The spoken words that are inaudible among the flying spindles; those same words are plainly heard without the walls, bursting from the opened casements. Thereby have villainies been detected. Ah, mortal! then, be heedful; for so, in all this din of the great world's loom, thy subtlest thinkings may be overheard afar.
在疾驰如飞的锭子声中，说话是听不到的；可是这种说话，却教墙外的人听得一清二楚，因为它打敞开的窗子里冲了出去。因此，丑恶的事情难免要被发觉。人呀！要小心谨慎呀；因为，你们那些最微妙的思想，在这个大千世界的纺织机的喧闹声中，也许会在老远就给人们偷听去。
Now, amid the green, life-restless loom of that Arsacidean wood, the great, white, worshipped skeleton lay lounging—a gigantic idler! Yet, as the ever-woven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around him, the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver; himself all woven over with the vines; every month assuming greener, fresher verdure; but himself a skeleton. Life folded Death; Death trellised Life; the grim god wived with youthful Life, and begat him curly-headed glories.
且说这只受人崇拜的、巨大的白骷髅——这个巨大的懒汉！就悠闲地躺在阿萨西提的树林里那架碧绿而从不停止活动的纺织机中。而且，由于在它周围始终是交错地嗡响着那些织个不停的翠绿的经纬线，弄得这个大懒汉就象个巧妙的织工；它全身都织满着葡萄藤；每时每刻都显得更旺盛，更青翠，可它自己却是架骨胳。生命笼罩着死亡；死亡支撑着生命；严酷的神配上朝气蓬勃的生命，赋予它以鬈发的美容。
Now, when with royal Tranquo I visited this wondrous whale, and saw the skull an altar, and the artificial smoke ascending from where the real jet had issued, I marvelled that the king should regard a chapel as an object of vertu. He laughed.
这时，我跟王族的托朗郭一起去拜谒这条奇妙的大鲸，看到那祭坛似的脑袋，和那人工的烟雾正从那曾经发出真正的喷水的地方高高冒起，我不禁惊叹这位国王竟把个教堂当作件骨董了。他笑了笑。
But more I marvelled that the priests should swear that smoky jet of his was genuine. To and fro I paced before this skeleton— brushed the vines aside—broke through the ribs—and with a ball of Arsacidean twine, wandered, eddied long amid its many winding, shaded colonnades and arbors.
可是，更叫我诧异的是，那些僧人竟赌神发咒地说，它那烟喷嘴的喷水是真的。我在这个骷髅前面踱来踱去——撩开葡萄藤——朝肋骨里挤了进去——手里拿着一只阿萨西提的麻线球，在它那曲折蜿蜒阴凉的柱廊和乔木丛中旋来转去地徜徉了好久。