I have given no small attention to that not unvexed subject, the skin of the whale. —
我曾经颇为关注这个并不简单的话题，鲸鱼的皮肤。 —

I have had controversies about it with experienced whalemen afloat, and learned naturalists ashore. —
我曾与经验丰富的捕鲸者和知名自然学家就此进行过争论。 —

My original opinion remains unchanged; but it is only an opinion.
我的原始观点保持不变；但那只是一个观点。

The question is, what and where is the skin of the whale. Already you know what his blubber is. —
问题是，鲸鱼的皮肤是什么，位于什么位置。你们已经知道它的鲸脂是什么了。 —

That blubber is something of the consistence of firm, close-grained beef, but tougher, more elastic and compact, and ranges from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness.
鲸脂的质地有点像紧实、细密的牛肉，但更加坚韧、有弹性和结实，厚度从八到十至十二至十五英寸不等。

Now, however preposterous it may at first seem to talk of any creature’s skin as being of that sort of consistence and thickness, yet in point of fact these are no arguments against such a presumption; —
尽管一开始谈论任何生物的皮肤具有那种质地和厚度可能看起来很荒谬，但事实上这并不是反对这种推断的理由； —

because you cannot raise any other dense enveloping layer from the whale’s body but that same blubber; —
因为你无法从鲸鱼身上提取出其他任何密集的包覆层，除了那些鲸脂； —

and the outermost enveloping layer of any animal, if reasonably dense, what can that be but the skin? —
且任何动物最外层的包覆层，如果相当密集，那又能是什么，除了皮肤呢？ —

True, from the unmarred dead body of the whale, you may scrape off with your hand an infinitely thin, transparent substance, somewhat resembling the thinnest shreds of isinglass, only it is almost as flexible and soft as satin; —
对，从未受破坏的鲸鱼尸体上，你可以用手刮下一种极薄、透明的物质，有点像最薄的鱼胶片，只不过它几乎像缎子那样柔软和弹性； —

that is, previous to being dried, when it not only contracts and thickens, but becomes rather hard and brittle. —
也就是说，在被干燥之前，它不仅会收缩和变厚，而且会变得相当坚硬和脆弱。 —

I have several such dried bits, which I use for marks in my whale-books. —
我有几块这样的干燥的碎片，在我的鲸鱼书中用作标记。 —

It is transparent, as I said before; and being laid upon the printed page, I have sometimes pleased myself with fancying it exerted a magnifying influence. —
就像我之前说过的，它是透明的；将其放在印刷页面上时，我有时会自得其乐地想象它具有放大的作用。 —

At any rate, it is pleasant to read about whales through their own spectacles, as you may say. —
无论如何，通过它们自己的“眼镜”读关于鲸鱼的文章很愉快。 —

But what I am driving at here is this. That same infinitely thin, isinglass substance, which, I admit, invests the entire body of the whale, is not so much to be regarded as the skin of the creature, as the skin of the skin, so to speak; —
但我在这里要表达的是。那种极薄的鱼胶片物质，我承认，覆盖着整个鲸鱼身体，不应被看作生物的皮肤，倒更像是皮肤的皮肤，可以这么说； —

for it were simply ridiculous to say, that the proper skin of the tremendous whale is thinner and more tender than the skin of a new-born child. —
因为简直荒谬说，这只巨大鲸鱼的真正皮肤比一个新生儿的皮肤更薄更嫩。 —

But no more of this.
但不要再提这个了。

Assuming the blubber to be the skin of the whale; —
假设鲸鱼脂肪为鲸鱼的皮肤； —

then, when this skin, as in the case of a very large Sperm Whale, will yield the bulk of one hundred barrels of oil; —
那么，当这种皮肤，例如一只非常大的抹香鲸，会产生一百桶油的体积； —

and, when it is considered that, in quantity, or rather weight, that oil, in its expressed state, is only three fourths, and not the entire substance of the coat; —
考虑到这种油在数量上，或者说在重量上，在其经过压制的状态下，仅占了三分之四，并不是整个外皮的物质； —

some idea may hence be had of the enormousness of that animated mass, a mere part of whose mere integument yields such a lake of liquid as that. —
从中可以略窥那个庞大的有生命的物体的巨大，仅仅一个部分的皮肤层就产生了如此大的液体油池。 —

Reckoning ten barrels to the ton, you have ten tons for the net weight of only three quarters of the stuff of the whale’s skin.
根据每桶装十吨的计算，那么你可以得到十吨净重的外皮的三四分之一的物质。

In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. —
在生命中，抹香鲸的可见表面也是他所展现的众多奇迹中最不起眼的。 —

Almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in thick array, something like those in the finest Italian line engravings. —
几乎总是被无数的直线标记斜交纵横，排列得像最精美的意大利线条版画中的那些标记。 —

But these marks do not seem to be impressed upon the isinglass substance above mentioned, but seem to be seen through it, as if they were engraved upon the body itself. —
但这些标记似乎不是印在上述的胶体多糖物质上的，而似乎是透过它看到的，仿佛它们是刻在身体本身上的。 —

Nor is this all. In some instances, to the quick, observant eye, those linear marks, as in a veritable engraving, but afford the ground for far other delineations. —
这还不是全部。针对细心、敏锐的眼光，在某些情况下，那些线性标记，就如同真正的雕刻，却为更深奥的描述提供了基础。 —

These are hieroglyphical; that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers on the walls of pyramids hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to use in the present connexion. —
这些是象形文字；也就是说，如果你把那些金字塔壁上的神秘符号称为象形文字，那么这个词就是在当前背景下要使用的合适词语。 —

By my retentive memory of the hieroglyphics upon one Sperm Whale in particular, I was much struck with a plate representing the old Indian characters chiselled on the famous hieroglyphic palisades on the banks of the Upper Mississippi. —
我对特定一只抹香鲸身上的象形文字有着持久的记忆，我对一个描绘河岸上密西西比河上游著名象形栅栏上刻有的古印第安人字符的印刷版印象深刻。 —

Like those mystic rocks, too, the mystic-marked whale remains undecipherable. —
就像那些神秘的岩石一样，被标记的神秘鲸仍然无法破译。 —

This allusion to the Indian rocks reminds me of another thing. —
这提到印第安岩石让我想起了另一件事。 —

Besides all the other phenomena which the exterior of the Sperm Whale presents, he not seldom displays the back, and more especially his flanks, effaced in great part of the regular linear appearance, by reason of numerous rude scratches, altogether of an irregular, random aspect. —
除了抹香鲸外表呈现的所有其他现象，他脊背，尤其是他的侧腹，常常被众多粗糙的划痕所毁损，这些划痕几乎完全破坏了其规则线条的外观，因此呈现出一种不规则的、随机的外观。 —

I should say that those New England rocks on the seacoast, which Agassiz imagines to bear the marks of violent scraping contact with vast floating icebergs–I should say, that those rocks must not a little resemble the Sperm Whale in this particular. —
我应该说，阿加西认为坐落在海岸的新英格兰岩石，它们被想象为与巨大的漂浮冰山发生激烈擦碰而留下痕迹-我应该说，这些岩石在这方面必然与抹香鲸有些相似。 —

It also seems to me that such scratches in the whale are probably made by hostile contact with other whales; —
我觉得鲸鱼身上的这些擦痕可能是由与其他鲸鱼的敌对接触造成的； —

for I have most remarked them in the large, full-grown bulls of the species.
因为我最常见到它们出现在这个物种的大型、成年公牛身上。

A word or two more concerning this matter of the skin or blubber of the whale. —
再说说鲸鱼皮肤或脂肪的问题。 —

It has already been said, that it is stript from him in long pieces, called blanket-pieces. —
之前已经说过，它是被剥去以长条状片的形式，称为毯条。 —

Like most sea-terms, this one is very happy and significant. —
像大多数海洋术语一样，这个词非常贴切和有意义。 —

For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane; —
因为鲸鱼确实被包裹在他的脂肪中，就好像是真正的毯子或床罩； —

or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head, and skirting his extremity. —
或者，更好一点，是一个印地安斗篷顶端搭在他头上，下摆延伸至他的身体末端。 —

It is by reason of this cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides. —
由于他把身体裹成舒适的毯子，鲸鱼能够在所有的天气、海洋、时刻和潮汐中保持舒适。 —

What would become of a Greenland whale, say, in those shuddering, icy seas of the North, if unsupplied with his cosy surtout? —
假如一只格陵兰鲸在北方那些令人发抖的冰冷海域中没有被供给这件保暖外衣，情况会怎样？ —

True, other fish are found exceedingly brisk in those Hyperborean waters; —
诚然，其他鱼类在北极的水域中极为敏捷； —

but these, be it observed, are your cold-blooded, lungless fish, whose very bellies are refrigerators; —
但请注意，它们是冷血、无肺鱼，它们的腹部就是冰箱； —

creatures, that warm themselves under the lee of an iceberg, as a traveller in winter would bask before an inn fire; —
它们是在冰山的背风处取暖，就像一个冬季旅行者会在客栈火炉前取暖一样； —

whereas, like man, the whale has lungs and warm blood. Freeze his blood, and he dies. —
然而，就像人类一样，鲸鱼有肺和温暖的血液。冰冻它的血液，它就会死。 —

How wonderful is it then–except after explanation–that this great monster, to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it is to man; —
那么，这位作为形体温暖对他和人类一样必不可少的巨大怪兽，经过解释之后就变得多么令人惊奇- —

how wonderful that he should be found at home, immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters! where, when seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber. —
多么美妙的他应该被发现在家，沉浸在那些北极水域中，一生都在那里！当水手掉进海里时，有时会被发现，几个月后垂直地冻在冰场的心脏里，就像苍蝇被发现粘在琥珀里一样。 —

But more surprising is it to know, as has been proved by experiment, that the blood of a Polar whale is warmer than that of a Borneo negro in summer.
但更令人惊讶的是，根据实验证明，北极鲸的血比仲夏时节的婆罗洲黑人更温暖。

It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. —
在我看来，我们在这里看到了强大个体生命力的稀有优点，以及厚实墙壁和宽敞内部的稀有优点。 —

Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. —
哦，人类啊！敬仰并效仿鲸鱼！也要在冰中保持温暖。 —

Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; —
在赤道保持冷静； —

keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter’s, and like the great whale, retain, O man! —
在极地保持你的血液流动。像圣彼得大教堂的巨大圆顶，像巨鲸一样，保持，哦，人类！ —

in all seasons a temperature of thine own.
在所有季节里保持属于自己的温度。

But how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things! —
但要教授这些优美的事情是多么容易又多么没有希望！ —

Of erections, how few are domed like St. Peter’s! —
在构筑物中，像圣彼得大教堂的圆顶那么少！ —

of creatures, how few vast as the whale!
在生物中，像鲸鱼那样巨大的那么少！