評論
打印
That to attempt it, would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity. On this head, there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted.
他們認為:凡想一試的人,將必然會立刻喪命。在這方面,還有一些值得注意的文獻足資查考。
Nevertheless, some there were, who even in the face of these things were ready to give chase to Moby Dick;
話雖如此,卻有一些人會甚至不顧這種事實,隨時要去追擊莫比－迪克;
and a still greater number who, chancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely, without the specific details of any certain calamity, and without superstitious accompaniments were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if offered.
但更大多數的人,盡管他們不過是隱約模糊地偶然聽到有關它的情況,并不知道任何肯定的災難詳情,也不知道有什么附加的迷信傳說,可是,如果一旦要他去參加斗爭,可就難保他不逃之夭夭了。
One of the wild suggestions referred to, as at last coming to be linked with the White Whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined, was the unearthly conceit that Moby Dick was ubiquitous;
這里必須一提的,就是相信迷信的人,最后竟把一種無稽的聯想拿來跟白鯨聯在一起,他們忽發奇想地認為:莫比－迪克是無處不在的;
that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instant of time.
認為它實際上會在同一個時間出現于另一個地方。
Nor, credulous as such minds must have been, was this conceit altogether without some faint show of superstitious probability.
既然有了這種輕信的人,那就不能把這種奇想一概看成為毫無一點迷信的可能了。
For as the secrets of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged, even to the most erudite research;
因為海洋的秘密直到現在還未被揭露出來,甚至連最全面的調查也談不到,
so the hidden ways of the Sperm Whale when beneath the surface remain, in great part, unaccountable to his pursuers;
所以抹香鯨在海底里的隱身法,在它的追逐者看來,大多還是莫名其妙的;
and from time to time have originated the most curious and contradictory speculations regarding them, especially concerning the mystic modes whereby, after sounding to a great depth, he transports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant points.
而且還常常對它那種隱身法作出許多最奇特而矛盾的推測,尤其是弄不懂它那神秘的形態,為什么一經深潛到海底里后,就會那么迅捷非凡地游到最遼遠的地方去。
