Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope, and the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; —
其他诗人歌颂过羚羊柔和的眼睛，以及从不停歇的鸟儿可爱的羽毛； —

less celestial, I celebrate a tail.
更加地尘世，我歌颂一只尾巴。

Reckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale’s tail to begin at that point of the trunk where it tapers to about the girth of a man, it comprises upon its upper surface alone, an area of at least fifty square feet. —
按照最大的抹香鲸尾巴从尾部开始，该部分向人一样大小，仅在上表面就达到至少五十平方英尺。 —

The compact round body of its root expands into two broad, firm, flat palms or flukes, gradually shoaling away to less than an inch in thickness. —
根部紧凑的圆身膨胀成两个宽大、坚固、扁平的掌状或鳍状，渐渐变薄至不到一英寸的厚度。 —

At the crotch or junction, these flukes slightly overlap, then sideways recede from each other like wings, leaving a wide vacancy between. —
在腰部或连接处，这两个鳍略有重叠，然后向侧方分开，就像翅膀一样留下了宽敞的间隙。 —

In no living thing are the lines of beauty more exquisitely defined than in the crescentic borders of these flukes. —
在这些鳍的新月形边缘中，美的线条比任何其他生物都更加精致。 —

At its utmost expansion in the full grown whale, the tail will considerably exceed twenty feet across.
在完全成长的鲸鱼身上，尾巴的最大张开超过二十英尺。

The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of welded sinews; —
整个部位看起来像是一个由焊接在一起的肌腱构成的密集网状床铺； —

but cut into it, and you find that three distinct strata compose it:–upper, middle, and lower. —
但是切开它，你会发现它由三个不同的层组成：上部、中部和下部。 —

The fibres in the upper and lower layers, are long and horizontal; —
上部和下部的纤维又长又水平； —

those of the middle one, very short, and running crosswise between the outside layers. —
中部的纤维非常短，横跨在外层之间。 —

This triune structure, as much as anything else, imparts power to the tail. —
正是这种三分结构，赋予了尾巴力量。 —

To the student of old Roman walls, the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin course of tiles always alternating with the stone in those wonderful relics of the antique, and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the great strength of the masonry.
对于古罗马城墙的研究者来说，中层将成为瓦片与石头交替排列的薄层与古迹中相媲美的有趣对比，毫无疑问为古代砌体的巨大强度做出了很大贡献。

But as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough, the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of muscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side the loins and running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them, and largely contribute to their might; —
但好像这种腱尾部的巨大本地力量还不够，整个庞然大物被一层一层的肌肉纤维和丝层交织包裹着，从腰部向两侧延伸下至鳍，悄无声息地与鳍融为一体，并且在很大程度上增加了它们的力量； —

so that in the tail the confluent measureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point. —
因此，在尾巴中，整个抹香鲸无以伦比的力量似乎汇聚到了一个点上。 —

Could annihilation occur to matter, this were the thing to do it.
对于物质而言，毁灭可能就是它所要做的事情。

Nor does this–its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful flexion of its motions; —
也不会因为这一点而削弱它优雅动作的优势之处。 —

where infantileness of ease undulates through a Titanism of power. —
在这里，轻松的婴儿般感觉随着力量的巨大而波动。 —

On the contrary, those motions derive their most appalling beauty from it. —
恰恰相反，这些动作正是从中获得了更令人惊叹的美感。 —

Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; —
真正的力量从不破坏美感或和谐，而往往赋予它们。 —

and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic. —
在所有令人印象深刻的美丽事物中，力量都起着重要作用。 —

Take away the tied tendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved Hercules, and its charm would be gone. —
若将那些似乎从大理石中爆发而出的绑着的腱带拿掉，雕刻的赫剌克勒斯的魅力也将消失。 —

As devout Eckerman lifted the linen sheet from the naked corpse of Goethe, he was overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man, that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch. —
当虔诚的埃克曼为了揭去歌德赤裸尸体上的白布时，他被这个人的厚实胸膛淹没，就像一座罗马的凯旋门。 —

When Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what robustness is there. —
当安哲罗画出甚至是以人类形象的上帝之父时，请留意那里的强壮。 —

And whatever they may reveal of the divine love in the Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which his idea has been most successfully embodied; —
而无论他们通过圣子展示出何种神圣的爱，软弱、卷曲、雌雄同体的意大利画作，其中他的概念得到了最成功的体现； —

these pictures, so destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but the mere negative, feminine one of submission and endurance, which on all hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his teachings.
这些画作虽然缺乏一切强壮的特征，但并没有展示出任何力量，仅仅是消极的、女性化的顺从和忍耐，而这些正是他教义中特有的实践美德。

Such is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether wielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it be in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. —
我所谈论的器官具有微妙的弹性，不管是用于娱乐、认真还是愤怒，它的弯曲都无比优雅。 —

Therein no fairy’s arm can transcend it.
四肢中没有任何仙女的胳膊能够超越它。

Five great motions are peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for progression; —
它有五种独特的运动。首先是用作前进的鳍； —

Second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping; —
其次是在战斗中用作狼牙棒；第三是扫除； —

Fourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes.
第四，在甩尾中；第五，在翘起尾鳍中。

First: Being horizontal in its position, the Leviathan’s tail acts in a different manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. —
第一：处于水平位置的大海兽尾巴的作用与其他海洋生物的尾巴不同。 —

It never wriggles. In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. —
它从不蠕动。在人或鱼中，蠕动是低贱的标志。 —

To the whale his tail is the sole means of propulsion. —
对于鲸鱼来说，它的尾巴是唯一的推动手段。 —

Scroll-wise coiled forwards beneath the body, and then rapidly sprung backwards, it is this which gives that singular darting, leaping motion to the monster when furiously swimming. —
卷曲在身体下方，然后迅速向后弹出，正是这个行为在鲸鱼猛烈游泳时给予了这种独特的冲刺、跳跃动作。 —

His side-fins only serve to steer by.
他的侧鳍仅仅用于掌舵。

Second: It is a little significant, that while one sperm whale only fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless, in his conflicts with man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail. —
第二：值得注意的是，虽然一只抹香鲸只用头和下颌攻击另一只抹香鲸，然而在与人的冲突中，他主要且轻蔑地使用他的尾巴。 —

In striking at a boat, he swiftly curves away his flukes from it, and the blow is only inflicted by the recoil. —
在袭击船只时，他会迅速将尾鳍弯曲远离，打击只是产生于反冲。 —

If it be made in the unobstructed air, especially if it descend to its mark, the stroke is then simply irresistible. —
如果在无阻挡的空中进行，尤其是如果击中目标，那么这一击就简直无法抵抗。 —

No ribs of man or boat can withstand it. Your only salvation lies in eluding it; —
人或船的任何肋骨都无法抵挡它。你唯一的救赎在于躲避它； —

but if it comes sideways through the opposing water, then partly owing to the light buoyancy of the whale-boat, and the elasticity of its materials, a cracked rib or a dashed plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is generally the most serious result. —
但如果通过对抗水侧面而来，则部分归因于鲸船的轻浮和材料的弹性，一根裂的肋骨或破碎的一两块船板，一种肋膜划伤，通常是最严重的后果。 —

These submerged side blows are so often received in the fishery, that they are accounted mere child’s play. —
这种被水下侧面击中的情况在捕鲸行业中经常发生，因此它们被认为是儿戏。 —

Some one strips off a frock, and the hole is stopped.
有人脱掉一个罩衫，然后堵住洞口。

Third: I cannot demonstrate it, but it seems to me, that in the whale the sense of touch is concentrated in the tail; —
第三：我无法证明，但在鲸鱼身上，触觉似乎集中在尾部； —

for in this respect there is a delicacy in it only equalled by the daintiness of the elephant’s trunk. —
因为在这方面，它的精致程度仅仅被象鼻的灵巧所匹敌。 —

This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of sweeping, when in maidenly gentleness the whale with a certain soft slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of the sea; —
这种美妙主要表现在清扫行动中，当庞大的鲸鱼以少女般的温柔，缓缓地在海面上摇摆他的巨大鳍; —

and if he feel but a sailor’s whisker, woe to that sailor, whiskers and all. —
如果他觉察到一个水手的胡须，那个水手会倒霉，胡须和所有的一切。 —

What tenderness there is in that preliminary touch! —
这种初次接触中的温柔！ —

Had this tail any prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of Darmonodes’ elephant that so frequented the flower-market, and with low salutations presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their zones. —
如果这条尾巴有任何可抓握的力量，我应立刻想起達莫諾德的大象，它常常到花市去，用低头致意向少女们呈送花束，然后抚摸她们的腰带。 —

On more accounts than one, a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in his tail; —
无论如何，人遗憾的是鲸鱼的尾巴没有这种可抓握的品质； —

for I have heard of yet another elephant, that when wounded in the fight, curved round his trunk and extracted the dart.
因为我还听说另一只大象，在战斗中受伤时，曲起它的象鼻，将投矛取出。

Fourth: Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the vast corpulence of his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth. —
第四：悄悄地接近鲸鱼，在荒凉海域的安全中，你发现他脱去了他庞大的威严，像小猫一样，在海洋上玩耍。 —

But still you see his power in his play. The broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the air! —
但你仍然能看到他的力量在他的嬉戏中。他宽阔的鳍尾高高地挥动！ —

then smiting the surface, the thunderous concussion resounds for miles. —
然后击打水面，雷鸣般的冲击声在数英里远的地方回响。 —

You would almost think a great gun had been discharged; —
你几乎会以为是一门大炮被击发； —

and if you noticed the light wreath of vapor from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would think that that was the smoke from the touch-hole.
如果你注意到他身体的另一端的呼吸孔喷出的淡淡水雾，你会认为那是火药燃放的烟雾。

Fifth: As in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lies considerably below the level of his back, they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface; —
第五：在庞然大物的鲸鱼普通漂浮姿态中，鳍尾在他的背部水平下很远； —

but when he is about to plunge into the deeps, his entire flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air, and so remain vibrating a moment, till they downwards shoot out of view. —
但当他即将浸入深海时，他整个的鳍尾与至少三十英尺的身体被抛向空中，稍稍颤动一下，然后向下迅速消失在水中。 —

Excepting the sublime breach– somewhere else to be described–this peaking of the whale’s flukes is perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature. —
除了崇高的跃出——其他地方会描述——鲸鱼鳍尾的尖顶也许是在所有的生物自然中所能见到的最宏伟的景象。 —

Out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven. —
在无底深渊之中，巨大的尾巴似乎痉挛地朝向最高的天空抓取。 —

So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; —
因此在梦中，我曾看到威严的撒旦从地狱的火焰波罗的大爪中伸出来。但是，观看这样的场景，最重要的是你所处的心情； —

if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels. —
如果你处于但丁的状态，那你会看到魔鬼；如果你处于以赛亚的状态，那你会看到大天使。 —

Standing at the mast-head of my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. —
在我船的桅杆上，当太阳升起，泛红的天空和大海时，我曾经看到东方一大群鲸鱼，它们都朝向太阳，每根尾鳍都在柔和地振动。 —

As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of the fire worshippers. —
那时对我来说，这样庞大的虔诚体现从未被人看到，即使在神火崇拜者的波斯之家。 —

As Ptolemy Philopater testified of the African elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of all beings. —
正如托勒密·腓力帕特对非洲大象所作证的，我也对鲸鱼作证，称他为所有生物中最虔诚的。 —

For according to King Juba, the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks uplifted in the profoundest silence.
根据茱巴国王的说法，古代军用大象常常用它们的鼻子在深深的沉默中迎接清晨。

The chance comparison in this chapter, between the whale and the elephant, so far as some aspects of the tail of the one and the trunk of the other are concerned, should not tend to place those two opposite organs on an equality, much less the creatures to which they respectively belong. —
本章中关于鲸鱼和大象之间的偶然比较，只涉及到它们各自属于的两个对立的器官一些方面，不应该将这两个相反的器官相提并论，更不用说它们各自所属的生物了。 —

For as the mightiest elephant is but a terrier to Leviathan, so, compared with Leviathan’s tail, his trunk is but the stalk of a lily. —
因为最强大的大象只相当于利维坦的小狗，所以，与利维坦的尾巴相比，它的鼻子只不过是一朵百合花的茎。 —

The most direful blow from the elephant’s trunk were as the playful tap of a fan, compared with the measureless crush and crash of the sperm whale’s ponderous flukes, which in repeated instances have one after the other hurled entire boats with all their oars and crews into the air, very much as an Indian juggler tosses his balls.*
大象鼻子的最可怕一击，与抹香鲸沉重的尾翼的巨大冲击声相比，就像是一个印度魔术师一次又一次地将整艘船和所有桨手一起抛向空中。

*Though all comparison in the way of general bulk between the whale and the elephant is preposterous, inasmuch as in that particular the elephant stands in much the same respect to the whale that a dog does to the elephant; —
虽然鲸鱼和大象之间在体积方面的所有比较都是荒谬的，因为在这一点上，大象与鲸鱼的关系与一只狗与大象的关系差不多； —

nevertheless, there are not wanting some points of curious similitude; among these is the spout. —
然而，在一些有趣的相似之处中，也不乏一些有趣的相似之处；其中之一就是喷水孔。 —

It is well known that the elephant will often draw up water or dust in his trunk, and then elevating it, jet it forth in a stream.
众所周知，大象经常会用它的鼻子吸水或吸尘，然后将它抬高，喷出一股水流。

The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my inability to express it. —
我越考虑这巨大的尾巴，就越为自己无法表达它而感到遗憾。 —

At times there are gestures in it, which, though they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly inexplicable. —
有时在其中有一些姿势，虽然它们装饰了人的手，但仍然完全无法解释。 —

In an extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are these mystic gestures, that I have heard hunters who have declared them akin to Free-Mason signs and symbols; —
在一个庞大的群体中，偶尔这些神秘的手势如此引人注目，以至于我听说过一些猎人宣称它们与共济会的符号和暗号相似。 —

that the whale, indeed, by these methods intelligently conversed with the world. —
鲸鱼确实通过这些方法与世界进行智慧对话。 —

Nor are there wanting other motions of the whale in his general body, full of strangeness, and unaccountable to his most experienced assailant. —
鲸鱼在整个身体中还有其他奇怪的运动，让他最有经验的攻击者无法理解。 —

Dissect him how I may, then, I but go skin deep. I know him not, and never will. —
无论我如何解剖他，我只是皮毛了解。我不认识他，也永远不会认识他。 —

But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? —
但即使我连这只鲸鱼尾巴都不了解，又怎么能理解他的头部呢？ —

much more, how comprehend his face, when face he has none? —
更何况，他没有脸，如何理解他的脸呢？ —

Thou shalt see my back parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not be seen. —
他好像在说:“你会看到我的背部，我的尾巴，但我的脸不会被看到。” —

But I cannot completely make out his back parts; —
但我无法完全看清他的背部。 —

and hint what he will about his face, I say again he has no face.
不管他怎么暗示他的脸，我再次说他没有脸。