In the first place, I wish to lay before you a particular, plain statement, touching the living bulk of this leviathan, whose skeleton we are briefly to exhibit. —
首先，我希望向您提供一份特定而明确的声明，关于我们将简要展示的这头庞然大物的活体，即鲸骨。 —

Such a statement may prove useful here.
这样的陈述在这里可能会有所帮助。

According to a careful calculation I have made, and which I partly base upon Captain Scoresby’s estimate, of seventy tons for the largest sized Greenland whale of sixty feet in length; —
根据我所做的仔细计算，部分基于斯科斯比船长对长60英尺的最大格陵兰鲸估计为七十吨； —

according to my careful calculation, I say, a Sperm Whale of the largest magnitude, between eighty-five and ninety feet in length, and something less than forty feet in its fullest circumference, such a whale will weigh at least ninety tons; —
根据我的精确计算，一个长度在八十五至九十英尺之间，最大体积的抹香鲸，其最大周长不到四十英尺，这样一头鲸至少会重九十吨； —

so that, reckoning thirteen men to a ton, he would considerably outweigh the combined population of a whole village of one thousand one hundred inhabitants.
因此，按照一吨十三人的计算，他将远远超过一个拥有一千一百位居民的整个村庄的总人口。

Think you not then that brains, like yoked cattle, should be put to this leviathan, to make him at all budge to any landsman’s imagination?
难道你不认为大脑像一对耕牛，应该被放在这头庞然大物的身上，以便让他对任何陆地上的想象产生影响吗？

Having already in various ways put before you his skull, spout-hole, jaw, teeth, tail, forehead, fins, and divers other parts, I shall now simply point out what is most interesting in the general bulk of his unobstructed bones. —
在各种方面已经向您展示了他的头骨、喷孔、下颚、牙齿、尾巴、额头、鳍和其他部分后，我现在只想指出他未受阻碍的骨骼的最有趣之处。 —

But as the colossal skull embraces so very large a proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton; —
但由于巨大的头骨占据整个骨架极大比例； —

as it is by far the most complicated part; —
因为它是远远最复杂的部分； —

and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it in this chapter, you must not fail to carry it in your mind, or under your arm, as we proceed, otherwise you will not gain a complete notion of the general structure we are about to view.
并且在本章中将不再重复提及任何关于它的内容，您在我们继续阅读的过程中必须要把它铭记在心中或放在手臂下，否则您将无法完全了解我们即将观看的整体结构。

In length, the Sperm Whale’s skeleton at Tranque measured seventy-two feet: —
在特兰克，抹香鲸的骨架长度为七十二英尺： —

so that when fully invested and extended in life, he must have been ninety feet long; —
因此，当生命充盈并延伸时，他必定高达九十英尺； —

for in the whale, the skeleton loses about one fifth in length compared with the living body. —
因为在鲸鱼身上，骨骼的长度相比活体要减少约五分之一。 —

Of this seventy-two feet, his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet, leaving some fifty feet of plain backbone. —
这七十二英尺中，他的头骨和下颚占据了约二十英尺，留下了约五十英尺的普通脊柱。 —

Attached to this back-bone, for something less than a third of its length, was the mighty circular basket of ribs which once enclosed his vitals.
附在这根脊柱上，不到三分之一的长度，是曾经包裹着他内脏的巨大圆形的肋篮。

To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine, extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks, when only some twenty of her naked bow-ribs are inserted, and the keel is otherwise, for the time, but a long, disconnected timber.
对我来说，这个巨大的像象牙一样的肋骨胸膛，和从中延伸出来的直线，不禁让我想起一艘新建成的大船的船体，当只有大概二十根裸露的船首肋骨插入时，龙骨在其他部分都只是一根长长的断开的木料。

The ribs were ten on a side. The first, to begin from the neck, was nearly six feet long; —
这些肋骨每边有十根。从颈部开始算，第一根近六英尺长； —

the second, third, and fourth were each successively longer, till you came to the climax of the fifth, or one of the middle ribs, which measured eight feet and some inches. —
第二、三、四根依次变长，直到第五根，也就是其中间的一根，测得有八英尺多一点。 —

From that part, the remaining ribs diminished, till the tenth and last only spanned five feet and some inches. —
从那部分开始，剩下的肋骨逐渐变短，直到最后的第十根只有五英尺几寸。 —

In general thickness, they all bore a seemly correspondence to their length. —
在一般的厚度上，它们长度与厚度似乎是匹配的。 —

The middle ribs were the most arched. In some of the Arsacides they are used for beams whereon to lay footpath bridges over small streams.
中间的肋骨呈现最大的拱形。在一些Arsacides中，它们被用作横跨小溪的人行桥上的横梁。

In considering these ribs, I could not but be struck anew with the circumstance, so variously repeated in this book, that the skeleton of the whale is by no means the mould of his invested form. —
在考虑这些肋骨时，我不禁又被这本书中反复出现的情况所震撼，鲸鱼的骨架绝对不是其投影形状的模具。 —

The largest of the Tranque ribs, one of the middle ones, occupied that part of the fish which, in life, is greatest in depth. —
Tranque最大的肋骨，其中间的一根，占据了这条鱼在生命中最深层的部分。 —

Now, the greatest depth of the invested body of this particular whale must have been at least sixteen feet; —
现在，这条鲸鱼的被包裹身体的最大深度至少得有十六英尺； —

whereas, the corresponding rib measured but little more than eight feet. —
然而，相应的肋骨只有八英尺多一点。 —

So that this rib only conveyed half of the true notion of the living magnitude of that part. —
所以，这根肋骨只传达出这一部分活体的真实大小的一半。 —

Besides, for some way, where I now saw but a naked spine, all that had been once wrapped round with tons of added bulk in flesh, muscle, blood, and bowels. —
此外，对于我现在所看到的一条裸露的脊柱的部分，曾经被吨的肉、肌肉、血液和内脏包装起来。 —

Still more, for the ample fins, I here saw but a few disordered joints; —
而对于宽大的鳍，我在这里只看到一些凌乱的关节； —

and in place of the weighty and majestic, but boneless flukes, an utter blank!
以及重重的、威严的，但无骨的鳍尾，却空无一物！

How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timid untravelled man to try to comprehend aright this wondrous whale, by merely poring over his dead attenuated skeleton, stretched in this peaceful wood. —
我想，只有纯粹地盯着这只长眠于宁静树林中的死去的瘦骨嶙峋的鲸鱼骨架来试图理解这只奇妙鲸鱼的生活，对于胆小、不曾出远门的人来说是多么的徒劳愚蠢。 —

No. Only in the heart of quickest perils; only when within the eddyings of his angry flukes; —
不，在最快危险的心脏里；只有在他愤怒的鲸鲨的旋涡中； —

only on the profound unbounded sea, can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out.
只有在深邃无边的海洋上，才能真正而生动地找到全身投资的鲸鱼。

But the spine. For that, the best way we can consider it is, with a crane, to pile its bones high up on end. —
但是脊椎。因此，我们能考虑的最好方法是，用起重机将其骨骼高高堆起。 —

No speedy enterprise. But now it’s done, it looks much like Pompey’s Pillar.
没有快速的方法。但现在它完成了，看起来很像庞贝方尖碑。

There are forty and odd vertebrae in all, which in the skeleton are not locked together. —
骨架中一共有四十多根椎骨，它们并没有锁在一起。 —

They mostly lie like the great knobbed blocks on a Gothic spire, forming solid courses of heavy masonry. —
它们大多像哥特式尖塔上的大块带瘤石块，形成了坚固的重型石料。 —

The largest, a middle one, is in width something less than three feet, and in depth more than four. —
最大的那根中间椎骨，宽度略小于三英尺，深度超过四英尺。 —

The smallest, where the spine tapers away into the tail, is only two inches in width, and looks something like a white billiard-ball. —
最小的那根，在脊椎逐渐变细进入尾部时，只有两英寸宽，看起来有些像一个白色的台球。 —

I was told that there were still smaller ones, but they had been lost by some little cannibal urchins, the priest’s children, who had stolen them to play marbles with. —
据说还有更小的椎骨，但它们被一些顽皮的小食人族的孩子们偷走了，用来玩弹珠。 —

Thus we see how that the spine of even the hugest of living things tapers off at last into simple child’s play.
因此，我们看到，即使是生物中最巨大的物种的脊椎最终也会逐渐变为简单的儿童游戏。