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That done, if it belong to a small whale it is hoisted on deck to be deliberately disposed of. But, with a full grown leviathan this is impossible; for the sperm whale's head embraces nearly one third of his entire bulk, and completely to suspend such a burden as that, even by the immense tackles of a whaler, this were as vain a thing as to attempt weighing a Dutch barn in jewellers' scales.
這樣做后，如果是一條小鯨，那就把它的頭拖上甲板來，以后再慢慢處理。不過，如果是一只茁壯的大海獸，就不能這樣做了，因為抹香鯨的頭差不多要占它整個身軀的三分之一，要把這樣重的東西給完全吊上來，即使用捕鯨船里的巨大的復滑車也辦不到，這正如想用珠寶店里的厘秤去稱荷蘭的牛棚一樣的白費。
The Pequod's whale being decapitated and the body stripped, the head was hoisted against the ship's side—about half way out of the sea, so that it might yet in great part be buoyed up by its native element. And there with the strained craft steeply leaning over to it, by reason of the enormous downward drag from the lower mast-head, and every yard-arm on that side projecting like a crane over the waves; there, that blood-dripping head hung to the Pequod's waist like the giant Holofernes's from the girdle of Judith.
且說"裴廓德號"這條鯨，給斬了頭，剝了皮后，人們就把那只頭掛在船側——大約有一半露出在海面上，而還有一大半也許是它自行浮起來的。由于下桅頂給曳得大大地向下宕，這只吃重的大船很陡峭地斜靠在那只頭上，于是靠近那一面的每一根桁臂都象鶴脖子一般伸向海面。那只血淋淌滴的吊在"裴廓德號"船腰上的頭顱，直象是那個掛在朱狄斯（《圣經。舊約》中第十四篇的所謂"偽經"而不為一般新教徒所信者稱：朱狄斯系美麗的猶太寡婦，殺死了亞述人的將領荷洛弗恩于營中，使她的城市得以保全，并將其頭顱帶到她的城中去。）的腰際的、巨人荷洛弗恩的頭。
When this last task was accomplished it was noon, and the seamen went below to their dinner. Silence reigned over the before tumultuous but now deserted deck. An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.
等到做完了最后這一工作，時間已近午刻了，水手們都到艙里去吃中飯。于是，剛才還是鬧哄哄的，現在卻已空無一人的甲板上便闃無聲動了。一片鏗鏘有聲似的寧靜，象一棵黃色的大忘憂樹（忘憂樹——希臘神話：據說吃它的果實就做極樂夢，忘卻了塵世的痛苦。），正在把它那無聲無息又不可數計的樹葉，越來越多地鋪開在海面上。
A short space elapsed, and up into this noiselessness came Ahab alone from his cabin.
隔了不多一會兒，亞哈獨自從他的艙房里出來，走上這個無聲無息的境域。
