英语听书《白鲸记》第821期（打印版）

With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon's, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. "All is vanity." ALL. This wilful world hath not got hold of unchristian Solomon's wisdom yet. But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing graveyards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;—not that man is fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon.

书本也是这样。人类中最可靠的人就是耶稣（耶稣——原文为耶稣另一称号"忧伤的人"。），所有书本中最可靠的就是所罗门的书（所罗门的书——所罗门：《圣经》上的以色列王，大卫之子，以富有智慧见称，据说是《旧约·圣经》中，《箴言》，《传道书》，《雅歌》以及被罗马教列入《旧约·圣经》，而被新教目为伪经的《所罗门的智慧》等书的著者。），《传道书》就是一首千锤百炼、炉火纯青的悲歌。"凡事都是虚空。"凡事。这个顽固的世界还没有理解非基督徒的所罗门的智慧呢。但是，凡是规避医院和牢狱，急急忙忙穿过坟地，不肯谈地狱，宁可大谈特谈歌剧；把考珀（威廉·考珀（1731—1800）——英国诗人，杨（爱德华·杨（1683—1765）——英国诗人，），巴斯噶（柏莱斯·巴斯噶（1623—1662）——法国哲学家、数学家。），卢骚，都称为有病态的可怜汉；而且终其无忧无虑的一生却被拉伯雷（弗朗索瓦·拉伯雷（1490？—1553）——法国讽刺作家。）咒诅为过着聪明的、因此是快乐的生活的人——这种人准不配坐在墓石上，不配用奇妙无边的所罗门的智慧去破开碧绿的湿土。

But even Solomon, he says, "the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain" (i.e. even while living) "in the congregation of the dead." Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

甚至所罗门的智慧也这样说，"迷离通达道路的人必住在（就是说，即使他还活着）阴魂的会中。"（引自《旧约·箴言》第二十一章十六节。）那么，你可千万别沉湎于火里，否则，火就要叫你昏头转向，使你死亡，就象它曾暂时捉弄我那样。有忧伤的智慧，也有疯狂的忧伤。某些人的心灵里，有一种卡兹基尔（卡兹基尔——美国纽约州东部的山脉。）的山鹰，它同样能够潜进最暗黑的峡谷，又再高飞了出来，在光天化日之下变得无影无踪。可是，即使它始终是飞翔在峡谷里，那还是处在群山包围中的峡谷；因此，即使山鹰在低扑的时候，它还是比其它那些翱翔高飞在平原上的鸟类飞得高。

英语听书《白鲸记》第821期（在线收听）