英语听书《白鲸记》第568期

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　　their deformities floundering in seas of blood and blue paint. 它们那些畸形的躯体就在红红绿绿的油漆的海洋里翻腾着。

　　But these manifold mistakes in depicting³ the whale are not so very surprising after all. 不过，描画鲸的这种错误百出的情形，毕竟还不算是顶惊人的。

　　Consider! Most of the scientific drawings have been taken from the stranded⁴ fish; 请想一想吧！大多数科学家的绘画都是以被打死了的鱼为蓝本的；

　　and these are about as correct as a drawing of a wrecked⁵ ship, with broken back, would correctly represent the noble animal itself in all its undashed pride of hull⁶ and spars. 其实，这种做法，虽想表现出这种未遭打击、浑身光滑的高贵的动物的原来的雄姿，但其正确性，充其量不过是跟画一只打烂了龙骨的失事船以代表船只一样而已。

　　Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the living Leviathan has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait. 虽然人们可以给大象拍个全身照，然而，这种活生生的大海兽可从来还没有自己浮得端端正正、让人家来给他写生的。

　　The living whale, in his full majesty⁷ and significance, is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters; 这种活生生的鲸，人们只能在海洋的无底的深渊里，才看得到它那气象万千的威仪。

　　and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship; 等到它那硕大的躯干一泛上来的时候，它已是在望不到的远方，象一种开动的战舰那样的游去了；

　　and out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist⁸ him bodily into the air, so as to preserve all his mighty⁹ swells¹⁰ and undulations. 为了保存它那万千壮仪和波动起伏的雄姿，而想把它弄出水来，整个吊在空中，却是人类永远无能为力的事。

　　And, not to speak of the highly presumable difference of contour between a young suckling whale and a full-grown Platonian Leviathan;  至于一条小鲸跟一条身强力壮的柏拉图式的大鲸之间，具有很可以推想得到的不同的轮廓，更是不必说了，

　　yet, even in the case of one of those young sucking whales hoisted¹¹ to a ship's deck,  而且，就算万一有这样一条小鲸被吊上船甲板，

　　such is then the outlandish, eel-like, limbered, varying shape of him, that his precise expression the devil himself could not catch. 可是，象它那种奇异的、滑溜溜、软绵绵、千变万化的形态，怕连魔鬼本人也领悟不了它的真相。

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