評論
打印
no matter, though he stood so in the scuttle for a whole hour on the stretch, and the unheeded night-damp gathered in beads of dew upon that stone-carved coat and hat. The clothes that the night had wet, the next day's sunshine dried upon him; and so, day after day, and night after night; he went no more beneath the planks; whatever he wanted from the cabin that thing he sent for.
他就這樣在艙口那兒一氣站上整個鐘頭，露水在他那石雕似的衣帽上結起了露珠，他也不當作一回事。夜里弄濕了的衣服，隔天的陽光又把它曬干；他就這樣一天過一天，一夜過一夜，再也不下到艙里去了；他要什么東西，就隨時差人到艙室里去拿。
He ate in the same open air; that is, his two only meals, — breakfast and dinner: supper he never touched; nor reaped his beard; which darkly grew all gnarled, as unearthed roots of trees blown over, which still grow idly on at naked base, though perished in the upper verdure. But though his whole life was now become one watch on deck; and though the Parsee's mystic watch was without intermission as his own; yet these two never seemed to speak — one man to the other — unless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary. Though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain; openly, and to the awe-struck crew, they seemed pole-like asunder. If by day they chanced to speak one word; by night, dumb men were both, so far as concerned the slightest verbal interchange. At times, for longest hours, without a single hail, they stood far parted in the starlight; Ahab in his scuttle, the Parsee by the main-mast; but still fixedly gazing upon each other; as if in the Parsee Ahab saw his forethrown shadow, in Ahab the Parsee his abandoned substance.
他就在這個露天里吃飯；所謂吃飯，他一天只吃兩餐：早餐和晚餐，午餐是從來碰都不碰；他胡須也不修剪，讓它黑不拉它地長著，象是被風吹刮得露在地面上的樹根，雖然還在光禿禿的地面上繼續蔓長，但已失去蔥蘢的生氣。可是，雖然他現在整個的生活就是在甲板上做守望者；雖然那個清教徒的神秘的守望也象他自己一樣毫無間斷；然而，這兩個人卻彼此從來不說話，除非是隔了好久，需要談點不是重要的往事。似乎有一種很大的魔法悄悄地把這兩個人聯在一起，但表面上，在那些給嚇慌了的水手看來，他們卻好象是各處一方的兩根桿子。如果說他們在白天里曾經偶然說過一句話，那么，到了夜里，兩人都是啞子了，連最簡短的交談也沒有了。他們總是接連許多鐘頭一聲招呼也不打，隔得遠遠的站在星空下；亞哈站在艙口，那個清教徒站在主桅邊；依然堅定不移地你瞪我，我瞪你；仿佛亞哈在那個清教徒身上看到了他的前突的影子，那個清教徒則在亞哈身上看到了他那被遺棄的形體。
