評論
打印
But as the colossal skull embraces so very large a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton; as it is by far the most complicated part; and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in this chapter, you must not fail to carry it in your mind, or under your arm, as we proceed, otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the general structure we are about to view.
不過，因為這個碩大的腦殼占著整個骷髏非常大的比例；它又是極其復雜的部分；同時，在這方面，本章又不想再重復，所以在我說下去的時候，你必須時刻把它謹記在心，或者謹慎地挾在腋窩里，否則，你對于我們將要觀察的整個結構，就將不能獲得全豹。
In length, the Sperm Whale's skeleton at Tranque measured seventy-two feet: so that when fully invested and extended in life, he must have been ninety feet long; for in the whale, the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body. Of this seventy-two feet, his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet, leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone. Attached to this back-bone, for something less than a third of its length, was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals.
托朗郭那條抹香鯨骷髏的長度是七十二英尺；所以，當它有頭有尾。是一只活生生的東西的時候，它一定就有九十英尺長；因為鯨骷髏跟活鯨比起來，長度總得縮小五分之一。在這七十二英尺中，它的腦殼和嘴巴要占去二十英尺，那根背脊骨大約也有五十英尺。跟這根背脊骨相連的，長度只有脊骨三分之一不到點，就是那個一度裹住它的重要器官的。滿是肋骨的大圍籃。
To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine, extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks, when only some twenty of her naked bow-ribs are inserted, and the keel is otherwise, for the time, but a long, disconnected timber.
在我看來，這個象牙圍墻似的大胸脯，有著平坦的長椎骨，一條直線似的從那中間老遠地伸展出去，可真象一只剛造好的、放在造船架上的大船殼，只消給它插上一二十根光堂堂的船頭肋骨，暫時把那根龍骨換上一根不相連接的長木頭就行了。
