英語聽書《白鯨記》 第288期

Like Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad was a well-to-do,retired whaleman. But unlike Captain Peleg-whocared not a rush for what are called serious things,and indeed deemed those self-same serious thingsthe veriest of all trifles--Captain Bildad had not onlybeen originally educated according to the strictestsect of Nantucket Quakerism, but all his subsequentocean life, and the sight of many unclad, lovelyisland creatures, round the Horn-all that had notmoved this native born Quaker one single jot, hadnot so much as altered one angle of his vest. Still,for all this immutableness, was there some lack of common consistency about worthy CaptainBildad. Though refusing, from conscientious scruples, to bear arms against land invaders, yethimself had illimitably invaded the Atlantic and Pacific; and though a sworn foe to humanbloodshed, yet had he in his straight-bodied coat, spilled tuns upon tuns of leviathan gore. Hownow in the contemplative evening of his days, the pious Bildad reconciled these things in thereminiscence, I do not know; but it did not seem to concern him much, and very probably hehad long since come to the sage and sensible conclusion that a man's religion is one thing,and this practical world quite another. This world pays dividends. Rising from a little cabin boyin short clothes of the drabbest drab, to a harpooneer in a broad shad-bellied waistcoat; fromthat becoming boat-header, chief mate, and captain, and finally a shipowner; Bildad, as Ihinted before, had concluded his adventurous career by wholly retiring from active life at thegoodly age of sixty, and dedicating his remaining days to the quiet receiving of his well-earnedincome.

象法勒船長一樣,比勒達船長也是個小康的退休捕鯨者。但是,他跟法勒船長不同的是法勒對于所謂重大事情并不愛慌慌張張,而且確是把這所謂重大事情看做是最無關緊要的瑣事。比勒達船長卻不但本來就受過了南塔開特的最謹嚴的桂克派的訓練,后來還經歷了一切海洋生活,看到合恩角周圍許多一絲不掛的?？蓯鄣膷u民。但是,這一切都一點也影響不到這個土生土長的桂克,連外表也沒有多大改變。不過,盡管可敬的比勒達船長具有這種不變性,他卻缺乏一種首尾一貫的精神。他雖然由于良心上的遲疑,不肯拿起武器去抵御陸地來的侵略者,然而他本人卻已無節(jié)制地入侵了大西洋和太平洋;雖然他對人類的自相殘殺深惡痛絕,然而,他卻穿上緊身短衣,使大鯨流出一大桶一大桶的血。現(xiàn)在在這個虔誠的比勒達這種沉思默想的垂暮之年,他在追憶往事時怎樣使這些事情一致起來,我可不大清楚;可是,看來他是不很把它放在心上的,他很可能早就獲得一種賢明的結論,認為一個人的宗教信仰是一回事,而這個現(xiàn)實的世界又完全是另一回事。這種世界是有利可圖的。從一個穿著深棕色的短打的船長小廝出身,做到穿著袒開肚皮的大坎肩的標槍手;由此而做到船長,大副,船長,最后成為船老板;如上所述,比勒達已在高齡六十之年完全擺脫了實際活動,結束他那冒險事業(yè),把他的余生致力于安閑地收取他那好出息的進益了。