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I assert, then, that in the wondrous bodily whiteness of the bird chiefly lurks the secret of the spell;
于是,我坚称,在这种浑身白色的奇妙的鸟身上,主要地就隐存有一种符咒的秘密;
a truth the more evinced in this, that by a solecism of terms there are birds called grey albatrosses;
这见之于一种由于用词不当而被称为灰信天翁的鸟,便更见确实了;
and these I have frequently seen, but never with such emotions as when I beheld the Antarctic fowl.
虽然我常常见到这种鸟,却从来没有象我看到这只南极鸟时这样的激动。
But how had the mystic thing been caught?
可是,这只神秘的东西是怎样被捉到的呢?
Whisper it not, and I will tell; with a treacherous hook and line, as the fowl floated on the sea.
请别作声,容我道来;它在海上漂的时候,只消用只诡诈的钩子和一根绳子就行。
At last the Captain made a postman of it; tying a lettered, leathern tally round its neck, with the ship's time and place; and then letting it escape.
最后,船长叫它当一下信差,在它的颈上缚着一件似皮制的。有字的符印,上面写着船只的时间和地点;然后,就让它飞走。
But I doubt not, that leathern tally, meant for man, was taken off in Heaven, when the white fowl flew to join the wing-folding, the invoking, and adoring cherubim!
但是,我确定,那块似皮制的符印,按照人类的本意,是要它飞到那合着翅膀,有祈求力,受人崇拜的小天使群里,去交给天国的。
Most famous in our Western annals and Indian traditions is that of the White Steed of the Prairies;
山脉和阿利根尼山脉一带。当它昂起那如火的脑袋向西疾驰的时候,就跟每天晚上那颗诱使群星发光的神选的明星一样。
a magnificent milk-white charger, large-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a thousand monarchs in his lofty, overscorning carriage.
那滚滚如小瀑布的鬃毛,那弧形如彗星的尾巴,都使它的鞍褥比之银匠所能给它装备的更为辉煌灿烂。
He was the elected Xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in those days were only fenced by the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies.
它是那种不朽的西方世界的最庄严和天使似的幽灵,在古代的设陷阱者和猎手看来,就是原始时代的光荣的再现,当时亚当就象这匹雄伟的骏马一样显赫,昂首无畏。
At their flaming head he westward trooped it like that chosen star which every evening leads on the hosts of light. The flashing cascade of his mane, the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings more resplendent than gold and silver-beaters could have furnished him.
步武庄重地走着。不论是置身在它的僚属和将领之间,率领着那些一望无垠地布满整个平原(象一个俄亥俄州)的无数部队前进,还是置身于遍地的臣民之中,这只白驹总是衬着它那冷冷的乳白色吸溜着热得发红的鼻孔,往前驰骋。
