評論
打印
The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm Whales. Almost universally, a lone whale— as a solitary Leviathan is called—proves an ancient one. Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone, he will have no one near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though she keeps so many moody secrets.
這個校長在晚年的這種隱退。孤獨的生活，倒確是一切上了年紀的抹香鯨的生活。差不多人人都知道，一條孤鯨——這是人們對一只孤寂的大海獸的叫法——總是上了年紀的老鯨。它象那個頗有來歷、滿臉胡須的丹尼爾·布恩（丹尼爾·布恩（1734-1820）——美國的所謂拓荒者，專門捕殺印第安人，深入蠻荒腹地，掠奪土人，數度被殺未死，后死于密蘇里河中。）一樣，除了大自然而外，誰都不能接近它；它就在茫茫的大海中，以大自然為妻，而大自然是最賢良的妻室，雖然她擁有許多喜怒無常的秘密。
The schools composing none but young and vigorous males, previously mentioned, offer a strong contrast to the harem schools. For while those female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious of all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter; excepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met, and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.
上文所提到的。那種光是一些年富力強、氣概昂昂的雄鯨所組成的鯨隊，卻是跟那種閨秀鯨隊截然不同的。因為雌鯨是以膽小害臊為特點，而這些青年雄鯨，或者一般所謂四十大桶的雄鯨，其英勇好斗卻是一切鯨類之冠；而且也是盡人皆知，一碰上它是最危險的；不過，有時碰上那種滿頭斑白得出奇的老鯨，這種老鯨也會象那被該死的痛風癥惹得怒不可遏的惡魔一般跟你決斗一番的。
The Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. Like a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness, tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish this turbulence though, and when about three-fourths grown, break up, and separately go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems.
四十大桶雄鯨的鯨隊也遠較那些閨秀鯨隊氣勢浩大。它們象一群年青的大學生那樣，愛好打架，興致勃勃，頑皮淘氣，滿不在乎而嘻嘻哈哈地東沖西撞，因此，謹慎的保險掮客都寧可去找那些耶魯或者哈佛的放蕩吵鬧的小伙子，而不高興去找它們兜保險生意。不過，它們不久也要放棄這種吵吵鬧鬧的生活，而且，等到它們成長到四分之三時，大家也就散伙，各奔前程，去找各人的落腳地，也就是說，去找閨秀們去了。
