露脊鯨的頭——對比觀

Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right Whale’s head. As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may be compared to a Roman war-chariot... so, at a broad view, the Right Whale’s head bears a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two hundred years ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemaker’s last.

跨過甲板，現在讓我們好好地、久久地端詳露脊鯨的頭。正如就整體形狀而言，高貴的抹香鯨頭可比作一輛羅馬戰車（尤其前部、那麼寬圓）；那麼，粗略一看，露脊鯨頭則頗不雅地（inelegant）像一隻巨大的「翹頭鞋（galliot-toed shoe）」。兩百年前，一位荷蘭老航海家把它的形狀比作一個鞋匠的「鞋楦（last）」。而在這同一隻鞋楦、或說鞋裡，童謠裡那個養著一大窩孩子的老婆婆，連同她所有的兒孫，倒很可以舒舒服服地住進去。

...If you stand on its summit and look at these two F-shaped spoutholes, you would take the whole head for an enormous bass-viol, and these spiracles, the apertures in its sounding-board. ...this green, barnacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the “crown,” and the Southern fishers the “bonnet”... this mighty monster is actually a diademed king of the sea... But if this whale be a king, he is a very sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower lip! what a huge sulk and pout is there!

……你若站在它頂上、看那兩個 F 形的噴水孔，會把整顆頭當成一把巨大的低音提琴（bass-viol）、這兩個噴孔（spiracles）是它音板上的開孔（apertures）。再者，你若把目光盯住這團頂上那奇怪的、有冠狀的、梳子般的藤壺結殼（incrustation）——這綠色、長滿藤壺的東西，格陵蘭人叫它露脊鯨的「冠（crown）」、南方漁人叫「軟帽（bonnet）」——單盯著它，你又會把這頭當成某棵巨橡樹的樹幹、樹杈裡有個鳥巢。無論如何，當你看見窩在這軟帽上的那些活螃蟹時，這念頭幾乎一定會冒出來；除非你的想像已被「冠」這個也被賜予它的術語牢牢牽住——那樣的話，你會饒有興味地想：這巨獸竟真是「戴冠的海王（diademed king）」，牠的綠冠以這奇妙的方式為牠編成。但這鯨若是個王，倒是個一臉慍色、配不上冠冕的傢伙。看那下垂的下唇！那兒有何等巨大的一個慍怒與噘嘴（sulk and pout）啊！——按木匠的量法，約二十呎長、五呎深；一個能榨出五百多加侖油的慍怒與噘嘴。

A great pity, now, that this unfortunate whale should be hare-lipped. The fissure is about a foot across. ...Over this lip, as over a slippery threshold, we now slide into the mouth. ...Good Lord! is this the road that Jonah went? ...those wondrous, half vertical, scimetar-shaped slats of whalebone, say three hundred on a side, which depending from the upper part of the head or crown bone, form those Venetian blinds... In the central blinds of bone... there are certain curious marks... whereby some whalemen calculate the creature’s age, as the age of an oak by its circular rings.

真可惜，這倒霉的鯨竟還是「兔唇（hare-lipped）」。那裂縫（fissure）約一呎寬。大概是牠母親在某個重要時段，正沿秘魯海岸航行，那時地震使海灘裂開了。從這唇上、像跨過一道滑溜的門檻（threshold）般，我們此刻滑進口中。說真的，我若在麥基諾，準會把這當成一座印第安棚屋（wigwam）的內部。我的天！這是約拿走過的路嗎？口頂約十二呎高、收成相當尖的一個角，彷彿那兒有一道正規的屋脊樑；而這些帶肋的、拱起的、多毛的兩側，向我們呈現出那些奇妙的、半垂直的、彎刀形（scimetar-shaped）的鯨鬚板（slats of whalebone）——每側約三百片，從頭部上方或冠骨垂下，構成了別處已略略提過的那種「威尼斯百葉窗」。這些骨板的邊緣綴著毛纖維，露脊鯨進食時張著口游過 brit 之海，便靠它濾水、在其錯綜中留住小魚。在中央那些按自然次序排列的骨板上，有某些奇異的紋、曲、凹、脊，有些漁人據以推算這生物的年齡，就像憑橡樹的圓圈（年輪）算它的歲數一樣。這標準（criterion）的確定性雖遠不能證實，卻有「類比之可能性」的味道；無論如何，我們若信它，就得承認露脊鯨遠比乍看下顯得合理的要老得多。

In old times, there seem to have prevailed the most curious fancies concerning these blinds. One voyager in Purchas calls them the wondrous “whiskers”... another, “hogs’ bristles”; a third old gentleman in Hackluyt uses the following elegant language: “There are about two hundred and fifty fins growing on each side of his upper chop...” *This reminds us that the Right Whale really has a sort of whisker, or rather a moustache... Sometimes these tufts impart a rather brigandish expression to his otherwise solemn countenance.

古時候，對這些鬚板似乎流行過最奇怪的種種想像。珀切斯書中一位航海者稱它們為鯨口內奇妙的「鬍鬚（whiskers）」；另一位叫「豬鬃（hogs' bristles）」；哈克盧伊特書中第三位老紳士則用了如下文雅的措辭：「他上顎每側約長著二百五十根鰭，在口中各自拱過舌頭的兩側。」（這倒提醒我們：露脊鯨確實有一種鬍鬚、或更該說是「八字鬍（moustache）」——下顎外端上部有幾根散落的白毛。有時這幾撮毛，給牠原本肅穆的面容（countenance）添上一種頗為「強盜般（brigandish）」的神情。）

As every one knows, these same “hogs’ bristles,”... furnish to the ladies their busks and other stiffening contrivances. ...It was in Queen Anne’s time that the bone was in its glory, the farthingale being then all the fashion. And as those ancient dames moved about gaily, though in the jaws of the whale, as you may say; even so, in a shower... do we nowadays fly under the same jaws for protection; the umbrella being a tent spread over the same bone.

眾所周知，這些「豬鬃」「鰭」「鬍鬚」「百葉窗」、隨你怎麼叫，供給了女士們她們的束腰板（busk）與其他撐硬的玩意。但在這一點上，需求早已長期衰退。是在安妮女王（Queen Anne）時代，鯨骨最為風光——那時裙撐（farthingale）正是時尚。而正如那些古代貴婦快活地走來走去、卻可說是「在鯨的顎中」走動；同樣地，如今我們下陣雨時，也以同樣的不假思索，飛奔到「同一副顎」下尋求庇護——那雨傘，正是一頂撐在同一種鯨骨上的帳篷。

But now forget all about blinds and whiskers for a moment... Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes? For a carpet to the organ we have a rug of the softest Turkey—the tongue... This particular tongue now before us; at a passing glance I should say it was a six-barreler.

但現在暫忘鬚板與鬍鬚，站在露脊鯨口中，重新環顧四周吧。看著這麼多骨的列柱（colonnades），如此井井有條地（methodically）排列著，你豈不覺得自己正站在那偉大的「哈勒姆管風琴（Haarlem organ）」裡、仰望它那一千根管嗎？至於這管風琴的地毯，我們有一張最柔軟的土耳其毯——那舌頭，彷彿被黏在了口底。它很肥、很嫩，吊上甲板時極易撕成碎片。眼前我們面前的這條舌；匆匆一瞥，我會說它是「六桶貨」——也就是說，它大約能榨出那麼多油。

Ere this, you must have plainly seen the truth of what I started with—that the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale have almost entirely different heads. ...in the Right Whale’s there is no great well of sperm; no ivory teeth at all; no long, slender mandible of a lower jaw... Nor in the Sperm Whale are there any of those blinds of bone... Again, the Right Whale has two external spout-holes, the Sperm Whale only one.

至此，你必已清楚看出我開頭所說的那個真理——抹香鯨與露脊鯨的頭，幾乎完全不同。那麼總結一下：露脊鯨頭裡，沒有大鯨腦油井；完全沒有象牙般的牙；沒有抹香鯨那樣細長的下顎骨（mandible）。而抹香鯨頭裡，則沒有任何那些骨的百葉窗；沒有巨大的下唇；舌也幾乎可以忽略。再者，露脊鯨有兩個外噴水孔，抹香鯨只有一個。

Look your last, now, on these venerable hooded heads... Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale’s there? ...I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head’s expression. ...Does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death? This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.

現在，趁這兩顆可敬的、戴著兜帽般的頭還並排躺在一起，看你的最後一眼吧；因為其中一顆很快將無人記載地沉入海，另一顆也不會太久就跟著去。你捕捉得到那兒抹香鯨頭的表情嗎？跟牠死時的一樣，只是額頭上幾道較長的皺紋如今彷彿淡去了。我覺得，牠那寬闊的額頭充滿一種「草原般的平靜（prairie-like placidity）」——那平靜，生於一種對死亡的「思辨性的漠然（speculative indifference）」。但注意另一顆頭的表情。看那驚人的下唇，偶然壓在船側上、以致緊緊抱住了下顎。這整顆頭，豈不像在訴說一種面對死亡的、巨大而「務實的決心（practical resolution）」嗎？這露脊鯨，我看牠生前是個「斯多噶派（Stoic）」；那抹香鯨，是個「柏拉圖派（Platonian）」——一個晚年或許還會拿起斯賓諾莎（Spinoza）來讀的柏拉圖派。