Nevertheless, Leviathan is of so mighty a magnitude, all his proportions are so stately, that the same deficiency which in the sculptured Jove were hideous, in him is no blemish at all. Nay, it is an added grandeur. A nose to the whale would have been impertinent. As on your physiognomical voyage you sail round his vast head in your jollyboat, your noble conceptions of him are never insulted by the reflection that he has a nose to be pulled. A pestilent conceit, which so often will insist upon obtruding even when beholding the mightiest royal beadle on his throne.
不過,大鯨是屬于一種巍然大物的,它的身體各部都非常雄偉,因此這種在雕像的約芙說來是十分不雅觀的缺陷,在它說來,卻是毫無瑕疵可言。而且,這反而使它別具壯觀。大鯨有沒有鼻子是完全無關(guān)緊要的。當(dāng)你坐著你那怡然小艇,繞著它那只大頭,去做一番看相航行的時(shí)候,你對(duì)它那崇高印象絕不因?yàn)樗鼪]有鼻子而感到很不雅觀。懷著一種有損無益的奇想的人,哪怕看到皇座上高踞著一個(gè)神氣活現(xiàn)的小吏,也往往一定要認(rèn)為非常之不順眼。
In some particulars, perhaps the most imposing physiognomical view to be had of the Sperm Whale, is that of the full front of his head. This aspect is sublime.
在某些方面說來,也許抹香鯨最具有堂皇的相術(shù)上的意義的,就是它那頭部的豐滿的面孔了。這個(gè)面貌真是莊嚴(yán)。
In thought, a fine human brow is like the East when troubled with the morning. In the repose of the pasture, the curled brow of the bull has a touch of the grand in it. Pushing heavy cannon up mountain defiles, the elephant's brow is majestic. Human or animal, the mystical brow is as that great golden seal affixed by the German Emperors to their decrees. It signifies—"God: done this day by my hand." But in most creatures, nay in man himself, very often the brow is but a mere strip of alpine land lying along the snow line.
一只優(yōu)美的人額,在七思八想的時(shí)候,就跟朝暾初動(dòng)的東方景色一樣。一只在牧場(chǎng)上體憩的大牯牛,它那卷曲的前額就有一點(diǎn)兒宏偉的氣概。一只大象在推著重炮走上狹隘的山道時(shí),它的額頭也是很威嚴(yán)的。不論是人類還是獸類,那個(gè)神秘的額頭就象是那些德國皇帝蓋在他們的告示上那只大金印一樣。它標(biāo)志出:"主呀,這就是我今天親手所做的事。"不但是人類,就是在大多數(shù)的動(dòng)物中,額頭往往也不過是象雪線上的一片高地。