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Chapter 114 The Gilder
第一百十四章 鍍金匠
Penetrating further and further into the heart of the Japanese cruising ground the Pequod was soon all astir in the fishery. Often, in mild, pleasant weather, for twelve, fifteen, eighteen, and twenty hours on the stretch, they were engaged in the boats, steadily pulling, or sailing, or paddling after the whales, or for an interlude of sixty or seventy minutes calmly awaiting their uprising; though with but small success for their pains.
由于越來越深入日本的巡游腹地，"裴廓德號"不久就哄動了整個捕魚界。天氣暖和的時候，他們往往坐著小艇，一氣劃上十二、十五、十八或者二十個鐘頭，慢慢地搖呀，劃呀，揚帆駛去、追蹤大鯨，有時就在半中間休息個六十或者七十分鐘，泰然地等候大鯨冒頭；不過，他們這樣的辛苦總是白費的居多。
At such times, under an abated sun; afloat all day upon smooth, slow heaving swells; seated in his boat, light as a birch canoe; and so sociably mixing with the soft waves themselves, that like hearth-stone cats they purr against the gunwale; these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.
在這種時分，在暖和的陽光下，整天飄蕩在那光坦而微波稍泛的海面上：坐在小艇里，象坐在一只樺木的獨木舟里一般輕松；又因為跟那微波不興的氣氛這樣投合地融混在一起，他們倚在船舷邊，就象偎依在火爐邊的小貓；這就是夢一般靜穆的時刻，一看到海洋這種外表那么風平浪靜的美景，光芒四閃的景色，真會叫人忘記了海洋下面還有狼虎似的心臟在跳動著；而且也不愿意想到，這種絲絨也似的腳爪里還隱藏有兇殘的毒牙。
These are the times, when in his whale-boat the rover softly feels a certain filial, confident, land-like feeling towards the sea; that he regards it as so much flowery earth; and the distant ship revealing only the tops of her masts, seems struggling forward, not through high rolling waves, but through the tall grass of a rolling prairie: as when the western emigrants' horses only show their erected ears, while their hidden bodies widely wade through the amazing verdure.
也就是在這樣的時分，坐著捕鯨小艇的漂泊者，會不經意地對海洋懷著一種孝順的，把它當成陸地那樣的信賴的感情，把海洋看成是百花絢爛的大地、在遠處的那艘只露出一些桅頂的大船，似乎不是在沖過滔天大浪，而是在穿過雜草掩膝的起伏的大草原似的掙著向前：有如當年那些西部移民的馬匹只露出直豎的耳朵尖，而它們那些被掩住的身體正在費勁地穿過那翠綠的奇境一樣。
