這艘頭重腳輕的大船就象個裝著滿腦袋亞里士多德學(xué)說的枵腹的學(xué)者。
Well was it that the Typhoons did not visit them then.
還好,當(dāng)時臺風(fēng)沒來光顧他們。
Now, at this time it was that my poor pagan companion,
且說就在這時,我那個可憐的異教伙伴,
and fast bosom-friend, Queequeg, was seized with a fever, which brought him nigh to his endless end.
我的最知心的朋友,魁魁格卻正害著熱病,眼看快要結(jié)束他那無限的生命了。
Be it said, that in this vocation of whaling, sinecures are unknown; dignity and danger go hand in hand;
必須說明一下,在捕鯨這行業(yè)中,從來沒有什么閑差使,顯職跟危險是分不開的;
till you get to be Captain, the higher you rise the harder you toil.
就是做到了船長的地位,也是爬得越高,越是辛苦。
So with poor Queequeg, who, as harpooneer, must not only face all the rage of the living whale,
可憐的魁魁格也是這樣,他作為一個標(biāo)槍手,不但必須勇敢承當(dāng)活鯨的一切狂暴,
but—as we have elsewhere seen—mount his dead back in a rolling sea; and finally descend into the gloom of the hold,
而且——一如我們已在另些地方看到的——還得在海浪滔滔的大海里,跨上那致人死命的鯨背;最后又得鉆進陰暗的船艙里,
and bitterly sweating all day in that subterraneous confinement, resolutely manhandle the clumsiest casks and see to their stowage.
汗流浹背地鎮(zhèn)天呆在那地下密室里,堅毅不拔地處理那些最笨重的油桶,把它們儲藏得妥妥帖帖。
To be short, among whalemen, the harpooneers are the holders, so called.
總之,在捕鯨業(yè)中,標(biāo)槍手就是所謂的管倉人。
Poor Queequeg! when the ship was about half disembowelled, you should have stooped over the hatchway, and peered down upon him there;
可憐的魁魁格!在這艘船已經(jīng)出空了一大半時,你真該伏在艙口,往下朝他一望;
where, stripped to his woollen drawers, the tattooed savage was crawling about amid that dampness and slime,
在那里,這個刺花的野人赤裸著上身,穿著條羊毛褲,正在那濕漉漉而膩嗒嗒的地方爬來爬去,
like a green spotted lizard at the bottom of a well.
活象井底里一只綠點子的蜥蜴。
And a well, or an ice-house, it somehow proved to him, poor pagan;
那地方,不知怎地,好象就是這個可憐的異教徒的一口井,或者是一間冰屋;
where, strange to say, for all the heat of his sweatings, he caught a terrible chill which lapsed into a fever;
說也奇怪,盡管他在那里熱得渾身是汗,卻突然受了一陣可怕的寒氣,發(fā)起寒熱來了;
and at last, after some days' suffering, laid him in his hammock, close to the very sill of the door of death.
經(jīng)過幾天的折磨后,他終于躺在吊鋪上,靠近死神的門檻了。