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Chapter 50 Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah
第五十章 亞哈的小艇和艇員——費達拉
"Who would have thought it, Flask!" cried Stubb; "if I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe. Oh! he's a wonderful old man!"
“誰想得到呀，弗拉斯克！”斯塔布大聲說；“我要是只有一條腿，你一定不會在小艇上碰到我，除非是把我的木頭做的腳趾頭塞在錨鏈孔里。他可真是個怪老頭啊！”
"I don't think it so strange, after all, on that account," said Flask. "If his leg were off at the hip, now,it would be a different thing. That would disable him; but he has one knee, and good part of the other left,you know."
“在這方面，我畢竟認為沒有什么奇怪，”弗拉斯克說。“要是他那條腿齊胯斷了的話，那自然又是另一回事啦。那準會使他動也動不來；可是，他一條腿還剩下到膝蓋的一截，另一條腿是好好的，你知道。”
"I don't know that, my little man; I never yet saw him kneel."
“這個我可不清楚，我的小朋友；我從來還沒有看到他跪倒過。”
Among whale-wise people it has often been argued whether, considering the paramount importance of his life to the success of the voyage, it is right for a whaling captain to jeopardize that life in the active perils of the chase. So Tamerlane's soldiers often argued with tears in their eyes, whether that invaluable life ofhis ought to be carried into the thickest of the fight.
在捕鯨行家中，常常有過這樣的爭論：考慮到捕鯨船長的生命對于航程的成敗得失關系極其重大，他是否應該冒生命的危險，親臨追擊的險境。這正如鐵木兒的戰士們常常為鐵木兒那非常貴重的生命應否親臨戰陣而爭辯得眼淚汪汪一樣。
But with Ahab the question assumed a modified aspect. Considering that with two legs man is but a hobbling wight in all times of danger; considering that the pursuit of whales is always under great and extraordinary difficulties; that every individual moment, indeed, then comprises a peril; under these circumstances is it wise for any maimed man to enter a whale-boat in the hunt? As a general thing, the joint-owners of the Pequod must have plainly thought not.
但是，這問題對于亞哈說來，卻更有所不同。因為長有兩條腿的人，在一切危急關頭中，也不過是一個趑趄不前的家伙；因為捕鯨工作，往往會碰到種種非同一般的大困難；因為事實上每一分鐘都有危險的可能，在這種情況下，讓任何一個殘廢者坐上小艇參加獵擊，是明智的嗎？一般說來，“裴廓德號”的合伙老板們一定會明白地認為，這決不是明智的。
