評(píng)論
打印
It was hardly to be doubted, that several vessels reported to have encountered, at such or such a time, or on such or such a meridian, a Sperm Whale of uncommon magnitude and malignity, which whale, after doing great mischief to his assailants, has completely escaped them;
但是,也有使人難以置疑的傳說(shuō),說(shuō)是有若干船只在某時(shí)某地,碰到了一種非常之大。非常之兇的抹香鯨,那條鯨在對(duì)它的攻擊者造成很大傷害后,便逃之夭夭;
to some minds it was not an unfair presumption, I say, that the whale in question must have been no other than Moby Dick.
我認(rèn)為,有些人認(rèn)為那條大鯨一定就是莫比－迪克的這種想法,并不是全然無(wú)稽的。
Yet as of late the Sperm Whale fishery had been marked by various and not unfrequent instances of great ferocity, cunning, and malice in the monster attacked;
然而,因?yàn)榻鼇?lái)捕抹香鯨業(yè)遭到這只巨獸兇殘。刁滑和惡毒的襲擊,已經(jīng)有過(guò)各種并非罕見(jiàn)的實(shí)例,
therefore it was, that those who by accident ignorantly gave battle to Moby Dick;
因此,凡是向莫比－迪克挑戰(zhàn)的人,都是偶然碰到,而且是不知內(nèi)情的,
such hunters, perhaps, for the most part, were content to ascribe the peculiar terror he bred, more, as it were, to the perils of the Sperm Whale fishery at large, than to the individual cause.
這些捕鯨者也許可以說(shuō)往往就把他們所受到的特殊恐怖,當(dāng)成是一般捕抹香鯨業(yè)的大危險(xiǎn),而不把它看作是個(gè)別出現(xiàn)的情況,
In that way, mostly, the disastrous encounter between Ahab and the whale had hitherto been popularly regarded.
于是乎,亞哈跟這大鯨的災(zāi)難性的遭遇就此被看成一般的情況。
And as for those who, previously hearing of the White Whale, by chance caught sight of him;
至于那些先前曾經(jīng)聽(tīng)到過(guò)。或者偶然看到過(guò)白鯨的人;
in the beginning of the thing they had every one of them, almost, as boldly and fearlessly lowered for him, as for any other whale of that species.
在剛一碰到這種情況時(shí),他們差不多每一個(gè)人都會(huì)勇敢無(wú)畏地放下小艇去追擊它,如同追擊任何一條抹香鯨那樣。
But at length, such calamities did ensue in these assaults-not restricted to sprained wrists and ankles, broken limbs, or devouring amputations-but fatal to the last degree of fatality;
可是,到了后來(lái),這些攻擊都招致了諸如此類(lèi)的不幸...不僅扭傷了肘腕和膝蓋骨,折斷了四肢,或者給吞噬了肢體...而且最后還要遭到殺身之禍;
those repeated disastrous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors upon Moby Dick;
這樣一再遭到災(zāi)難性的反擊,就使得他們都把親受的恐怖全都堆積到莫比－迪克身上;
those things had gone far to shake the fortitude of many brave hunters, to whom the story of the White Whale had eventually come.
于是,最后那些勇敢的捕鯨人聽(tīng)到了白鯨的故事,這種情況就難免要?jiǎng)訐u他們的剛毅精神。
