英語聽書《白鯨記》第904期
Not a man of the crew but gave him up; and, as for Queequeg himself, what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favor he asked. He called one to him in the grey morning watch, when the day was just breaking, and taking his hand, said that while in Nantucket he had chanced to see certain little canoes of dark wood, like the rich war-wood of his native isle; and upon inquiry, he had learned that all whalemen who died in Nantucket, were laid in those same dark canoes, and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him; for it was not unlike the custom of his own race, who, after embalming a dead warrior, stretched him out in his canoe, and so left him to be floated away to the starry archipelagoes; for not only do they believe that the stars are isles, but that far beyond all visible horizons, their own mild, uncontinented seas, interflow with the blue heavens; and so form the white breakers of the milky way. He added, that he shuddered at the thought of being buried in his hammock, according to the usual sea-custom, tossed like something vile to the death-devouring sharks. No: he desired a canoe like those of Nantucket, all the more congenial to him, being a whaleman, that like a whale-boat these coffin-canoes were without a keel; though that involved but uncertain steering, and much lee-way adown the dim ages.
水手們都沒有把他當做個無藥可救的病人；至于魁魁格自己呢，究竟他對于自己的病情怎么想法，這從他請人幫他一個古怪的忙就充分地表現出來了。在灰蒙蒙的晨班時分，他要一個人到他跟前去，當時天剛剛破曉，魁魁格抓住那人的手說：他從前在南塔開特的時候，有一回，偶然看到一只用黑木頭做的小獨木舟，樣子就跟他家鄉(xiāng)作戰(zhàn)用的厚重的木棍相仿佛；他問了人家后，才知道所有死在南塔開特的捕鯨人，都被放在那種黑色的獨木舟里，他說，他一想到自己如果也那么地被放在里邊，他就很高興；因為，這就跟他自己的種族的習俗沒有什么不同了。他們那個種族，把一個死了的武士抹了香油后，把他直挺挺地放進了獨木舟里，聽他漂泛到滿天星斗的群島那里去；因為他們不但相信星星就是群島，而且認為那些一望無涯的水平線，就是他們自己那個柔和而無法控制的、跟藍天合而為一的大海，而且就此形成銀河似的滔滔白浪。接著他又說，他一想到自己要葬身在他這只吊鋪里，不禁渾身打顫，因為按照通常的海上習俗，人們會象什么討厭的東西一般把他給拋到海里死了，讓那些貪婪的鯊魚大啖一頓。不！他希望有一只象南塔開特人那樣的獨木舟，而且因為他是個捕鯨人，最使他適意的，就是這種棺材式的獨木舟會象一只捕鯨小艇一樣，也是沒有龍骨的；而沒有龍骨就自然不好把舵，更容易往后駛到渾沌的境界去。
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