Now, the Pequod had sailed from Nantucket at the very beginning of the Season-on-the-Line. No possible endeavor then could enable her commander to make the great passage southwards, double Cape Horn, and then running down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the equatorial Pacific in time to cruise there. Therefore, he must wait for the next ensuing season. Yet the premature hour of the Pequod's sailing had, perhaps, been correctly selected by Ahab, with a view to this very complexion of things. Because, an interval of three hundred and sixty-five days and nights was before him; an interval which, instead of impatiently enduring ashore, he would spend in a miscellaneous hunt; if by chance the White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote from his periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his wrinkled brow off the Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay, or China Seas, or in any other waters haunted by his race. So that Monsoons, Pampas, Nor-Westers, Harmattans, Trades; any wind but the Levanter and Simoon, might blow Moby Dick into the devious zig-zag world-circle of the Pequod's circumnavigating wake.
且說“裴廓德號”離開南塔開特時，正值“赤道線的當令季節”的開始。當時，“裴廓德號”的船長已無法繞著合恩角向南遠馳，然后順著緯度六十度的地方疾駛，及時趕到太平洋的赤道線上去巡游了。因此，他必須等待即將到來的下一個季節。然而，“裴廓德號”之所以提早開航，說不定正是亞哈看到了這種復雜的情形而挑準了的。因為如果不開航，他又得株守三百六十五個晝夜;而這樣一段時間，與其教他在岸上焦心迫腸地枯守，那他是寧可去做一些零零碎碎的獵擊;說不定白鯨在那遠離它的定期的食料場的海洋里度過了假期，會在波斯灣，孟加拉灣，中國海或者鯨類出沒的別的地方一露它那皺紋百結的額頭。所以，除了地中海的強烈的東風和阿拉伯的熱風以外，其他象印度洋的季風，彭巴斯草原風，強烈的西北風，非洲西岸的燥風，貿易風等，都可能把莫比－迪克刮到“裴廓德號”的環球航跡的迂回曲折的大包圍圈里來。
But granting all this; yet, regarded discreetly and coolly, seems it not but a mad idea, this; that in the broad boundless ocean, one solitary whale, even if encountered, should be thought capable of individual recognition from his hunter, even as a white-bearded Mufti in the thronged thoroughfares of Constantinople? Yes. For the peculiar snow-white brow of Moby Dick, and his snow-white hump, could not but be unmistakable. And have I not tallied the whale, Ahab would mutter to himself, as after poring over his charts till long after midnight he would throw himself back in reveries--tallied him, and shall he escape? His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep's ear! And here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; till a weariness and faintness of pondering came over him! and in the open air of the deck he would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.
不過，就算這一切的想法都是對的;然而，仔細而冷靜地一想，這也似乎還是一種發瘋的想法;因為在遼闊無垠的大洋里，即使是碰到了一只孤零零的鯨，難道它的獵手就會一下子把它認了出來，如同在君士坦丁堡的雜沓擁擠的街頭，看到一個銀須長髯的伊斯蘭教法典說明官那樣嗎?會的。因為莫比－迪克那只特別雪白的額頭，和它那雪白的背峰，無論如何是錯不了的。難道我把大鯨看錯了，亞哈在仔細看他的海圖，直看至更深夜闌之后，他會從沉思里猛醒過來，暗自這樣喃喃道......就是它，它逃得了么?只那大鰭已給打穿了，象一只迷途的羔羊一樣攤在這里了!想到這里，他的瘋狂的思想就會屏聲息氣地往前狂奔;直到他想得人累了，頭昏了!而后到甲板的露天里去設法恢復他的精力。天呀!這個全力耗費在一個難以達到的報仇欲望上的人，他經受了多么苦痛的昏睡狀態呀。他睡覺的時候，雙手捏緊拳頭，醒來的時候，他的指甲已把掌心掐得鮮血淋漓了。
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