I shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas, something like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the eye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored alongside the whaleship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there. —
我不久就要给你画出鲸鱼的真实形态，虽然没有画布，但希望能够准确呈现鲸鱼的样子，就像捕鲸者亲眼看到的那样，当鲸鱼真正的身体停靠在鲸鱼船旁边，以至于他可以在那里被踏实地踩在上面。 —

It may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert to those curious imaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day confidently challenge the faith of the landsman. —
因此，事先提到一下那些奇特的虚构画像可能是值得的，即使直到今天，也仍然自信地挑战着陆地人的信仰。 —

It is time to set the world right in this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all wrong.
是时候纠正这一问题，证明这些鲸鱼的图片都是错误的。

It may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will be found among the oldest Hindoo, Egyptian, and Grecian sculptures. —
这些图像的根源可能可以追溯到最古老的印度、埃及和希腊雕塑。 —

For ever since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble panellings of temples, the pedestals of statues, and on shields, medallions, cups, and coins, the dolphin was drawn in scales of chain-armor like Saladin’s, and a helmeted head like St. George’s; —
从那些充满想象力但不择手段的时代开始，当时在庙宇的大理石板、雕像的底座上以及盾牌、奖章、杯子和硬币上，海豚被画成像沙拉丁一样的锁子鳞甲，头戴头盔，就像圣乔治一样； —

ever since then has something of the same sort of license prevailed, not only in most popular pictures of the whale, but in many scientific presentations of him.
从那时起，类似的许多科学表现中也流行了某种许可。

Now, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to be the whale’s, is to be found in the famous cavern-pagoda of Elephants, in India. The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being. —
到目前为止，最古老的鲸鱼图像可能是在印度独角兽洞窟寺庙里找到的。 婆罗门人认为，在这座不朽的寺庙的几乎无尽的雕塑中，所有行业和职业，人类的每一种想象得出的职业都在实际出现之前的岁月预示着。 —

No wonder then, that in some sort our noble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth. —
因此，毫无疑问，我们捕鲸的贵族职业应该在那里呈现。 —

The Hindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, learnedly known as the Matse Avatar. —
所涉及到的印度鲸鱼出现在墙的一个独立区域里，描绘了维修的化身，以鲸鱼的形态，被学术性地称为Matse Avatar。 —

But though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section of him is all wrong. —
虽然这座雕塑是半人半鲸鱼的，只给了后者的尾巴，但那个小部分是完全错误的。 —

It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale’s majestic flukes.
它看起来更像巨蟒的尾巴，而不像真正鲸鱼崇高鳍的宽掌。

But go to the old Galleries, and look now at a great Christian painter’s portrait of this fish; —
但去看看老画廊，现在看看一个伟大的基督教画家对这种鱼的肖像； —

for he succeeds no better than the antediluvian Hindoo. —
因为他也不比史前时代的印度人好。 —

It is Guido’s picture of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea-monster or whale. —
这是吉多的画作，描绘了佩尔修斯从海怪或鲸鱼那里营救安德洛墨达。 —

Where did Guido get the model of such a strange creature as that? —
吉多从哪里得到了这个奇怪生物的模型？ —

Nor does Hogarth, in painting the same scene in his own “Perseus Descending,” make out one whit better. —
何加斯在自己的《英雄归来》中也无法表达得更好。 —

The huge corpulence of that Hogarthian monster undulates on the surface, scarcely drawing one inch of water. —
那个何加斯式怪物的庞大肥胖在水面上波动，几乎不会吸引一英寸的水深。 —

It has a sort of howdah on its back, and its distended tusked mouth into which the billows are rolling, might be taken for the Traitors’ Gate leading from the Thames by water into the Tower. Then, there are the Prodromus whales of the old Scotch Sibbald, and Jonah’s whale, as depicted in the prints of old Bibles and the cuts of old primers. —
它背上有一种四轮车，它张大的像牙齿的嘴巴里滚着波涛，可能被视为泰晤士河通往塔内的叛徒门。此外还有苏格兰古老的西博尔德的《前驱鲸》，以及约拿的鲸鱼，如旧圣经的插图和古代的启蒙书籍中所描述的。 —

What shall be said of these? As for the book-binder’s whale winding like a vine-stalk round the stock of a descending anchor– as stamped and gilded on the backs and titlepages of many books both old and new–that is a very picturesque but purely fabulous creature, imitated, I take it, from the like figures on antique vases. —
对于书装订商的鲸鱼，像藤蔓一样缠绕在下降锚的树干周围 - 正如许多新旧书的封面和书名页上印有的，这是一种非常生动但纯粹虚构的生物，我认为它是模仿古代花瓶上的类似形象。 —

Though universally denominated a dolphin, I nevertheless call this book-binder’s fish an attempt at a whale; —
尽管普遍被称为海豚，我仍然称这种书装订商的鱼为一种鲸鱼的尝试； —

because it was so intended when the device was first introduced. —
因为这是最初引入该装饰时的意图。 —

It was introduced by an old Italian publisher somewhere about the 15th century, during the Revival of Learning; —
这是在15世纪左右某位意大利老出版商引入的，在学术复兴期间； —

and in those days, and even down to a comparatively late period, dolphins were popularly supposed to be a species of the Leviathan.
那些日子，一直到相对较晚时期，海豚被普遍认为是利维坦的一种。

In the vignettes and other embellishments of some ancient books you will at times meet with very curious touches at the whale, where all manner of spouts, jets d’eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden, come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain. —
在一些古老书籍的花边和其他装饰中，你有时会遇到关于鲸鱼的非常有趣的细节，在那里各种各样的喷流、喷泉、热泉和冷泉，萨拉托加和巴登-巴登从它未竭尽的大脑里冒出。 —

In the title-page of the original edition of the “Advancement of Learning” you will find some curious whales.
在原版《知识的进展》的封面上，你会发现一些奇特的鲸鱼。

But quitting all these unprofessional attempts, let us glance at those pictures of leviathan purporting to be sober, scientific delineations, by those who know. —
但是放弃所有这些业余尝试，让我们看看那些冒称为冷静、科学描绘的利维坦的图片。 —

In old Harris’s collection of voyages there are some plates of whales extracted from a Dutch book of voyages, A.D. 1671, entitled “A Whaling Voyage to Spitzbergen in the ship Jonas in the Whale, Peter Peterson of Friesland, master.” —
在哈里斯的航海集里有一些鲸鱼的图板，摘自一本荷兰航海书，1671年出版，名为《乘鲸号船去斯匹次伯根的捕鲸航行，弗里斯兰的彼得·彼得森担任船长》。 —

In one of those plates the whales, like great rafts of logs, are represented lying among ice-isles, with white bears running over their living backs. —
在其中一块图板上，鲸鱼像巨大的原木筏一样躺在冰岛之间，有白熊在它们活着的背上奔跑。 —

In another plate, the prodigious blunder is made of representing the whale with perpendicular flukes.
再有一幅图板，犯了一个巨大的错误，把鲸鱼描述为垂直的尾鳍。

Then again, there is an imposing quarto, written by one Captain Colnett, a Post Captain in the English navy, entitled “A Voyage round Cape Horn into the South Seas, for the purpose of extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries.” —
然后，还有一本宏伟的四开本，由英国海军上校科尔内特船长写的，题为《绕过好望角前往南海的航行，为扩大抽脂鲸鱼业而进行》。 —

In this book is an outline purporting to be a “Picture of a Physeter or Spermaceti whale, drawn by scale from one killed on the coast of Mexico, August, 1793, and hoisted on deck.” —
在这本书中有一份外观图，声称是一只“头氏抹香鲸或蜡鲸的图片，从一只在墨西哥海岸被杀的鲸鱼画成，1793年8月，并吊装在甲板上。” —

I doubt not the captain had this veracious picture taken for the benefit of his marines. —
我怀疑船长拍下这张准确的图片是为了他的水手们的利益。 —

To mention but one thing about it, let me say that it has an eye which applied, according to the accompanying scale, to a full grown sperm whale, would make the eye of that whale a bow-window some five feet long. —
说一个关于这张图的事，让我说一下它的眼睛，根据随附的比例尺，适用于一只成年抹香鲸，让那只鲸鱼的眼睛成为一个五英尺长的拱形窗户。 —

Ah, my gallant captain, why did ye not give us Jonah looking out of that eye!
啊，我勇敢的船长，为什么你不让我们看看约拿从那只眼睛里探出头来呢！

Nor are the most conscientious compilations of Natural History for the benefit of the young and tender, free from the same heinousness of mistake. —
即便是为年轻嫩生的孩子编写的自然历史的最认真的汇编，也无法摆脱同样的错误。 —

Look at that popular work “Goldsmith’s Animated Nature.” —
看看那本流行的作品“戈尔德史密斯的动物的生活”。 —

In the abridged London edition of 1807, there are plates of an alleged “whale” and a “narwhale.” —
在1807年的伦敦缩编版中，有所谓的“鲸”和“独角鲸”的图片。 —

I do not wish to seem inelegant, but this unsightly whale looks much like an amputated sow; —
我不想显得不雅，但这个难看的鲸看起来很像一个被截肢的母猪； —

and, as for the narwhale, one glimpse at it is enough to amaze one, that in this nineteenth century such a hippogriff could be palmed for genuine upon any intelligent public of schoolboys.
至于那条独角鲸，一瞥就足以让人吃惊，在这个19世纪，这样一个奇形怪状的东西竟然被引介给任何一群有智慧的学童。

Then, again, in 1825, Bernard Germain, Count de Lacepede, a great naturalist, published a scientific systemized whale book, wherein are several pictures of the different species of the Leviathan. —
再说，在1825年，著名博物学家贝尔纳德·热尔芒·德·拉塞佩德发表了一本科学系统的鲸鱼书，其中有几幅庞大鲸的不同物种的图片。 —

All these are not only incorrect, but the picture of the Mysticetus or Greenland whale (that is to say the Right whale), even Scoresby, a long experienced man as touching that species, declares not to have its counterpart in nature.
所有这些不仅是不正确的，而且格林兰鲸的图片（也就是正鲸）,即使是像斯科斯比这样长期经验的人对这种物种都表示并不存在。

But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale. Before showing that picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary retreat from Nantucket. —
然而，将这一切搞错的事情推向巅峰的是著名男爵兄弟之一的科学家弗雷德里克·库维耶。在1836年，他出版了一本鲸的自然历史书，在书中将他称之为一幅抹香鲸的图片。在向任何南泰克特人展示那幅图片之前，最好为自己从南泰克特撤退提供准备。 —

In a word, Frederick Cuvier’s Sperm Whale is not a Sperm Whale, but a squash. —
总之，弗雷德里克·库维耶的抹香鲸并不是一只抹香鲸，而是一只暴露在阳光下的南瓜。 —

Of course, he never had the benefit of a whaling voyage (such men seldom have), but whence he derived that picture, who can tell? —
当然，他从未有过捕鲸航行的经历（这样的人很少有），但他得到那幅图片的来源是谁能说得准呢？ —

Perhaps he got it as his scientific predecessor in the same field, Desmarest, got one of his authentic abortions; —
也许他像他在这一领域的科学前辈德斯马雷一样从他的真实的畸形中得到了一幅； —

that is, from a Chinese drawing. And what sort of lively lads with the pencil those Chinese are, many queer cups and saucers inform us.
也就是说，从中国的图纸上。那些中国人用铅笔画出来的生动少年是多么奇怪的，许多奇怪的杯子和碟子告诉我们。

As for the sign-painters’ whales seen in the streets hanging over the shops of oil-dealers, what shall be said of them? —
至于在街上看到的挂在油商店上方的招牌画的鲸鱼，该说什么呢？ —

They are generally Richard III. whales, with dromedary humps, and very savage; —
它们通常是李察三世的鲸鱼，带着骆驼驼峰，非常凶猛； —

breakfasting on three or four sailor tarts, that is whaleboats full of mariners: —
早餐吃着三四只水手挞，也就是装满水手的捕鲸船； —

their deformities floundering in seas of blood and blue paint.
它们的畸形在血和蓝色油漆的海中挣扎。

But these manifold mistakes in depicting the whale are not so very surprising after all. Consider! —
但是这些在描绘鲸鱼时出现的种种错误毕竟并不那么令人惊讶。想想看！ —

Most of the scientific drawings have been taken from the stranded fish; —
大多数的科学图纸都是根据搁浅的鱼类绘制的； —

and these are about as correct as a drawing of a wrecked ship, with broken back, would correctly represent the noble animal itself in all its undashed pride of hull and spars. —
而这些和断背一般的破船上的图画所表现的恰好代表了这位伟大动物本身所有的无比豪迈的船体和桅杆。 —

Though elephants have stood for their full-lengths, the living Leviathan has never yet fairly floated himself for his portrait. —
虽然大象已被绘成全身照，但迄今为止活生生的利炼鲸鲨从未为自己提供过真正浮出水面的肖像。 —

The living whale, in his full majesty and significance, is only to be seen at sea in unfathomable waters; —
活生生的鲸鱼，在其完整的威严和象征意义中，只能在无法测量的海洋中看到； —

and afloat the vast bulk of him is out of sight, like a launched line-of-battle ship; —
漂浮着的他庞大的体量已经看不见了，就像一艘刚刚下水的战列舰一样； —

and out of that element it is a thing eternally impossible for mortal man to hoist him bodily into the air, so as to preserve all his mighty swells and undulations. —
在这个元素之外，使人类能够将他整个身躯挂到空中，以保留他全部浩瀚的波涛和起伏，这在永远都是不可能的。 —

And, not to speak of the highly presumable difference of contour between a young suckling whale and a full-grown Platonian Leviathan; —
并且，更不用说一个小小吸奶鲸鱼和一个成年的柏拉图利维坦之间肯定会有轮廓的差异； —

yet, even in the case of one of those young sucking whales hoisted to a ship’s deck, such is then the outlandish, eel-like, limbered, varying shape of him, that his precise expression the devil himself could not catch.
但即使在把其中一条小吸奶鲸鱼吊到船的甲板上的情况下，他那种形式如同鳗鱼一般，柔软且多变，他的精确表达连魔鬼自己都无法捕捉。

But it may be fancied, that from the naked skeleton of the stranded whale, accurate hints may be derived touching his true form. —
但可以想象，从搁浅的鲸鱼的赤裸骨架中，可以得出关于他真实形态的准确暗示。 —

Not at all. For it is one of the more curious things about this Leviathan, that his skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. —
一点也不。因为这头利维坦更奇特的地方之一是，他的骨架几乎无法体现他的整体形状。 —

Though Jeremy Bentham’s skeleton, which hangs for candelabra in the library of one of his executors, correctly conveys the idea of a burly-browed utilitarian old gentleman, with all Jeremy’s other leading personal characteristics; —
尽管杰里米·边沁的骨架挂在他的执行者图书馆里作为烛台，准确地传达了一个强壮的眉头紧锁的功利主义老绅士的形象，带着杰里米所有的其他主要特征； —

yet nothing of this kind could be inferred from any leviathan’s articulated bones. —
然而，不可能从任何鲸鱼的骨骼中推断出这样的东西。 —

In fact, as the great Hunter says, the mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested and padded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelopes it. —
事实上，正如伟大的猎人所说，鲸鱼的单纯骨架与充分覆盖和填充的动物之间的关系，就像昆虫与完全包裹着它的蛹之间的关系一样。 —

This peculiarity is strikingly evinced in the head, as in some part of this book will be incidentally shown. —
这种特殊性在头部上尤为明显，正如本书的某部分将会偶然显示的那样。 —

It is also very curiously displayed in the side fin, the bones of which almost exactly answer to the bones of the human hand, minus only the thumb. —
这也非常奇妙地展现在侧鳍中，其骨骼几乎与人类手的骨骼完全相符，只是缺少拇指。 —

This fin has four regular bone-fingers, the index, middle, ring, and little finger. —
这只鳍有四根规则的骨指，食指、中指、无名指和小指。 —

But all these are permanently lodged in their fleshy covering, as the human fingers in an artificial covering. —
但所有这些骨指都永久地藏在它们的肉体覆盖物中，就像人类手指藏在人造覆盖物中一样。 —

“However recklessly the whale may sometimes serve us,” said humorous Stubb one day, “he can never be truly said to handle us without mittens.”
“然而，不管鲸鱼有时会多么冲动地对待我们，”幽默的斯塔布有一天说，”也绝不能真正说他在没有手套的情况下对待我们。”

For all these reasons, then, any way you may look at it, you must needs conclude that the great Leviathan is that one creature in the world which must remain unpainted to the last. —
因此，不管你如何看待它，你都必须得出结论，伟大的利维坦是世界上唯一必须保留到最后的生物。 —

True, one portrait may hit the mark much nearer than another, but none can hit it with any very considerable degree of exactness. —
诚然，可能有些画像更接近目标，但没有任何一个能够达到非常精确的程度。 —

So there is no earthly way of finding out precisely what the whale really looks like. —
所以没有任何方法可以准确地找出鲸鱼真正的样子。 —

And the only mode in which you can derive even a tolerable idea of his living contour, is by going a whaling yourself; —
而你能够对他的活生生的轮廓得到一个还算可以的想法的唯一方法，就是亲身去捕鲸； —

but by so doing, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him. —
但这样做，你将冒着被他永远打破和沉没的巨大风险。 —

Wherefore, it seems to me you had best not be too fastidious in your curiosity touching this Leviathan.
因此，在你对这头利维坦的好奇心上，最好不要太过挑剔。