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Far above all other hunted whales, his is an unwritten life.
抹香鲸的情况远比不上一切已被捕获的大鲸,关于它的生活情形仍是一片空白。
Now the various species of whales need some sort of popular comprehensive classification, if only an easy outline one for the present, hereafter to be filled in all-outward its departments by subsequent laborers. As no better man advances to take this matter in hand, I hereupon offer my own poor endeavors. I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete must for that very reason infallibly be faulty. I shall not pretend to a minute anatomical description of the various species, or--in this space at least-to much of any description. My object here is simply to project the draught of a systematization of cetology. I am the architect, not the builder.
现在对各种大鲸必须作出一种通俗易懂的分类来,如果暂时能够做出一个简便的纲要,让以后的劳作者去分门别类地进行补充也就不错了。既然没有高明人士来做这种事情,那我就不揣冒昧地尝试一番。我一点也不敢说能做得完满,因为任何一个自以为会做得完满的人,一定会由此而招致错误。我也不想从解剖学角度详细记述各种大鲸,也不想...至少在这里...做出任何过多的记述。我的目的只想勾勒出一幅鲸类学的有系统的草图来。我是工程师,而不是营造者。
But it is a ponderous task; no ordinary letter-sorter in the Post-Office is equal to it. To grope down into the bottom of the sea after them; to have one's hands among the unspeakable foundations, ribs, and very pelvis of the world; this is a fearful thing. What am I that I should essay to hook the nose of this leviathan! The awful tauntings in Job might well appal me. "Will he (the leviathan) make a covenant with thee? Behold the hope of him is vain! But I have swam through libraries and sailed through oceans; I have had to do with whales with these visible hands; I am in earnest; and I will try. There are some preliminaries to settle.
不过,这可是一件烦重的工作,决不是通常的邮政局检信员所能胜任的。得钻到海底里跟踪摸索,得把双手去探索世间所无法描摹的喷泉。肋骨和骨盆;这是一件可怕的事情。我是什么人,竟敢企图去钩住这种大海兽的鼻子!约伯遭到的那种可怕的奚落就足以把我吓坏了。"他(大海兽)岂肯与你立约?人们指望捉拿他,是徒然的!"但是,我已经跑遍了许多图书馆,航遍了各大洋;我只得用我这双看得见的手来处置这些大鲸;我是认认真真的,因此,我要试一试。这里得把一些准备工作安排一下。
