In good time, nevertheless, as the ardor of youth declines; as years and dumps increase; as reflection lends her solemn pauses; in short, as a general lassitude overtakes the sated Turk; then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; our Ottoman enters upon the impotent, repentant, admonitory stage of life, forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers, and warning each young Leviathan from his amorous errors.
然而,到了相当的时候,随着青春活力的衰退,随着年事日长,烦恼增加,随着反射作用的真正终止;总之,随着这个饱餍的土耳其人已经意兴阑珊;于是,从前的爱美人就为如今的爱安逸、修德行所取而代之了;这样,我们这位土耳其贵族便开始踏上体衰力弱、自我忏悔、劝人行善的生活阶段,毅然遣散全部妻妾,精神逐渐阴郁、苍老、事事都想为人表率,孤身寡人地到处走动,诵经祈祷,并以自己的情海孽恨告诫年青的鲸莫蹈覆辙。
Now, as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school, so is the lord and master of that school technically known as the schoolmaster. It is therefore not in strict character, however admirably satirical, that after going to school himself, he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly of it. His title, schoolmaster, would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself, but some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read the memoirs of Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a country-schoolmaster that famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and what was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils.
既然鲸类的妻妾,捕鱼人都管它叫做学校,那么,这个学校的主持人顾名思义就得称为校长了。因此,不管多么奇妙可笑,这并不是很严格地说,它自己进了学校之后,它出洋讲学所灌输的,就一定不是它所在行的东西,只是乱搞一通罢了。它这个校长的称号,虽则十分自然地,似乎是来自那赐给它的妻妾的名称,不过,有人不免推测,认为那个这样首先给这种土耳其贵族的大鲸封上这个尊号的人,一定读过了维多克(欧仁·弗朗索瓦·维多克(1775-1857)——法国冒险家,拐子,骗子,曾被流放后越狱。一八零九年左右充捕快眼线,升为巡长,一直做到保安厅长。他专事化装混入犯人群中,从中窃取案情秘密后报告警局。他著有《回忆录》一册。其中叙述他怎样在一个乡村女学校中教书,表面上装做一个修道士,实际上却在干着勾引学生的可耻的勾当。)的《回忆录》,还熟知这个著名的法国人在少年的时候,是个什么样的乡村小学校校长,也知道他对他的一些学生灌输了什么神秘性质的课程。