Fain am I to stagger to this enterprise under the weightiest words of the dictionary. And here be it said, that whenever it has been convenient to consult one in the course of these dissertations, I have invariably used a huge quarto edition of Johnson, expressly purchased for that purpose; because that famous lexicographer's uncommon personal bulk more fitted him to compile a lexicon to be used by a whale author like me.
这个壮举，我只得借助于字典中那些最有分量的词汇，勉力以赴了。这里必须说明一下，每当我在做这种讲述的过程中，需要随手查查字典的时候，我总是用约翰生那一大四开的版本，这是特地为此而购来的；因为光是那个著名的字典学家的非凡的体躯，就使他有条件编出一本适合于象我这样一个大鲸作家使用的字典了。
One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor's quill! Give me Vesuvius' crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their outreaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.
我们常常听说，有许多作家，一写起文章来，就洋洋洒洒，尽管那种文章也许看来不过是普通的文章。然而，我写这种大鲸的文章时，又是怎样一种情况呢？我总是不自觉地把我的笔迹写得跟招贴用的大写体一样。请给我一只秃鹰的羽管笔！给我把维苏威的喷火口拿来作墨水缸吧！朋友们，把牢我的胳膊呀！因为，我只要一提起笔，想把这种大鲸写下来的时候，可就把我想累了，而且由于那些思想都是超出理解的范围而把我弄昏了，仿佛势必涉及整个科学的各部门，涉及过去、现在、未来的历朝历代的鲸类、人类、乳齿象类，以及人间的帝王的轮回转替，势必贯通整个宇宙，而且不能把人间境遇除外。这就是这么一个包罗万象、而又广袤无垠的题材的特点！我们要把它写得跟它身体一般巨大。为了要写出巨著，就得选择大题材。跳蚤是永远也成不了一部又伟大又能流传久远的巨著的题材的，虽然已经有许多人尝试过了。