英語聽書《白鯨記》第722期

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Any man may kill a snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them to march boldly up to a whale.

任何人都會打死一條蛇，可是，能夠鼓起勇氣、勇往直前地沖向大鯨的，卻只有柏修斯、圣喬治和科芬。

Let not the modern paintings of this scene mislead us; for though the creature encountered by that valiant whaleman of old is vaguely represented of a griffin-like shape, and though the battle is depicted on land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the great ignorance of those times, when the true form of the whale was unknown to artists; and considering that as in Perseus' case, St. George's whale might have crawled up out of the sea on the beach; and considering that the animal ridden by St. George might have been only a large seal, or sea-horse; bearing all this in mind, it will not appear altogether incompatible with the sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene, to hold this so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan himself. In fact, placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story will fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or fishy part of him remained.

我們可別上那些描繪著這種場景的現(xiàn)代繪畫的當；因為盡管那個古代驍勇的捕鯨人所攻擊的動物給含糊地畫成一種半鷹半鷲似的怪獸，盡管戰(zhàn)斗的場面給畫在陸地上，那個圣者騎在馬背上，然而，鑒于當時是個十分愚昧的時代，藝術家們對于大鯨的真實形象，一無所知；鑒于柏修斯也是這種情況，圣喬治的那只大鯨，說不定就是從海里爬到海灘上來的；鑒于圣喬治所騎的那種野獸，也許不過是只大海豹，或者是只海馬；總之，記住所有這些事實，就不見得完全會跟神話和這種場景的最古老的草圖發(fā)生矛盾，而且可以認為，這種所謂龍的東西，不外乎就是大鯨罷了。事實上，把這整個傳說放在千真萬確而透徹的事實面前，就會成為那種叫做半人半魚的神，象非利士人（非利士人——古代巴勒斯坦西南岸的古國，是猶太人的強敵。這里所提事實，參閱《舊約·士師記》第十六章二十三節(jié)及《撒母耳記上》第五章二至五節(jié)。）的魚、人、鳥的偶像那樣的東西了，這種神，一豎在以色列人的方舟前面，它那馬頭和兩只手掌就會掉下來，只剩下一個殘肢，或者是半個魚身了。