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But upon flinging the third, in the act of tossing overboard the clumsy wooden block, it caught under one of the seats of the boat, and in an instant tore it out and carried it away, dropping the oarsman in the boat's bottom as the seat slid from under him. On both sides the sea came in at the wounded planks, but we stuffed two or three drawers and shirts in, and so stopped the leaks for the time.
可是，把第三只甩出去的時候，在剛要把這塊笨重木塊拋到海里去時，卻被小艇的一個座位扳住了，剎那間，那座位就給卷了出去、拖走了，那座位從那個槳手的屁股下面一滑，槳手給摔在艇肚里。船板給撞壞了，水打兩邊涌了進來，不過，我們塞了兩三件襯衫襯褲后，漏洞就暫時給堵住了。
It had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons, were it not that as we advanced into the herd, our whale's way greatly diminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further from the circumference of commotion, the direful disorders seemed waning. So that when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale sideways vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting momentum, we glided between two whales into the innermost heart of the shoal, as if from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake. Here the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost whales, were heard but not felt. In this central expanse the sea presented that smooth satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods. Yes, we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the heart of every commotion.
本來幾乎是無法把帶有"得拉格"的標槍擲出去的，虧得我們已經深入了鯨群，四周的鯨逐漸減少了，而且因為我們越來越遠離那亂哄哄的外圍，那種可怕的亂糟糟聲似乎也在逐漸減弱了。所以，等到最后那支搖晃晃的標槍一甩出去，那條拖著繩子的鯨就打斜里消失了；接著，我們隨著它那逐漸失勢的細小的力量，悄悄地插進兩條鯨中間，直沖到鯨群的最中心去，我們好象從什么山洪爆發的急流里，駛進了一個水波不興的湖谷。雖然外圍的鯨群依然象洶涌的峽谷似的激蕩著，可是在這里，卻只聽得著而感受不到了。在這么一片汪洋的中心，海面顯得象緞子一般光亮滑溜（人們管它叫"滑板"），這種氣氛是由于心緒較為寧靜的鯨群噴出的稀薄水份造成的。不錯，我們現在就置身在這種寧靜得叫人失魂落魄的境地里，據說，這就是表面平靜，底里卻騷亂不息的情況。
