英語聽書《白鯨記》第871期

When I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks, jaws, ribs, and vertebrae, all characterized by partial resemblances to the existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on the other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical Leviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back to that wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun; for time began with man. Here Saturn's grey chaos rolls over me, and I obtain dim, shuddering glimpses into those Polar eternities; when wedged bastions of ice pressed hard upon what are now the Tropics; and in all the 25,000 miles of this world's circumference, not an inhabitable hand's breadth of land was visible. Then the whole world was the whale's; and, king of creation, he left his wake along the present lines of the Andes and the Himmalehs. Who can show a pedigree like Leviathan? Ahab's harpoon had shed older blood than the Pharaoh's. Methuselah seems a schoolboy. I look round to shake hands with Shem. I am horror-struck at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the unspeakable terrors of the whale, which, having been before all time, must needs exist after all humane ages are over.

當我置身在這些大鯨的骷髏、頭殼、牙齒、嘴巴、肋骨和脊骨堆里時，我看到全都多少有點跟現存的那些海里巨獸相似的特征，不過，同時，另一方面，也有跟那些早已湮滅的反年紀的大鯨，它們的難測的先輩相似的特點。我仿佛被一陣洪水泛回到那種奇妙的時期里去了，那是早在時間本身還剛開始的時候，因為時間總是與人類共始。這時我頭上滾著土星的陰慘的渾沌之氣，我朦朧而戰(zhàn)顫地瞥到那些北極的永久不變的事物，當時冰霜象楔形的棱堡似的緊壓著現在稱做熱帶的地方；而在整個二萬五千英里的世界圓周中，卻連一小片可以居住的地方都看不到。當時整個世界是大鯨的世界；而萬物之靈的人已沿著現在的安第斯和喜馬拉雅山脈走去了。誰能給象大鯨這樣的生物提出家系來呢？亞哈（亞哈——這里是指《舊約》所載以色列的第七代王。）的標槍早在法老（法老——古代埃及國王。）的標槍之先染了血滴。瑪土撒拉（瑪土撒拉——挪亞洪水時代的族長，活到九百六十九歲，見《舊約·創(chuàng)世記》第五章二十七節(jié)。）似乎還是個小學生呢。我四處尋找，想跟閃（閃——挪亞的長子；見《舊約·創(chuàng)世記》第五章三十二節(jié)。）握一握手。我給這些摩西以前的（摩西以前——典出《舊約·出埃及記》中，上帝遣摩西到埃及把以色列人帶出來。）、來路不明的大鯨那種不可言喻的恐怖嚇慌了，它既然是早就一直存在著，那就一定會在人類已經消滅以后的年代里繼續(xù)存在下去了。

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