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While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked. But though the ship so swiftly sped, and though from every eye, like arrows, the eager glances shot, yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night. Every sailor swore he saw it once, but not a second time.
那時，他那只好腿在甲板上發出來的是怪有生氣的回響，那只壞腿的每一記聲音，卻象在敲棺材蓋。這個老人就在生死關口走來走去。雖則船只如此迅疾地駛去，雖則每只眼睛都象箭般投射出了熱切的眼色，然而，那天晚上，卻再也看不到那銀白色的噴射了。每個水手都發誓他看到了一次，沒有看見第二次。
This midnight-spout had almost grown a forgotten thing, when, some days after, lo! at the same silent hour, itwas again announced: again it was descried by all; but upon making sail to overtake it, once more it disappeared as if it had never been. And so it served us night after night, till no one heeded it but to wonder at it. Mysteriously jetted into the clear moonlight, or starlight, as the case might be; disappearing again for one whole day, or two days, or three; and somehow seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still further and further in our van, this solitary jet seemed for ever alluring us on.
這次午夜噴射已差不多被人遺忘了，可是，幾天之后，喲！就在同一個靜穆的時分，又再度聽到叫聲了，大家又都看到了。但是，扯上了帆去追它的時候，它又消失了，仿佛從來就沒有這回事似的。那噴射就這樣一夜過一夜地誆了我們，到后來，誰都也不再去留意它，只是一想到它，就覺得奇怪而已。神秘的噴射有時發生在晴朗的月夜，有時發生在滿天星斗的夜空，都沒有一定；有時隔了一整天又再現了，有時卻隔了兩三天；而且不知怎地，似乎每回的重現，都跟我們越隔越遠，這種孤零零的噴射似乎一直在誘著我們向前。
Nor with the immemorial superstition of their race, and in accordance with the preternaturalness, as it seemed, which in many things invested the Pequod, were there wanting some of the seamen who swore that whenever and wherever descried; at however remote times, or in however far apart latitudes and longitudes, that unnearable spout was cast by one selfsame whale; and that whale, Moby Dick.
如果說，在“裴廓德號”的水手中，有人敢于發誓說，那個隨時隨地被發現的，不論時間隔得多久，地點隔得多遠，始終是可望而不可即的噴射，就是同一條大鯨所噴射出來的，而那條大鯨就是莫比·迪克，那倒是符合于他們的古老的迷信，也是同事事都帶有神秘性的“裴廓德號”相一致的。
