英语听书《白鲸记》第563期（在线收听） |
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. 总之，迄今尚存的最古的称为鲸的画像，还可以在印度象岛的著名穴塔里找到。 The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, 那些婆罗门僧都认为，在那个古塔的无数的雕刻物中，差不多早在各行各业，
every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being. 在人间一切所想得到的职业出现之前，就已把它们预先表现出来了。
No wonder then, that in some sort our noble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth. 那么，毫不足奇地，我们这种高尚的捕鲸职业，也一定被多多少少预先表现出来了。
The Hindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, 在一块单独的内壁上，有一条以大海兽的形体来描绘毗湿奴(印度神话中三大神之一。)的化身的印度鲸，
learnedly known as the Matse Avatar. 学者们称之为马兹·亚瓦达(即毗湿奴的第十化身。)。
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. 虽则这个雕刻品是半人半鲸的形体，只有尾巴有点象鲸的，可是，这一点点相象的地方还是个三不象。
It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale's majestic flukes. 它看上去倒更象是大蟒蛇的尖细的尾巴，而不象一只真正的鲸的堂皇而阔平的尾巴。
But go to the old Galleries, and look now at a great Christian painter's portrait of this fish; 可是，你现在不妨到一些古老的画廊去看一看一位基督教徒大画家所画的这种鱼吧，
for he succeeds no better than the antediluvian Hindoo. 他的成就也不见得比上古的印度画家高明多少。
It is Guido's picture of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea-monster or whale. 这就是基多(累尼·基多(1575—1642)——意大利画家。)那幅珀修斯从大海兽或者鲸那里救出了安德罗墨达的名画。
Where did Guido get the model of such a strange creature as that? 基多从哪里弄到这样一种怪物作模特儿呢？ |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/syysdw/bjj/434556.html |