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Chapter 14. Nantucket.
第14章 南塔開特
Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.
一路無話，我們安抵南塔開特。
Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it.
你可以找一張地圖，在上面找一找，看看南塔開特在哪兒。
See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse.
尋訪世界的一個真實的角落在哪里;離開岸邊,比埃迪斯通燈塔更為孤獨。
Look at it—a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background.
看看這個，只有沙子，所有的海灘都是這樣的景象。
There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper.
是的，它遠離大陸，只是大海中的一個小山丘，一片沙灘而已。
Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don't grow naturally;
有人開玩笑說，南塔開特人要想種點雜草也得種在沙灘上，因為這里寸草不生；
that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask;
還有人說他們從加拿大運來了野草；為了堵住一個漏油的桶，
that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome;
必須遠涉重洋才能買回那堵洞用的木塞；
that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time;
這兒的人都在門前種上幾棵蘑菇，為的是夏天乘涼；
that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie;
還說這里有一葉草即可稱綠洲，三葉草就可以叫草原了；
that they wear quicksand shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes;
他們穿著流沙的鞋子,像拉普蘭人的雪地鞋一樣;
that they are so shut up, belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean,
所以他們都是閉著嘴,系上腰帶,圍住全身,這完全是島的海洋,
that to their very chairs and tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering, as to the backs of sea turtles.
說這里人家的椅子上、桌子上經常可以看到粘上去的小貝殼，就像海邊的烏龜身上粘著的貝殼似的。
But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.
所有這些不無善意的調侃，都是在極言南塔開特的彈丸之大和寸草不生。
