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But this only the more affected some of them, because most mariners cherish a very superstitious feeling about seals, arising not only from their peculiar tones when in distress, but also from the human look of their round heads and semi-intelligent faces, seen peeringly uprising from the water alongside. In the sea, under certain circumstances, seals have more than once been mistaken for men.
這就更其影響若干船員的心情，因為水手大多對海豹懷有一種十分迷信的想法，這種想法的由來，不僅是因為海豹在苦難時所發出來的那種特別的聲調，且也因為它有人的相貌，圓圓的頭顱，和一張半聰明的臉，在船側的海里隱然出現的緣故。在海上，有的時候，海豹總不止一次地被錯認為人。
But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. At sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore; and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep (for sailors sometimes go aloft in a transition state), whether it was thus with the man, there is now no telling; but, be that as it may, he had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard — a cry and a rushing — and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; and looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the sea.
不過，水手們所感到的預兆，注定要在那天早晨，在他們中間一個人的命運上，得到最有力的證實。太陽出來的時候，這個人從他的吊鋪起來，爬上船頭的桅頂；究竟是他還沒有睡醒（因為水手們有時總是將醒未醒就爬上去），還是這個人生來就是如此，可說不上來；總之，他在那上面停不多久，就教人聽到一陣叫聲——一陣叫喊聲和噼哩啪啦聲——大家往上一望，看到空中有個跌下來的幽影；再往下面一看，大海里已冒起一小堆翻來翻去的白色泡沫了。
The life-buoy — a long slender cask — was dropped from the stern, where it always hung obedient to a cunning spring; but no hand rose to seize it, and the sun having long beat upon this cask it had shrunken, so that it slowly filled, and the parched wood also filled at its every pore; and the studded iron-bound cask followed the sailor to the bottom, as if to yield him his pillow, though in sooth but a hard one.
那只救生圈——一只細長的木桶——打船梢放了下去，救生圈一直被用根靈活的纜索乖乖地掛在船梢?？墒?，救生圈放下去后，卻沒有人冒出來抓住它，而那只桶因為長期讓太陽曬得干縮了，所以，它慢慢地滿足了水，干枯的木板就完全漲透了?？墒?，那只鑲著鐵箍的木桶，卻跟那個水手沉到海底去了，仿佛給他送下了一只枕頭，雖然實際上是只硬梆梆的枕頭。
