英语听书《白鲸记》第270期

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Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it.  南塔开特!你不妨拿出地图来瞧一瞧。

See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse.  看它究竟是在这世界的哪个角落里;看它是怎样一种形势,它远离陆地,比厄梯斯通灯塔还要孤寂。

Look at it-a mere² hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background.  你瞧...它只不过是个小山丘,一弯沙地;全是沙滩,无依无靠。

There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting³ paper.  那些沙可够你当吸水纸用上二十年而绰有余裕。

Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don't grow naturally;  有些爱开玩笑的家伙会对你说:南塔开特人得在沙地上种杂草,因为那儿没有天生的杂草;

that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask;  又说他们从加拿大运来了蓟草,他们为了要堵住一只油桶的裂口,得远涉重洋去找一只塞子;

that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome;  又说南塔开特人把几片柴块背来背去,犹如罗马人背了几个真正的十字架;

that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time;  这里的人都在屋前种菌,以便夏天在菌荫下乘凉;

that one blade of grass makes an oasis⁴, three blades in a day's walk a prairie;  又说什么一片青草就可成为一个绿洲,三片青草就足以成为走上一天的大草原;

that they wear quicksand shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes;  他们都穿着流砂的鞋子,有点象拉伯兰人的雪靴;

that they are so shut up, belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean,  最后说是因为他们这么被海洋所困所围,四面团团围起而成为一个孤岛,

that to their very chairs and tables small clams⁵ will sometimes be found adhering as to the backs of sea turtles.  以致他们的台子椅子往往都粘上了小贝壳,如同海龟的背上粘着贝壳那般。

But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois. 总之,这些夸张其词的说法,无非是要表示南塔开特不能跟伊利诺斯州相提并论而已。

Look now at the wondrous⁶ traditional story of how this island was settled by the red-men. Thus goes the legend.  现在让我们来看看红种人怎样在这个岛上定居下来的那一奇特的传说吧。传奇上是这样说的:

In olden times an eagle swooped⁷ down upon the New England coast and carried off an infant Indian in his talons⁸.  古时候,有一只鹰突然猛飞下来,扑落在新英格兰的海岸上,攫走了一个印第安的婴孩。

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