攻城槌

Ere quitting, for the nonce, the Sperm Whale’s head, I would have you, as a sensible physiologist, simply—particularly remark its front aspect, in all its compacted collectedness. I would have you investigate it now with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated, intelligent estimate of whatever battering-ram power may be lodged there. Here is a vital point; for you must either satisfactorily settle this matter with yourself, or for ever remain an infidel as to one of the most appalling, but not the less true events, perhaps anywhere to be found in all recorded history.

在暫且（for the nonce）離開抹香鯨頭之前，我要你，作為一個明智的生理學家（physiologist），單單——特別地——留意它正面的樣子，留意它那緊湊凝聚的全貌。我要你此刻去探究它，目的只有一個：為你自己對牠額頭裡可能蘊藏的、無論何種「攻城槌之力（battering-ram power）」，形成一個不誇張、明智的估量。這是個要害（a vital point）；因為你要嘛得在心裡圓滿地解決這件事，要嘛就永遠對一樁最駭人、卻同樣真實的——或許是有記載的全部歷史中所能找到的——事件，當個不信者（infidel）。

You observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the Sperm Whale, the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical plane to the water... you must now have perceived that the front of the Sperm Whale’s head is a dead, blind wall, without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever. ...about the head this envelope, though not so thick, is of a boneless toughness, inestimable by any man who has not handled it. The severest pointed harpoon, the sharpest lance darted by the strongest human arm, impotently rebounds from it. It is as though the forehead of the Sperm Whale were paved with horses’ hoofs. I do not think that any sensation lurks in it.

你會注意到：抹香鯨平常游泳的姿勢下，牠頭的正面對著水，呈現出一個幾乎全然垂直的平面；你會注意到那正面的下半部相當向後傾斜，好為容納那桅桁般下顎的長窩留出更多退路；你會注意到嘴整個在頭的下面——其實就跟你自己的嘴整個長在你下巴底下一個樣。再者，你會注意到鯨沒有外鼻；牠所有的鼻——牠的噴水孔——長在頭頂；你會注意到牠的眼和耳在頭的兩側、距正面近乎全長的三分之一處。因此，你此刻必已看出：抹香鯨頭的正面，是一堵死的、盲的牆，沒有任何一個器官、沒有任何一種柔嫩的突起。而且，你現在要想到：只有在正面那極下、極後、向後傾斜的部分，才有一丁點骨的痕跡（vestige）；得到離前額近二十呎處，你才見到完整的頭骨發育。所以這整團龐大的無骨之物，就像「一個填塞團（one wad）」。最後，雖然——很快將會揭曉——它的內容部分由最精緻的油構成；可你現在要知道那「如此堅不可破地（impregnably）包裹著這一切表面柔弱（effeminacy）」的物質的性質。先前某處我向你描述過鯨脂如何如橘皮裹橘子般裹著鯨的身體；頭也正是如此；但有這個差別：頭上這層包膜，雖沒那麼厚，卻是一種「無骨的堅韌」——沒親手摸過它的人，估量不出它有多韌。最尖的標槍、最強壯的人臂擲出的最鋒利的長矛，撞上去都無力地彈回（rebounds）。彷彿抹香鯨的額頭，是用馬蹄鐵鋪成的。我不認為那裡頭潛藏著任何感覺。

Bethink yourself also of another thing. When two large, loaded Indiamen chance to crowd and crush towards each other in the docks, what do the sailors do? ...they hold there a large, round wad of tow and cork, enveloped in the thickest and toughest of ox-hide. ...it has hypothetically occurred to me... that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction. If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to which the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.

你也想想另一件事。當兩艘滿載的大型東印度商船（Indiamen），在碼頭上偶然擠向、壓向彼此時，水手們怎麼做？他們不會在那即將接觸的點之間，懸一塊單純堅硬的東西、像鐵或木那樣。不，他們會在那兒放一個大而圓的、麻絮與軟木的填塞團（wad of tow and cork），外面裹著最厚、最韌的牛皮。那填塞團毫髮無傷地、英勇地承受住那本可折斷他們所有橡木撬棍與鐵橇的擠壓。光這一點，就足以說明我要講的那個明顯的事實。但補充一句：我還假設性地想到——既然一般的魚體內有所謂的「鰾（swimming bladder）」、能隨意脹大或收縮；而抹香鯨據我所知並沒有這種構造；再考慮到牠時而把頭整個壓到水面之下、時而又高高抬出水面那「otherwise 無法解釋」的方式；考慮到牠那包膜暢通無阻的彈性、牠頭部那獨特的內部——我說，我假設性地想到：那兒那些神秘的「肺泡蜂巢（lung-celled honeycombs）」，或許與外界的空氣有某種至今未知、未被懷疑的連繫，因而能受大氣的脹縮（distension and contraction）。若真如此，想像一下那股力量何等不可抗拒——連一切元素中最難捉摸（impalpable）、最具破壞力的那一個（空氣），都來為它助力。

Now, mark. Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is—by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect. ...I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity, and be ready to abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage through the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific, you would not elevate one hair of your eye-brow. For unless you own the whale, you are but a provincial and sentimentalist in Truth. But clear Truth is a thing for salamander giants only to encounter; how small the chances for the provincials then? What befell the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess’s veil at Lais?

現在，留意。萬無一失地（unerringly）推動著這堵死的、堅不可破、不可傷害的牆，以及這牆裡頭那最有浮力之物的——是在這一切後面游動著的「一團龐大的生命」；那生命之巨，只能像「堆積的木柴按『考得（cord，材積單位）』來量」那樣去恰當估量；而它全都聽命於「單一的意志（one volition）」，如同最小的昆蟲（聽命於牠自己的意志）一般。所以，等我此後向你細述這擴張的巨獸身上、處處潛藏的種種威力與集中時；等我給你看牠某些較不起眼的「撞擊絕技（braining feats）」時——我相信你會放棄一切無知的不信（incredulity）、並準備接受這一點：即使抹香鯨撞穿了達連地峽（Isthmus of Darien）、把大西洋與太平洋混在一起，你也不會抬高一根眉毛。因為，你若不真正擁有（理解）這頭鯨，你在「真理（Truth）」面前，不過是個鄉巴佬（provincial）、一個感傷主義者（sentimentalist）。但清明的真理，是只有「火蜥蜴巨人（salamander giants）」才配去遭遇的東西——那麼，鄉下人的機會又何其渺小呢？那個在塞易斯（Lais／Sais）揭開那可畏女神面紗的孱弱少年，後來落得了什麼下場？