英语听书《白鲸记》第456期

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a truth the more evinced in this, that by a solecism of terms there are birds called grey albatrosses;  这见之于一种由于用词不当而被称为灰信天翁的鸟,便更见确实了;

and these I have frequently seen, but never with such emotions as when I beheld³ the Antarctic fowl⁴. 虽然我常常见到这种鸟,却从来没有象我看到这只南极鸟时这样的激动。

But how had the mystic thing been caught?  可是,这只神秘的东西是怎样被捉到的呢?

Whisper it not, and I will tell; with a treacherous⁵ hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea.  请别作声,容我道来;它在海上漂的时候,只消用只诡诈的钩子和一根绳子就行。

At last the Captain made a postman of it; tying a lettered, leathern tally⁶ round its neck, with the ship's time and place; and then letting it escape.  最后,船长叫它当一下信差,在它的颈上缚着一件似皮制的。有字的符印,上面写着船只的时间和地点;然后,就让它飞走。

But I doubt not, that leathern tally, meant for man, was taken off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding, the invoking⁷, and adoring cherubim! 但是,我确定,那块似皮制的符印,按照人类的本意,是要它飞到那合着翅膀,有祈求力,受人崇拜的小天使群里,去交给天国的。 　

Most famous in our Western annals and Indian traditions is that of the White Steed of the Prairies;  山脉和阿利根尼山脉一带。当它昂起那如火的脑袋向西疾驰的时候,就跟每天晚上那颗诱使群星发光的神选的明星一样。

a magnificent milk-white charger, large-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a thousand monarchs⁸ in his lofty, overscorning carriage.  那滚滚如小瀑布的鬃毛,那弧形如彗星的尾巴,都使它的鞍褥比之银匠所能给它装备的更为辉煌灿烂。

He was the elected Xerxes of vast herds⁹ of wild horses, whose pastures in those days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies.  它是那种不朽的西方世界的最庄严和天使似的幽灵,在古代的设陷阱者和猎手看来,就是原始时代的光荣的再现,当时亚当就象这匹雄伟的骏马一样显赫,昂首无畏。

At their flaming head he westward¹⁰ trooped it like that chosen star which every evening leads on the hosts of light. The flashing cascade¹¹ of his mane, the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings more resplendent than gold and silver-beaters could have furnished him.  步武庄重地走着。不论是置身在它的僚属和将领之间,率领着那些一望无垠地布满整个平原(象一个俄亥俄州)的无数部队前进,还是置身于遍地的臣民之中,这只白驹总是衬着它那冷冷的乳白色吸溜着热得发红的鼻孔,往前驰骋。

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