些海洋的隱士,他們象那許多阿力山大王一樣,把水族世界侵占與征服了,不斷地瓜分了大西洋。太平洋和印度洋的利益,正如三個海盜國瓜分波蘭一般。那么,隨你美國把墨西哥給加在得克薩斯州上,把古巴給疊加在加拿大上去吧;隨你英國把整個印度都擠得密密麻麻,把你們那燦爛的國旗掛在陽光里吧;這個水陸世界的地球可有三分之二是屬于南塔開特人的。