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Chapter 99 The Doubloon
第九十九章 杜柏侖（杜柏侖——西班牙從前的金幣名稱，當(dāng)時約合美金十六元，一八五三年貶至美金五元。）
Ere now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck, taking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been added how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged in his mood, he was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there strangely eyeing the particular object before him. When he halted before the binnacle, with his glance fastened on the pointed needle in the compass, that glance shot like a javelin with the pointed intensity of his purpose; and when resuming his walk he again paused before the mainmast, then, as the same riveted glance fastened upon the riveted gold coin there, he still wore the same aspect of nailed firmness, only dashed with a certain wild longing, if not hopefulness.
先前已經(jīng)說過，亞哈怎樣喜歡在他的后甲板上，從羅盤盒到主桅的兩頭，來回地踱方步；但是，在其它許多必須一說的事情中，還得加上一樁事情，那就是，在他這種散步中，如果碰上他心事重重的時候，他每次總要在一個轉(zhuǎn)身的那頭，停將下來，神色奇特地站在那里，望著他面前那一樣?xùn)|西。當(dāng)他停在羅盤盒前時，他的眼色就緊盯在羅盤里那支尖針上，那股眼色有如帶著他那一發(fā)就要中的的一支標(biāo)槍；待到他重新舉步走到主桅前停下來時，他這一股凝注的眼色又緊盯著那塊釘在那里的金幣，他依然現(xiàn)出同樣一種釘?shù)美卫嗡频纳裆煌氖沁@會兒卻猛射出一種如果不是滿懷希望。就是充滿狂想的神色。
But one morning, turning to pass the doubloon, he seemed to be newly attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped on it, as though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself in some monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them. And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in the Milky Way.
不過，有一天早晨，當(dāng)他一轉(zhuǎn)身瞥到那塊杜柏侖時，他好象剛剛注意到那塊金幣上所鐫刻的奇特的圖案和文字似的，仿佛這會兒才初次開始帶點(diǎn)偏狂地體會到些圖文可能含有的什么重大的意義。萬物都多少含有一種意義，否則就沒有什么價值，那個滾圓的地球本身不過是個空洞的零號了，除了象人們對待波士頓的山地那樣，一車一車地出賣，去填銀河的沼地。
