英語聽書《白鯨記》第852期

The beef was fine—tough, but with body in it. They said it was bullbeef; others, that it was dromedary beef; but I do not know, for certain, how that was. They had dumplings too; small, but substantial, symmetrically globular, and indestructible dumplings. I fancied that you could feel them, and roll them about in you after they were swallowed. If you stooped over too far forward, you risked their pitching out of you like billiard-balls. The bread— but that couldn't be helped; besides, it was an anti-scorbutic, in short, the bread contained the only fresh fare they had. But the forecastle was not very light, and it was very easy to step over into a dark corner when you ate it. But all in all, taking her from truck to helm, considering the dimensions of the cook's boilers, including his own live parchment boilers; fore and aft, I say, the Samuel Enderby was a jolly ship; of good fare and plenty; fine flip and strong; crack fellows all, and capital from boot heels to hat-band.

牛肉真不錯(cuò)——盡管硬繃繃，味道卻很濃。據(jù)說那是大牯肉；又有人說，那是單峰駱駝肉，但是，我卻摸不準(zhǔn)究竟是什么肉。他們也有湯團(tuán)，只頭小而結(jié)實(shí)，圓滾滾的而且都是摔不爛的湯團(tuán)。我想，把它吞到肚里后，它還是摸得出和滾得動(dòng)。如果向前彎身彎得太厲害的話，它就會(huì)有象臺(tái)子球似的打肚皮里滾出來的危險(xiǎn)。還有面包——不過，那是吃不來的；而且，它還是一種抗壞血病的特效藥；總之，這種面包就是他們整個(gè)菜單上的唯一新鮮的東西。船頭樓并不很光亮，你在吃它的時(shí)候，很容易踩進(jìn)了黑角落里。不過，總的說來，這艘船從它桅頂上的木冠到船舵，從廚師那只碩大無比的鍋爐，到他自己的那只羊皮紙似的大肚皮，我說，從船頭到船尾，這艘"撒母耳·恩德比號(hào)"就是艘怪舒服的船；食物質(zhì)佳量多；甜啤酒既香甜又濃洌；大家又都是些第一流的人物，從頭到腳都是刮刮叫的。

But why was it, think ye, that the Samuel Enderby, and some other English whalers I know of—not all though—were such famous, hospitable ships; that passed round the beef, and the bread, and the can, and the joke; and were not soon weary of eating, and drinking, and laughing? I will tell you. The abounding good cheer of these English whalers is matter for historical research. Nor have I been at all sparing of historical whale research, when it has seemed needed.

可是，你不免要想，為什么"撒母耳·恩德比號(hào)"以及我所知道的其它一些英國(guó)捕鯨船——雖然不能說是全部——都是這樣一些以待客殷勤見稱的船只呢？牛肉呀，面包呀，罐頭呀，傳來遞去，笑話說個(gè)不完，吃個(gè)不厭，喝個(gè)不停，笑聲不絕，為什么會(huì)這樣呢？那么，讓我跟你道來。這些英國(guó)捕鯨船的無限的好興致，真是值得做歷史研究的資料。情勢(shì)所需，我是會(huì)毫不吝惜地來做番捕鯨史的研究工作的。

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