英語聽書《白鯨記》第883期

to that timid circle the above hinted casualty—remaining, as it did, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab—invested itself with terrors, not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails. So that, through their zeal for him, they had all conspired, so far as in them lay, to muffle up the knowledge of this thing from others; and hence it was, that not till a considerable interval had elapsed, did it transpire upon the Pequod's decks.

在那些膽怯的親友中看來，上述變故——這變故的確依然是亞哈所無法了解的一件心事——本身之所以富有恐怖性，是因?yàn)樽児释耆莵碜陨裉柟砥l(xiāng)。因此，他們出自對他的一片熱忱，他們都盡力之所及，同心協(xié)力地把這事情的真相給隱瞞了，不讓別人知道；于是，得等到好久以后，這事情才會在"裴廓德號"上泄漏出來。

But be all this as it may; let the unseen, ambiguous synod in the air, or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire, have to do or not with earthly Ahab, yet, in this present matter of his leg, he took plain practical procedures;— he called the carpenter.

但是，如果這一切都是如此的話，那么，就隨天上那眼不能見的曖昧的密謀者，或者是復(fù)仇心切的大小火神，去跟人間的亞哈打交道也好，不打交道也好，在他現(xiàn)在這只腳的問題上，他卻已采取明確切實(shí)的步驟了；——他把木匠找來了。

And when that functionary appeared before him, he bade him without delay set about making a new leg, and directed the mates to see him supplied with all the studs and joists of jaw-ivory (Sperm Whale) which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage, in order that a careful selection of the stoutest, clearest-grained stuff might be secured. This done, the carpenter received orders to have the leg completed that night; and to provide all the fittings for it, independent of those pertaining to the distrusted one in use. Moreover, the ship's forge was ordered to be hoisted out of its temporary idleness in the hold; and, to accelerate the affair, the blacksmith was commanded to proceed at once to the forging of whatever iron contrivances might be needed.

當(dāng)那個木匠師傅來到他跟前的時候，他吩咐木匠刻不容緩地動手做出一只新腿來，還指示大二三副照料一下木匠，把航行以來所積集起來的種種大小牙骨（抹香鯨）材料都拿出來，讓木匠仔細(xì)地挑選最硬牢的、磨得最光堂的材料。材料挑好后，他限令木匠要在當(dāng)天晚上把腿完工；并且要配好一切附件，不得重用原來那只靠不住的腿的一切配件。他還命令把船上那只暫時空擱在艙里的熔爐給吊出來；同時，為了加速進(jìn)行，還要鐵匠立刻著手打出各種隨時需用的小鐵器來。

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