“De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam.” BRACTON, L. 3, C. 3.
“De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam.” BRACTON, L. 3, C. 3.

Latin from the books of the Laws of England, which taken along with the context, means, that of all whales captured by anybody on the coast of that land, the King, as Honorary Grand Harpooneer, must have the head, and the Queen be respectfully presented with the tail. —
拉丁文出自英格兰法律书籍，结合上下文解释，意思是在该国海岸捕获的所有鲸鱼中，国王作为名誉大捕鲸长，必须得到鲸鱼的头部，而王后则应得到尾部。 —

A division which, in the whale, is much like halving an apple; there is no intermediate remainder. —
在鲸鱼身体结构中的一个分割点，很像将一个苹果对半切开；没有中间余下的部分。 —

Now as this law, under a modified form, is to this day in force in England; —
现在这条法律在英国以一种修改过的形式仍然有效； —

and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of Fast–and Loose-Fish, it is here treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty. —
并且它在各个方面提供了一个关于「捕鲸归属法」普遍法律的奇怪反常之处，因此在这里单独辟出一章进行讨论，出于同一种礼貌原则，这种原则促使英国铁路承担额外费用提供了专门为皇室服务的车厢。 —

In the first place, in curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance-that happened within the last two years.
首先，作为证明上述法律仍然有效的有趣事实，我继续告诉你们一个发生在过去两年内的事件。

It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore. —
似乎多佛、桑威奇或五港中的某个诚实的水手经过一场艰苦的追逐后，成功杀死了一头优美的鲸鱼，并将其拖上了海滩，这头鲸鱼最初是他们从海岸远处发现的。 —

Now the Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden. —
现在五港与某种叫做护卫或警长的官员部分地或以某种方式处于其管辖之下，这位官员称为总护卫。 —

Holding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal emoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment his. —
担任这一职务直接来自皇室，据我所知，所有与五港领土有关的皇家待遇都通过指定变成他的。 —

By some writers this office is called a sinecure. But not so. —
有些作家称这个职位为一种闲职。但并不是这样。 —

Because the Lord Warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites; —
因为总护卫有时忙于私吞他的津贴； —

which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of them.
这些津贴主要是通过这种私吞来取得的。

Now when these poor sun-burnt mariners, bare-footed, and with their trowsers rolled high up on their eely legs, had wearily hauled their fat fish high and dry, promising themselves a good 150 pounds from the precious oil and bone; —
当这些贫穷的晒黑的水手，光着脚，把裤腿卷得高高的绵蛇般的大腿上累得精疲力竭地把他们的肥鱼拉上岸时，他们期待从珍贵的油和骨头中获得可观的150英镑； —

and in fantasy sipping rare tea with their wives, and good ale with their cronies, upon the strength of their respective shares; —
幻想着能带着妻子们品尝稀有的茶，和伙伴们喝着美酒，享受各自份额所带来的好处时； —

up steps a very learned and most Christian and charitable gentleman, with a copy of Blackstone under his arm; —
一位极具学识、虔诚和慈善的绅士走上前来，手里拿着一本布莱克斯通的书， —

and laying it upon the whale’s head, he says–“Hands off! —
并把它放在鲸鱼的头上，说道–“让开！ —

this fish, my masters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it as the Lord Warden’s.” —
这条鱼，我的主人，是一条快鱼。我将其占为罗德守卫之物。 —

Upon this the poor mariners in their respectful consternation–so truly English– knowing not what to say, fall to vigorously scratching their heads all round; —
于是，可怜的水手们恭敬地感到惊慌，如此英国式的行为，他们不知道该说什么，纷纷开始勤快地挠头， —

meanwhile ruefully glancing from the whale to the stranger. —
同时忧虑地从鲸鱼转向陌生人。 —

But that did in nowise mend the matter, or at all soften the hard heart of the learned gentleman with the copy of Blackstone. —
但这丝毫没改善情况，也没软化手里拿着布莱克斯通的学究的坚硬心脏。 —

At length one of them, after long scratching about for his ideas, made bold to speak,
最终，其中一位经过长时间思考后，鼓起勇气开口说道，

“Please, sir, who is the Lord Warden?”
“请问，阁下，谁是总监护?”

“The Duke.”
“公爵。”

“But the duke had nothing to do with taking this fish?”
“但公爵与取这条鱼无关?”

“It is his.”
“是他的。”

“We have been at great trouble, and peril, and some expense, and is all that to go to the Duke’s benefit; —
“我们经历了巨大的麻烦、危险和一些费用，所有这些都将归公爵所有； —

we getting nothing at all for our pains but our blisters?”
我们为了这条鲸鱼付出的辛苦，最终却一无所获，只留下了被水泡折磨的手？”

“It is his.”
“是他的。”

“Is the Duke so very poor as to be forced to this desperate mode of getting a livelihood?”
“难道公爵非常贫困，以至于被迫采取这种拼命谋生的方式吗?”

“It is his.”
“是他的。”

“I thought to relieve my old bed-ridden mother by part of my share of this whale.”
“我本来想用我分得的这条鲸鱼来照顾我那个卧床不起的老母亲。”

“It is his.”
“是他的。”

“Won’t the Duke be content with a quarter or a half?”
“难道公爵无法满足于四分之一或一半吗?”

“It is his.”
“是他的。”

In a word, the whale was seized and sold, and his Grace the Duke of Wellington received the money. —
总之，这条鲸鱼被没收并出售，而威灵顿公爵收到了钱。 —

Thinking that viewed in some particular lights, the case might by a bare possibility in some small degree be deemed, under the circumstances, a rather hard one, an honest clergyman of the town respectfully addressed a note to his Grace, begging him to take the case of those unfortunate mariners into full consideration. —
一个诚实的镇上的牧师认为，从某个特定角度来看，情况或许在某种程度上可以被认为是有点困难的，针对这些不幸的水手，他恳请阁下全面考虑此事。 —

To which my Lord Duke in substance replied (both letters were published) that he had already done so, and received the money, and would be obliged to the reverend gentleman if for the future he (the reverend gentleman) would decline meddling with other people’s business. —
我的公爵大人实质上回答说（这两封信都已发表），他已经这样做了，收到了钱，以后如果这位牧师先生能够不插手别人的事情，他将感激不尽。 —

Is this the still militant old man, standing at the corners of the three kingdoms, on all hands coercing alms of beggars?
这是那位依然好战的老人吗，在三个王国的角落，四处向乞丐强行募捐?

It will readily be seen that in this case the alleged right of the Duke to the whale was a delegated one from the Sovereign. —
可以看出，在这种情况下，公爵所声称的对鲸鱼的权利实质上是来自君主的授权。 —

We must needs inquire then on what principle the Sovereign is originally invested with that right. —
我们必须探究一下，君主最初是在什么原则下被赋予这种权利的。 —

The law itself has already been set forth. But Plowdon gives us the reason for it. —
法律本身已经被阐明。但普劳登给出了其原因。 —

Says Plowdon, the whale so caught belongs to the King and Queen, “because of its superior excellence.” —
普劳登说，被如此捕捞的鲸鱼属于国王和王后，“因为其卓越的优秀性”。 —

And by the soundest commentators this has ever been held a cogent argument in such matters.
而且根据最可靠的评论家，在这类问题中，这一点一直被认为是一个有力的论据。

But why should the King have the head, and the Queen the tail? A reason for that, ye lawyers!
但国王为什么要得到头部，王后要得到尾巴呢？律师们，给出一个理由吧！

In his treatise on “Queen-Gold,” or Queen-pin-money, an old King’s Bench author, one William Prynne, thus discourseth: —
某位古老的国王班庭作家，威廉·普林恩，在谈论“女王应得的金币”或称为女王边际费的著作中，如是说： —

“Ye tail is ye Queen’s, that ye Queen’s wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone.” —
“尾巴是王后的，以便王后的衣橱可以用鲸须骨制成。” —

Now this was written at a time when the black limber bone of the Greenland or Right whale was largely used in ladies’ bodices. —
这是在格陵兰鲸或须鲸的黑色柔骨在女士们紧身衣中被广泛使用的时候写的。 —

But this same bone is not in the tail; it is in the head, which is a sad mistake for a sagacious lawyer like Prynne. —
但这个骨头并不在尾部；它在头部，这对于像普林恩这样精明的律师来说是个悲伤的错误。 —

But is the Queen a mermaid, to be presented with a tail? —
但王后是人鱼吗，会有尾部吗？ —

An allegorical meaning may lurk here.
这里可能潜藏着一种寓意。

There are two royal fish so styled by the English law writers– the whale and the sturgeon; —
英国法律作家把两种皇家美食都称为皇家鱼—鲸鱼和鲟鱼； —

both royal property under certain limitations, and nominally supplying the tenth branch of the crown’s ordinary revenue. —
两者在一定限制下都是王室财产，名义上为皇家普通收入的第十部分。 —

I know not that any other author has hinted of the matter; —
我不知道是否有其他作者曾暗示过这件事； —

but by inference it seems to me that the sturgeon must be divided in the same way as the whale, the King receiving the highly dense and elastic head peculiar to that fish, which, symbolically regarded, may possibly be humorously grounded upon some presumed congeniality. —
但根据推断，我认为鲟鱼必须按同样的方式分割，国王收到该鱼特有的高密度和弹性头部，这可能在象征上可能基于某种假定的亲和力而引发幽默性。 —

And thus there seems a reason in all things, even in law.
因此，在一切事物中似乎都有道理，甚至在法律中。