But even stripped of these supernatural surmisings, there was enough in the earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike the imagination with unwonted power.
但是,即使剝?nèi)ミ@些超自然的揣測(cè)的外衣,光就這巨獸的體態(tài)和明顯的特點(diǎn)來說,就足以使人對(duì)它產(chǎn)生一種力大無比的想象。
For, it was not so much his uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales, but, as was elsewhere thrown out--a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump.
因?yàn)?它跟其它一些抹香鯨的巨大的區(qū)別,并不在于它那非凡的體軀,而是在于一如已在另些地方偶然提到的...一個(gè)雪白異常的。皺結(jié)的前額,和一個(gè)高高的,金字塔似的白色背峰。
These were his prominent features; the tokens whereby, even in the limitless, uncharted seas, he revealed his identity, at a long distance, to those who knew him.
這就是它的顯著特征,憑它這些特征,甚至在無際無垠的。地圖上找不到名稱的海面上,在老遠(yuǎn)的地方,一碰上認(rèn)識(shí)它的人,它的身份就暴露了。
The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with the same shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive appellation of the White Whale;
至于它身體的其余部分,因?yàn)槎际切l紋,斑點(diǎn),又有跟它身上同樣顏色的大理石紋,所以,到頭來,就得到了它那特征的稱號(hào)白鯨了;
a name, indeed, literally justified by his vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden gleamings.
(如果時(shí)當(dāng)午刻,看到它慢慢地穿過深藍(lán)色的海面,)撇下一道泡沫濃膩。銀河似的長痕,激起一片閃耀金光,那么,它那生動(dòng)的神態(tài),就顯得白鯨這個(gè)名稱真是名副其實(shí)了。
Nor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his deformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural terror, as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to specific accounts, he had over and over again evinced in his assaults.
這種鯨之所以天生使人畏懼,與其說是由于它那罕有的碩大,突出的色澤,畸形的下顎,倒不如說是(按照它那特有的情形說來)由于它在突擊的時(shí)候,一再表現(xiàn)出來的那種無以倫比的充滿機(jī)智的陰險(xiǎn)。