英語聽書《白鯨記》第873期

They keep a Whale's Rib of an incredible length for a Miracle, which lying upon the Ground with its convex part uppermost, makes an Arch, the Head of which cannot be reached by a Man upon a Camel's Back. This Rib (says John Leo) is said to have layn there a hundred Years before I saw it. Their Historians affirm, that a Prophet who prophesy'd of Mahomet, came from this Temple, and some do not stand to assert, that the Prophet Jonas was cast forth by the Whale at the Base of the Temple.

廟里把一根長得叫人不能置信的肋骨保存在那里，當(dāng)作一種奇跡，它放在地上彎得非常厲害，形成個大拱門，那頂端，人就是站在駱駝背上，也伸手摸不到它。這根肋骨（據(jù)約翰·里奧說）據(jù)說是早在我看到的一百年前就放在那里了。他們的歷史家們斷言，有一個預(yù)言過穆罕默德的預(yù)言家是從這個廟里出來的，有些人則毫不猶豫地主張，那個叫做約拿的先知，就是被那條大鯨在這個廟底下吐出來的。

In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be a Nantucketer, and a whaleman, you will silently worship there.

看書的，我就讓你呆在這座放著大鯨的非洲古廟里，我可要走了，如果你是個南塔開特人又兼是個捕鯨人的話，你準(zhǔn)會在那里悄悄地膜拜一番。

Chapter 105 Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? — Will He Perish?

第一百零五章 鯨的龐大身軀會縮小么？——它會滅亡嗎？

Inasmuch, then, as this Leviathan comes floundering down upon us from the head-waters of the Eternities, it may be fitly inquired, whether, in the long course of his generations, he has not degenerated from the original bulk of his sires.

這種大鯨既然是從那永遠(yuǎn)不變的河源翻騰出來，突然襲擊我們，那么，似該對它適當(dāng)?shù)刈肪恳幌?，究竟在它那代代相仍的綿長過程中，它那來自祖先的身軀，是否已經(jīng)有所退化了。

But upon investigation we find, that not only are the whales of the present day superior in magnitude to those whose fossil remains are found in the Tertiary system (embracing a distinct geological period prior to man), but of the whales found in that Tertiary system, those belonging to its latter formations exceed in size those of its earlier ones.

但是，根據(jù)調(diào)查所得，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)：現(xiàn)代大鯨的身軀，不但在身軀宏大上超過那些在第三紀(jì)系所發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石殘?。ǖ谌o(jì)系是包括人類出現(xiàn)以前的一種特殊的地質(zhì)年代紀(jì)），而且那些在第三紀(jì)系所發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石鯨，其體積也超過早期的化石鯨。

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