英語聽書《白鯨記》第721期

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It was an admirable artistic exploit, rarely achieved by the best harpooneers of the present day; inasmuch as this Leviathan was slain at the very first dart. And let no man doubt this Arkite story; for in the ancient Joppa, now Jaffa, on the Syrian coast, in one of the Pagan temples, there stood for many ages the vast skeleton of a whale, which the city's legends and all the inhabitants asserted to be the identical bones of the monster that Perseus slew. When the Romans took Joppa, the same skeleton was carried to Italy in triumph. What seems most singular and suggestively important in this story, is this: it was from Joppa that Jonah set sail.

這真是一個值得稱羨、技巧高明的赫赫偉績，一槍就把那只大海獸給戳死了，即使近代的最優(yōu)秀的標(biāo)槍手也是難望其項背的。誰也不該懷疑這個亞基人（亞基人——古亞洲的一個民族，相傳在佐發(fā)東南方十英里的地方有一個叫利達(dá)鎮(zhèn)的附近就是柏修斯殺了巨獸的故址。）的故事，因為在敘利亞海岸那個古代叫做佐伯，現(xiàn)今叫做佐發(fā)的地方，在那些異教徒的神廟中，其中有一個神廟就多年來保存有一條大鯨的骷髏，這只大骷髏，根據(jù)那城市的傳說和全體居民的說法，都認(rèn)為就是柏修斯所殺死的那只巨獸的真正的尸骨。當(dāng)羅馬人征服了佐伯、凱旋回歸意大利的時候，這一架骷髏也被一起帶走了。而在這個故事中，它的最為奇妙而又富有參考意義之處似乎是：約拿也是從佐伯啟碇的。

Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda—indeed, by some supposed to be indirectly derived from it—is that famous story of St. George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and often stand for each other. "Thou art as a lion of the waters, and as a dragon of the sea," said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale; in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word itself. Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of doing battle with the great monster of the deep.

類似于柏修斯和安待洛美達(dá)的險遇的——有人的確認(rèn)為是間接由它而來的——就是圣喬治和大龍的著名的故事（圣喬治——英國守護(hù)神，相傳他在殺死一條大龍后，就傾其所有救濟(jì)窮人，出去傳道了。）；這條龍，我卻認(rèn)為就是大鯨；因為在許多古代史中，都奇怪地把鯨和龍混淆一起，而且往往互為頂替。"你如同江河的獅子，也如同海里的龍，"以西結(jié)（以西結(jié)希伯來的預(yù)言家，見《舊約·以西結(jié)書》第三十二章二節(jié)。）說，這就是明顯指著大鯨。事實上，有若干《圣經(jīng)》的譯文就徑用鯨這個詞兒。此外，如果圣喬治只是在陸地上打死一只爬行動物，而不是跟那海里的巨獸戰(zhàn)斗過的話，那他的輝煌偉績一定大為減色。