11. And the truth is he was wonderful. He was a huge shining male, half crouching, half standing, his mighty arms akimbo. I had not been prepared for the blackness of him; he was a great craggy pillar of gleaming blackness, black crew-cut hair on his head, black deep-sunken eyes glaring towards us, huge rubbery black nostrils and a black beard. He shifted his posture a little, still glaring fixedly upon us, and he had the dignity and majesty of prophets. He was the most distinguished and splendid animal I ever saw and I had only one desire at that moment: to go forward towards him, to meet him and to know him: to communicate. This experience (and I am by no means the only one to feel it in the presence of a gorilla) is utterly at variance with one's reactions to all other large wild animals in Africa. If the lion roars, if you get too close to an elephant and he fans out his ears, if the rhinoceros lowers his head and turns in your direction, you have, if you are unarmed and even sometimes if you are, just one impulse and that is to run away. The beast you feel is savage, intrinsically hostile, basically a murderer. But with the gorilla there is an instant sense of recognition. You might be badly frightened, but in the end you feel you will be able to make some gesture, utter some sound, that the animal will recognize and understand. At all events you do not have the same instinct to turn and bolt.
    11)事实上，它确实了不起。这是一只巨大的光亮的雄猩猩，半蹲半站，有力的双臂叉在腰间。我对它会这么黑没有思想准备，它简直是根粗糙的亮闪闪的黑柱：头上是平头式的黑黑的毛发，深陷的黑眼睛盯着我们，巨大的橡皮似的黑鼻孔，还有黑胡子。他稍稍改变了一下姿式，仍紧紧地盯着我们，有着先知的尊贵与威严。它是我见到过的最高贵最杰出的动物，当时我只有一个愿望：向它走过去，认识它、了解它：去和它进行交流。这种感觉(在大猩猩面前有这种感觉的决不只是我一人)与人们在非洲其它大野兽面前所产生的反应完全不同。如果狮子吼叫、如果你走得离大象太近而它扇起耳朵来，如果犀牛低下头来转向你，这时假如你没有武器，甚至有时即使你有武器，你也只有一个冲动，那就是逃走。你感到那野兽是野蛮的、本质上就是敌对的、从根本上是个杀手。但和大猩猩之间立即就有一种熟识感。可能你吓得够呛，但最后你会感到你将能做出某种它能认识和理解的手势，发出某种它能认识和理解的声音。至少，你没有那种要转身逃走的本能要求。

    12. Afterwards I remembered another thing. Normally, when you come up against a rare wild animal in Africa, you grab your binoculars or your camera at once. It is a simple reflex action. This gorilla was thirty yards away and divided from us by tangled undergrowth and might not perhaps have made a very good photograph, but we could certainly have seen him more clearly through glasses. Yet none of us moved. In my own case (and I suspect in the case of my friend as well) I felt that there was not a second to be lost of this contact, not even the few instants required to put the binoculars to my eyes. I wanted to see him naturally and I wanted to see him whole.
    12)事后我记起了另一件事。通常当你在非洲碰上稀有野生动物时，你立刻就抓起望远镜或照相机来。这是简单的反射性动作。那只大猩猩距我们30码远，和我们中间隔着交缠的下层林丛，也许照出相来效果不会很好，但毫无疑问用望远镜是可以看得更清楚的，然而我们谁也没有动。我自己的情况是(我疑心我的朋友也是同样情况)，我感到我们之间的这一接触连一秒钟也不能损失，就连把望远镜放到眼睛上去所需的那片刻也不行。我要用自己的眼睛来看它，我要看到完整的它。