英語聽書《白鯨記》第861期

But soon my line was out; and following it back, I emerged from the opening where I entered. I saw no living thing within; naught was there but bones.

可是，不一會，我的麻線拉完了；只得順著麻線打回頭，從剛才進去的那個缺口出來。我看不到里面有什么生物；看來看去只是一些骨頭。

Cutting me a green measuring-rod, I once more ped within the skeleton. From their arrow-slit in the skull, the priests perceived me taking the altitude of the final rib, "How now!" they shouted; "Dar'st thou measure this our god! That's for us." "Aye, priests—well, how long do ye make him, then?" But hereupon a fierce contest rose among them, concerning feet and inches; they cracked each other's sconces with their yard-sticks— the great skull echoed—and seizing that lucky chance, I quickly concluded my own admeasurements.

我砍了一根碧綠的量竿，又再一次地跑到骷髏里面去。那些僧人從腦殼的弓形裂口上，看到我在量著最后一根肋骨的高度。"怎么啦！"他們都叫嚷道；"你竟膽敢量起我們這個大神來！那是要我們來量的。""啊，僧人們——那么，你們量的長短是多少呀？"于是乎，他們就掀起一陣有關(guān)尺寸的激烈的爭辯；他們用量碼敲打著彼此的腦袋——弄得那只大腦殼也發(fā)出了回聲——我抓住這個大好機會，連忙結(jié)束我自己的度量工作。

These admeasurements I now propose to set before you. But first, be it recorded, that, in this matter, I am not free to utter any fancied measurements I please. Because there are skeleton authorities you can refer to, to test my accuracy. There is a Leviathanic Museum, they tell me, in Hull, England, one of the whaling ports of that country, where they have some fine specimens of fin-backs and other whales. Likewise, I have heard that in the museum of Manchester, in New Hampshire, they have what the proprietors call "the only perfect specimen of a Greenland or River Whale in the United States." Moreover, at a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale, but of moderate size, by no means of the full-grown magnitude of my friend King Tranquo's.

我現(xiàn)在打算把量來的這些尺寸告訴你們。不過，首先請把它記下來，因為在這方面，我所想說的尺寸是不能隨便亂說的。因為骷髏的權(quán)威家有的是，你盡可以去請教他們，以檢驗我是否量得準確。據(jù)說，在英國的赫爾（赫爾——在英國約克郡邊境的一個商港。），在英國這個捕鯨港，有個大鯨博物館，在那里，陳列有幾只脊鰭鯨和其它大鯨的頗為精美的標本。同樣地，我也聽到人們說，在新罕布什爾的孟徹斯特博物館中，也陳列有一些物主管它叫"美國唯一的格陵蘭或者河鯨的地道標本"。而且，在英國的約克郡，有一個叫做伯頓·康斯特布爾的地方，有某一位叫做克利福德·康斯特布爾爵士的，家里藏有一只抹香鯨的骷髏，不過，那是一條中型的鯨，絕不能跟我的朋友托朗魁王那只茁壯的巨物相比。

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