評論
打印
In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant the mast-head: nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful.
在熱帶那種晴朗的天氣中,站在桅頂上可真非常愉快,對于夢想家說來,也是挺快活的。
There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old Rhodes.
你站在那里,距離寂靜的甲板有一百英尺,叉開兩腿站在正中間,仿佛船桅就是巨大的高蹺,這時,在你的下面和雙腳間,卻正游著海里許多碩大無朋的巨獸,正和船只穿過古代羅茲島的著名的巨的雙腳駛去一樣。
There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves.
你站在那里,沉迷于一片連綿不絕的波濤中,除了巨浪號嘯,一無雜音。
The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor.
那只出神了似的船,懶洋洋地顛簸前進;催眠似的貿易風徐徐吹來;一切都存心要弄得你昏昏乏力。
For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements;
在這種熱帶的捕鯨生活中,大多是會教你覺得非常平平穩穩的;你聽不到消息,讀不到刊物;決不會有什么額外驚人的日常瑣事來使你引起不必要的激動;
you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner-for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable.
你聽不到國內的苦惱情況;證券破產:股票跌落;也決不會叫你因想到晚飯要吃什么而煩惱。。。。。。因為你三年多的飯食都已舒舒齊齊地儲藏在桶里,而且你的菜單是不變的。
In one of those southern whalesmen, on a long three or four years' voyage, as often happens, the sum of the various hours you spend at the mast-head would amount to several entire months.
一個南海的捕鯨者,在長長三四年的航程里,花在桅頂上的鐘點,加起來往往可以等于整整幾個月。
And it is much to be deplored that the place to which you devote so considerable a portion of the whole term of your natural life, should be so sadly destitute of anything approaching to a cosy inhabitiveness,
叫人極感遺憾的是,在你獻出了你整整一生的這么大部分時間的地方,竟是一點也沒有任何接近于可以舒適居住。
or adapted to breed a comfortable localness of feeling, such as pertains to a bed, a hammock, a hearse, a sentry box, a pulpit, a coach, or any other of those small and snug contrivances in which men temporarily isolate themselves.
或者教人產生一種安頓的感覺的地方,比如說有只床鋪,一張吊床,一個棺架,一個哨亭,一個講壇,一只榻子或者任何一種可以使人暫時獨自休憩一下的細小而舒適的東西。
