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Chapter 94 A Squeeze of the Hand
第九十四章 手的揉捏
That whale of Stubb's, so dearly purchased, was duly brought to the Pequod's side, where all those cutting and hoisting operations previously detailed, were regularly gone through, even to the baling of the Heidelburgh Tun, or Case.
斯塔布那只花了很大的代價才換來的鯨，被及時拖到"裴廓德號"的船側，在那里，先前已經詳述過的一切斬割、吊拉的操作，甚至連汲海德堡大桶，或者叫做汲鯨腦的工作都循例做好了。
While some were occupied with this latter duty, others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs, so soon as filled with the sperm; and when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works, of which anon.
一些人在忙著汲鯨腦，另一些人卻在那些大桶一灌滿了鯨脂后，便一桶桶地把它拖走。到了適當時分，這種鯨脂在經過仔細而巧妙的處理后，就立刻送到煉油間去。
It had cooled and crystallized to such a degree, that when, with several others, I sat down before a large Constantine's bath of it, I found it strangely concreted into lumps, here and there rolling about in the liquid part. It was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid. A sweet and unctuous duty! No wonder that in old times this sperm was such a favorite cosmetic. Such a clearer! such a sweetener! such a softener; such a delicious mollifier! After having my hands in it for only a few minutes, my fingers felt like eels, and began, as it were, to serpentine and spiralize.
這種東西已經冷卻與凍結到這樣一種程度，即當我跟其他幾個人挨著這個康斯坦丁（羅馬皇帝康斯坦丁在四世紀時建了一個大浴池，面積幾及羅馬奎林納耳山的全部，浴池在一六一零年毀后，建了兩個大宮殿。）的大浴池坐下來的時候，我發現這些東西都很奇異地凝成一大塊一大塊，在尚未凝結的液體中晃來蕩去。我們的任務就是把這些塊塊給再捏成液體。這真是一樁又香又滑的差使！難怪在古代，抹香鯨油是如此討人歡喜的一種化妝品。這真是一種了不起的清涼劑！一種了不起的潤滑劑！一種了不起的溶解劑！真是一種了不起的鎮靜劑！我雙手在那里頭只放了幾分鐘，就覺得手指象一條條黃膳，而且開始象蛇一般卷曲起來了。
As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along;
我在絞車那兒出過大力氣后，舒舒暢暢地坐在這里，雙腳交叉擱在甲板上，頭頂是靜謐的蒼穹，船在懶洋洋地、非常平穩地向前滑去，
