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It is a thing well known to both American and English whale-ships, and as well a thing placed upon authoritative record years ago by Scoresby, that some whales have been captured far north in the Pacific, in whose bodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the Greenland seas.
有一件為英美捕鯨船所深知熟聞的事,也是多年以前載入斯哥斯比的權威性史冊的事,那就是:若干在太平洋的極北地區所捕獲的鯨,在它們身上都發現有許多是在格陵蘭海上所帶上的標槍鉤。
Nor is it to be gainsaid, that in some of these instances it has been declared that the interval of time between the two assaults could not have exceeded very many days.
這倒不是要否認過去那種認為前后兩次打擊,時間不可能相隔很久的說法,
Hence, by inference, it has been believed by some whalemen, that the Nor'West Passage, so long a problem to man, was never a problem to the whale.
而是說,若干捕鯨者們相信,這個對于人類已是久成問題的西北航線,如今就推論上說來,對于大鯨卻絕對不成為問題了。
So that here, in the real living experience of living men, the prodigies related in old times of the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface);
所以,這里說明著,那種關于古代葡萄牙內地的斯特列洛山的奇跡(據說在那山頂附近,本來有個湖,其中有些浮在湖面的破船),
and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa fountain near Syracuse (whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy Land by an underground passage);
以及關于敘拉古噴泉的水,大家都認為是通過地道來自圣地的)等等無稽的傳說,
these fabulous narrations are almost fully equalled by the realities of the whalemen.
就當代人類的真實的生活經驗說來,簡直就跟捕鯨者的實際情形完全相同了。
Forced into familiarity, then, with such prodigies as these; and knowing that after repeated, intrepid assaults, the White Whale had escaped alive;
那么,既然類似的一些傳說,已經成為眾所熟知的事情,人們也知道白鯨被一再猛攻后,還是能夠逃得了生命,
it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions;
這就難怪有些捕鯨人越來越趨迷信,宣稱莫比－迪克不只是無處不在的,
declaring Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time);
而且是不朽的(因為不朽就剛好是無處不在的);
that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he would still swim away unharmed;
認為盡管它身上插遍了簇簇的槍頭,它還能無恙地游走了,
or if indeed he should ever be made to spout thick blood, such a sight would be but a ghastly deception;
或者萬一它確會弄得濃血猛射,這種情景也不過是一種鬼蜮伎倆而已,
for again in unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away, his unsullied jet would once more be seen.
因為再一會兒,它那潔白的噴水,又會在幾百英里外的毫無血跡的波濤中再度出現。
