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It was given him--neither twine nor lanyard were seen again; but the next night an iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled from the pocket of the Lakeman's monkey jacket, as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for a pillow. Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm--nigh to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to the seaman's hand--that fatal hour was then to come; and in the fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in.
他拿到他要的麻線——可是后來什么麻線、索帶都再也看不到了。隔天晚上，湖上人把上衣塞在吊鋪上當枕頭的時候，他的上衣口袋里，卻半露出一只編扎得十分牢靠。像只鐵球似的東西來。二十四小時后，他就悄悄的在值掌舵的班——旁邊，正是那個注定要打盹打到這個水手時刻準備為他挖掘的墳墓里去的人——他的致命的時刻就要到來了；而在斯蒂爾基爾特的預先安排的心底里，這個大副應是早已砸碎額頭，僵挺得像一具死尸了。
"But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the bloody deed he had planned. Yet complete revenge he had, and without being the avenger. For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in to take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he would have done.
“不過，諸位先生，一個笨蛋卻把這個謀殺未遂犯從他所計劃周全的惡行中搭救出來了。他仍然把仇全報了，卻不是他親手干的。因為，由于一種神秘的天意，上天似乎親自出場干涉，把這個報仇者所要做的惡事，從他手里奪了過去，由上天自己親手來做。
"It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the morning of the second day, when they were washing down the decks, that a stupid Teneriffe man, drawing water in the main-chains, all at once shouted out, There she rolls! there she rolls! Jesu, what a whale! It was Moby Dick.
“第二天早晨，就在拂曉到日出之間，大家正在沖洗甲板的時候，那個在水里拉大鏈的騰涅立夫(騰涅立夫——非洲北部的加拿利群島中一個最大的島名。)笨蛋突然一下子高聲大叫起來，它在那兒翻動啦！它在翻動啦！天啊，多大的一條鯨呀！原來就是莫比－迪克。
"Moby Dick! cried Don Sebastian; St. Dominic! Sir sailor, but do whales have christenings? Whom call you Moby Dick?
“莫比－迪克！塞瓦斯蒂安先生叫了出來；天呀！不過，水手先生，鯨也得命名嗎？你叫的莫比－迪克是誰呀？
