評論
打印
For even when tranquilly swimming through the mid-day sea in a calm, with his elevated hump sun-dried as a dromedary's in the desert; even then, the whale always carries a small basin of water on his head, as under a blazing sun you will sometimes see a cavity in a rock filled up with rain.
因為即使當它悠閑地游過風平浪靜的正午的海面，它那聳起的背峰給太陽曬干得象沙漠上的單峰駱駝的背峰一般的時候；即使在這種時候，鯨頭上也往往帶有一小盆水，一如在烈日當空的照射下，你往往會看到巖穴里灌滿著一攤雨水一樣。
Nor is it at all prudent for the hunter to be over curious touching the precise nature of the whale spout. It will not do for him to be peering into it, and putting his face in it. You cannot go with your pitcher to this fountain and fill it, and bring it away. For even when coming into slight contact with the outer, vapory shreds of the jet, which will often happen, your skin will feverishly smart, from the acridness of the thing so touching it. And I know one, who coming into still closer contact with the spout, whether with some scientific object in view, or otherwise, I cannot say, the skin peeled off from his cheek and arm. Wherefore, among whalemen, the spout is deemed poisonous; they try to evade it. Another thing; I have heard it said, and I do not much doubt it, that if the jet is fairly spouted into your eyes, it will blind you. The wisest thing the investigator can do then, it seems to me, is to let this deadly spout alone.
而且，獵人們根本也不會好奇得不顧一切危險，去細究一下那條大鯨的噴水究竟是怎么一種東西。要他細細地去瞧一瞧，把臉也鉆進去，他是不干的。你總不能拿著一只水壺跑到這種噴泉邊，把水裝滿后，再把它拿回來（參閱《舊約·傳道書》第十二章六節(jié)："銀鏈折斷，金罐破裂，瓶子在泉旁損壞，水輪在井口破爛。"）。因為即使跟這種噴水的外圍的霧氣稍微接觸一下，往往就會教你皮膚火辣辣的疼痛，好象碰上什么腐蝕性的東西。我還知道有這樣一個人，他因為跟噴水靠得太攏，至于他究竟是懷著一種科學的目的，還是別有原因，我可說不上來，總之，他的臉上、臂上的皮膚卻坼裂開來了。所以，捕鯨人總是把這種噴水看做毒性奇重的東西，大家都設法對它遠而避之。還有，我聽說，我對這事情也不很表懷疑，那就是，如果那噴水正好噴進了你的眼睛，準會教你眼睛瞎了。所以據(jù)我看來，專愛尋根究底的人，還是把這種可怕的噴水擱在一邊為上。
Still, we can hypothesize, even if we cannot prove and establish. My hypothesis is this: that the spout is nothing but mist.
不過，盡管我們既不能證實，也不能得出結論，我們也還可以假設一番。我的假設是這樣的：這種噴水其實就是霧氣。
