英语听书《白鲸记》第474期

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which, resuming his own intense thoughts through the day, 这些日有所思。

carried them on amid a clashing of phrensies, 夜有所梦的紧张梦景，又把思潮继续带到如癫如狂的战阵里，

and whirled them round and round and round in his blazing brain，till the very throbbing¹ of his life-spot became insufferable anguish²; 在他那熊熊烈火的脑壳里不停地打旋，旋得他那唯一的生命之火激成难抑的苦楚；

and when, as was sometimes the case, 而且有时候，往往是这般情况，

these spiritual throes in him heaved his being up from its base, 即在他这种精神的苦楚把他弄得魂灵出窍时，

and a chasm³ seemed opening in him, 他体内就似乎豁成一个大坑，

from which forked flames and lightnings shot up, 交叉的火光都打坑里直射出来，

and accursed fiends beckoned⁴ him to leap down among them; 那些该死的恶魔都在招呼他跳下去跟它们在一起；

when this hell in himself yawned beneath him, 等到他体内这个地狱大张其口的时候，

a wild cry would be heard through the ship; 通船便会听到一阵狂叫声；

and with glaring eyes Ahab would burst from his state room, 接着，亚哈就瞪着双眼，打他的舱室里冲了出来，

as though escaping from a bed that was on fire.  仿佛是从一只着了火的床铺里逃出来。

Yet these, perhaps, instead of being the unsuppressable symptoms of some latent weakness, 然而这一切，也许不能说是他暴露了他的压制不住的弱点，

or fright at his own resolve, 也不能说是他对自己的决心有所动摇，

were but the plainest tokens of its intensity⁵. 而只能说是它那剧烈的程度的最明白的表现。

For, at such times, crazy Ahab, the scheming, unappeasedly steadfast⁶ hunter of the white whale;  因为，在这种时候，疯疯癫癫的亚哈，这个深谋远虑。决不妥协。信心坚决的白鲸猎手；

this Ahab that had gone to his hammock, 这个已经上了他那只吊铺的亚哈，

was not the agent that so caused him to burst from it in horror again. 使他那么一吓又打吊铺冲了出来的，

The latter was the eternal, living principle or soul in him; 并不是什么动力，动力本来就是他的永恒长存的本原，或者是他的灵魂；

and in sleep, 睡觉的时候，

being for the time dissociated from the characterizing mind, 因为是暂时跟那具有特性的精神失去了联系

which at other times employed it for its outer vehicle or agent, (这种精神，平时是用来做它的外界的传达手段和动力的)，

it spontaneously sought escape from the scorching⁷ contiguity⁸ of the frantic⁹ thing, 精神就自然而然地想摆脱那种狂乱的事物的热烈的接触，

of which, for the time, it was no longer an integral. 精神也就暂时不是一个整体了。

But as the mind does not exist unless leagued with the soul, 但是，因为精神如不与灵魂相结合，精神就不可能存在，

therefore it must have been that, 因此，就亚哈的情况说来，

in Ahab's case, yielding up all his thoughts and fancies to his one supreme¹⁰ purpose;  精神一定已经是把他种种思想和想象都化成他那唯一的最高的目的了；

that purpose, by its own sheer inveteracy¹¹ of will, 这种目的，全然由于它本身的宿愿所驱使，

forced itself against gods and devils into a kind of self-assumed, independent being of its own. 不得不由反抗鬼神而成为目的本身的一种独断独行。独来独往的东西。

Nay¹², could grimly live and burn, while the common vitality¹³ to which it was conjoined, 而且，当它一跟通常的活力相结合时，就会凶猛地表现出来，燃烧起来，

fled horror-stricken from the unbidden and unfathered birth. 逃避得了一切无缘无由的恐吓。

Therefore, the tormented¹⁴ spirit that glared out of bodily eyes, when what seemed Ahab rushed from his room, 因此，当亚哈从他房间里奔出来的时候，他肉眼所闪出来的那种苦恼的神色，

was for the time but a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic being, 好象暂时就是一种空泛泛的东西，是一个不具形体的梦游病者，

a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an object to color, 是一线天然的光，而且确实没有什么色彩，因此，就其本身说来，

and therefore a blankness in itself. 只是一片空白而已。

God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; 愿上帝扶助你啊，老人，你的思潮已在你身上创造出了一个生物。

and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; 他的紧张的思潮已经使他成为一个普罗米修斯了。

a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; 鹰隼永远在啄食着那个心胸，

that vulture the very creature he creates. 那只鹰隼就正是他所创造的生物。

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