英語(yǔ)聽書《白鯨記》第696期
Few are the foreheads which like Shakespeare's or Melancthon's rise so high, and descend so low, that the eyes themselves seem clear, eternal, tideless mountain lakes; and all above them in the forehead's wrinkles, you seem to track the antlered thoughts descending there to drink, as the Highland hunters track the snow prints of the deer. But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature. For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is revealed; no nose, eyes, ears, or mouth; no face; he has none, proper; nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men. Nor, in profile, does this wondrous brow diminish; though that way viewed its grandeur does not domineer upon you so. In profile, you plainly perceive that horizontal, semi-crescentic depression in the forehead's middle, which, in a man, is Lavater's mark of genius.
有著象莎士比亞或者是梅朗克吞（菲利甫·梅朗克吞（1497—1560）——德國(guó)的路德教派的改革者。）那樣高高隆起、低低下降的額頭的終究是為數(shù)不多。他們的眼睛始終象是清澈無浪的湖面，而且在他們的額頭上的皺紋中，似乎使人可以找到那些正從額頭上滑下來飲水的長(zhǎng)有鹿角似的思想，一如高地的獵戶找到雪地里的鹿腳印那樣的。可是，就大抹香鯨說來，它額頭上這種又高聳又威嚴(yán)，一如神靈的儀表卻是不勝縷述的，所以朝它一望，就使人從它那整個(gè)面貌中，感到有一種比之看到其它任何生物的額頭更具有非常恐怖的神力。因?yàn)槿魏我稽c(diǎn)都教人看不真切，一點(diǎn)也看不到那明顯的面貌；它既沒有鼻子，眼睛，耳朵，也沒有嘴巴，面孔；總之，從嚴(yán)格的意義上說，它什么都沒有；它什么都沒有，只有一個(gè)有如遼闊的蒼穹的前額，莫名其妙地打著褶裥，不聲不響地一折下去就叫小艇、大船和人都送了終。而且從側(cè)面看去，這個(gè)額頭的怪相也毫不減色；雖然就那樣看來，它那壯麗的神氣好象不大教人覺得咄咄可怕。不過，從側(cè)面看去，人們卻可以清晰地看到它前額正中那種橫式的。半彎形的凹狀，這個(gè)，就人類說來，就是拉瓦特的所謂天才的表征。
But how? Genius in the Sperm Whale? Has the Sperm Whale ever written a book, spoken a speech? No, his great genius is declared in his doing nothing particular to prove it.
可是，這怎么啦？抹香鯨也有天才？難道抹香鯨曾著過一本書，發(fā)表過一篇演講么？不，它的偉大的天才是表現(xiàn)在它那一點(diǎn)也沒有特別可加證實(shí)的行為上。
