評論
打印
The whaling-pike is similar to a frigate's boarding-weapon of the same name. The gaff is something like a boat-hook. With his gaff, the gaffman hooks on to a sheet of blubber, and strives to hold it from slipping, as the ship pitches and lurches about. Meanwhile, the spade-man stands on the sheet itself, perpendicularly chopping it into the portable horse-pieces. This spade is sharp as hone can make it; the spademan's feet are shoeless; the thing he stands on will sometimes irresistibly slide away from him, like a sledge. If he cuts off one of his own toes, or one of his assistants', would you be very much astonished? Toes are scarce among veteran blubber-room men.
捕鯨槍有點象是古代巡洋艦用以劫船的武器。鉤子呢，有點象小艇上用的鉤子。那個鉤手拿著鉤子，一鉤就鉤著一片鯨脂，于是用勁抓住它，免得它滑掉，因為這時船只正在東傾西歪地搖來晃去。那個站在那片鯨油上的鏟手，就把它垂直地砍成一片片。這只鏟子磨得再銳利也沒有了；鏟手都赤了腳；他站在那上面的那片東西，有時會控制不住而滑開去，象只雪橇。如果他把自己的。或者是他的助手的一只腳趾頭砍下來，你總會覺得非常驚奇吧？可是，在鯨脂間里操作的老手們，腳趾頭本來就不很多。
Chapter 95 The Cassock
第九十五章 法衣
Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a very strange, enigmatical object, which you would have seen there, lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers. Not the wondrous cistern in the whale's huge head; not the prodigy of his unhinged lower jaw; not the miracle of his symmetrical tail; none of these would so surprise you, as half a glimpse of that unaccountable cone,—longer than a Kentuckian is tall, nigh a foot in diameter at the base, and jet-black as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg.
如果你在解剖鯨尸的某一時分跨上"裴廓德號"；再如果你信步走近絞車的話，那么，我肯定，你一定會驚訝不置地看到一件非常奇特而難解的東西，看到那些直放在后甲板的排水管里的東西。不管是看到鯨的大頭上那個奇妙的水槽，還是看到它那只非常奇異的卸了鉸鏈的下巴，更或者是看到它的奇跡也似的均勻的尾巴，其使人驚惶的程度，總不及你隱約瞥到那個莫名其妙的圓錐物，它遠比高大的肯塔基人還長，底端的直徑約近一英尺，黑得象魁魁格那個黑檀木的偶像約約一樣。
