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Chapter 55 Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
第五十五章 關于鯨的大畫像
I shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas, something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored alongside the whaleship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there. It may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day confidently challenge the faith of the landsman. It is time to set the world right in this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all wrong.
再一會兒，我不必用畫布，就可以象那些名家一樣，給你們各位畫出一種真正的鯨來，畫得它在捕鯨者看來，實際上就是一只拉到捕鯨船邊來的純真的鯨，好教他一腳就跨上它的身體。因此，先來談談它那種想象上的古怪的畫像，倒是值得一做的，因為那些畫像，甚至時至今日，還能贏得陸地人的深切的信任。現在正是證明這些鯨的畫像是完全錯誤的，從而在這個問題上糾正世人的觀感的時候了。
It may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will be found among the oldest Hindoo, Egyptian, and Grecian sculptures. For ever since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble panellings of temples, the pedestals of statues, and on shields, medallions, cups, and coins, the dolphin was drawn in scales of chain-armor like Saladin's, and a helmeted head like St. George's; ever since then has something of the same sort of license prevailed, not only in most popular pictures of the whale, but in many scientific presentations of him.
在最古老的印度，埃及和希臘的雕刻品中，也許還可以找到所有這些自欺欺人的圖畫的原始來源。因為自從那個巧計百出而肆無忌憚的時期以來，不論在廟宇的大理石嵌板細工上，在雕像架上，在盾牌上，大獎章上，杯子和錢幣上，海豚都被畫得跟薩拉丁(薩拉丁(1138—1193)——敘利亞和埃及皇帝，以反抗十字軍侵略著名，一一九二年迫使十字軍結束第三次東征。)的鎖子甲一般大小，那只戴了鋼盔的腦袋則象圣喬治(圣喬治(？—303？)——英國的守護神。)的戴了鋼盔的腦袋一樣；自從那時以來，就流行這樣一種風氣，它不但表現在最通行的鯨畫像上，還表現在許多有關鯨的科學論著上。
