評論
打印
What the white whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at times, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid.
亞哈對白鯨怎樣看法,已經略有交代;至于我時常對白鯨怎樣看法,卻還沒有說過。
Aside from those more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in any man's soul some alarm,
關于莫比－迪克,除了難免偶爾教任何人都要驚心動魄的那些較為明顯的理由而外,
there was another thought, or rather vague, nameless horror concerning him, which at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the rest;
對它還有另外一種看法,或者不如說懷有一種難以言宣的。
and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost despair of putting it in a comprehensible form.
模糊的恐怖,那種恐怖,往往由于它非常強烈地壓倒一切,而且又那么神秘。近乎形容不出,以致我幾乎無法以一種容易使人了解的形式把它表達出來。
It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me.
最使我害怕的就是這條大鯨的白色。我怎能在這里說得明白呢;
But how can I hope to explain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught.
然而,我總得胡亂含混地把它說出來,否則,所有這些章節都不免要等于零了。
Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own,
雖則在自然界的許多東西中,白色會優雅地顯得更美,仿佛會使它本身增加一種特殊的價值,
as in marbles, japonicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way recognised a certain royal preeminence in this hue;
比如大理石。山茶花和珍珠就是這樣:雖則有許多國家還認為這種顏色是一種無上的重要顏色;
even the barbaric, grand old kings of Pegu placing the title Lord of the White Elephants above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion;
甚至古代的野蠻而偉大的庇古帝王們,還把"白象之王"的稱號置于他們其它種種夸張的統治稱號之上;
and the modern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped in the royal standard.
現代的暹羅國王們還在王旗上扯出這種雪白的四足獸來。
