And every morning, perched on our stays, rows of these birds were seen; and spite of our hootings, for a long time obstinately clung to the hemp, as though they deemed our ship some drifting, uninhabited craft; a thing appointed to desolation, and therefore fit roosting-place for their homeless selves. And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred.
每天早晨,都可以看到這些鳥群,一排排的棲止在我們的支索上,對我們的號角聲置若罔聞,執(zhí)拗地固守在大絞索上好久,好象它們把我們這艘船看做一種無人住的。飄流的船只,看做是一件命該凄涼的東西,因此恰好作為它們那無家可歸的身軀的棲身處了。拋呀,擲呀,險(xiǎn)惡的海洋還在無休無止地起伏,仿佛它那浩大的浪潮就是一顆良心,而那種偉大的塵世的靈魂就會天良發(fā)現(xiàn),在它那久積的罪惡和苦難中悔恨,感到痛苦。
Cape of Good Hope, do they call ye? Rather Cape Tormentoto, as called of yore; for long allured by the perfidious silences that before had attended us, we found ourselves launched into this tormented sea, where guilty beings transformed into those fowls and these fish, seemed condemned to swim on everlastingly without any haven in store, or beat that black air without any horizon. But calm, snow-white, and unvarying; still directing its fountain of feathers to the sky; still beckoning us on from before, the solitary jet would at timesbe desCried.
好望角呀,人們可這樣叫你么?其實(shí),還不如象以前那樣,叫做暴風(fēng)雨角(好望角,靠非洲最南部,介于印度洋與大西洋之間,一四八七年,為葡萄牙探險(xiǎn)家迪亞斯在去印度探險(xiǎn)途中所發(fā)現(xiàn),以其風(fēng)濤險(xiǎn)惡稱為暴風(fēng)雨角,后經(jīng)葡王約翰二世改稱今名,意謂從此可以有直航印度之希望了。);我們以前長期受到那背信棄義的靜穆的誘惑,如今一旦駛進(jìn)這個(gè)苦難的海洋,我們便覺得,在這里,罪犯變成了的種種鳥禽和魚類,似乎都注定要永生永世在這里游來游去,根本就沒有避難所,得永遠(yuǎn)在這險(xiǎn)惡的空際鼓翼,望不到一片陸地。但是,正如空際是平靜、雪白而不變的,仍在指引源源不絕的鳥類飛騰上去一樣;那個(gè)時(shí)時(shí)可以看到的孤寂的噴水,還在招呼著我們繼續(xù)向前。
During all this blackness of the elements, Ahab, though assuming for the time the almost continual command of the drenched and dangerous deck, manifested the gloomiest reserve; and more seldom than ever addressed hismates.
在風(fēng)暴肆虐這種令人絕望的境地里,亞哈雖然還在繼續(xù)指揮這艘透濕而危險(xiǎn)的船只,臉上卻顯得極其陰沉抑郁,而且比以前更難得對他那三個(gè)大二三副說話了。