評論
打印
There seemed but little in the words, but the tone conveyed more of deep helpless sadness than the insane old man had ever before evinced. But turning to the steersman, who thus far had been holding the ship in the wind to diminish her headway, he cried out in his old lion voice, "Up helm! Keep her off round the world!"
話語看來不多，那聲氣，卻表露出這個神經失常的老人有一種前所未有的。無可奈何的深切的傷感。他突然轉過身來，對著那個舵手(這舵手一直就在使這艘前進的船減低速度)，以他那老獅子般的嗓門大聲叫嚷起來，“轉舵向風！環球去！”
Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we leftbehind secure, were all the time before us.
環球去！那聲音可真激起人們的自豪感；可是，要環球去干什么呀？只不過是經歷過無數的險難后，又回到我們起程的那個地方，在那里，那些我們還未得到的東西，卻始終擺在我們前面。
Were this world an endless plain, and by sailing eastward we could for ever reach new distances, and discover sights more sweet and strange than any Cyclades or Islands of King Solomon, then there were promise in thevoyage. But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that,some time or other, swims before all human hearts, while chasing such over this round globe, they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.
如果這個世界是一片無垠無際的平原，一直往東駛去，我們就能永遠到達新的遠方，發現比昔加拉第島(昔加拉第——在愛琴海上的一個希臘的群島。)或者所羅門王島(所羅門群島——在新幾內亞東面，作者在這兒故意加上“王”。因所羅門是以色列王故也。)更有趣而希奇的景色，那么，這種航行倒是前途無量的。可是，為了追逐我們夢想的這許多神秘縹緲的東西，或者為了苦痛地追擊那種遲早要泛上一切人類心頭的魔影，這樣環球地追擊下去，那它們不是把我們引向徒勞的迷宮，就是教我們中途覆沒。
Chapter 53 The Gam
第五十三章 聯歡會
The ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this: the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had this not been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her--judging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasions--if so it had been that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained a negative answer to the question he put.
亞哈所以不上我們上邊提到的那艘捕鯨船，表面上的理由是這樣的：風勢和海浪都有起大風暴的征兆。不過，即使沒有這種情況的話，他畢竟也許還是不會上去的——這是根據他以后在類似場合上的行動判斷的——如果確是這樣，那就是因為，經過一陣招呼后，他所提出的問題，并沒有得到肯定的答復的緣故。
