英語聽書《白鯨記》第356期

Not a word he spoke; nor did his officers say aughtto him; though by all their minutest gestures andexpressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if notpainful, consciousness of being under a troubledmaster-eye. And not only that, but moody strickenAhab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face;in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity ofsome mighty woe.

他一句話也不說,他的那幾個頭目也不跟他說一句話;不過,從他們各種最細小的動作和表情上,卻教人明顯地看出,因為知道有一種使人繚亂的眼色控制他們,而現出一種雖然不是痛苦,卻是不安的神態(tài)。不僅如此,而且在他們面前的這個滿腔抑郁的亞哈的臉上,還有一種苦惱的神色;隱含在那種無法形容的。凜然不可侵犯的尊嚴中,還有著無上的悲痛之概。

Ere long, from his first visit in the air, he withdrew into his cabin. But after that morning, hewas every day visible to the crew; either standing in his pivot-hole, or seated upon an ivorystool he had; or heavily walking the deck. As the sky grew less gloomy; indeed, began to growa little genial, he became still less and less a recluse; as if, when the ship had sailed fromhome, nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded. And,by and by, it came to pass, that he was almost continually in the air; but, as yet, for all that hesaid, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck, he seemed as unnecessary there as anothermast. But the Pequod was only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whalingpreparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so that there was littleor nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite Ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that oneinterval, the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choosethe loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.

他第一次在甲板上露了一會兒面后,便退到他的艙房里去。不過,打從那個早晨后,水手們每天都看到他了;他不是站在那個鏇孔里,就是坐在他那只牙凳上;或者是腳步沉重地在甲板上走來走去。隨著天氣日趨晴朗;而且確已開始變得有點兒溫暖,他就越來越不象個隱士了;仿佛船開航后,只是因為海上那種冬季的肅殺凄涼的景象,才使他那么深居簡出。于是,慢慢地竟發(fā)現他幾乎是不斷地留在露天里了;不過,到現在為止,雖然他終于在暖洋洋的甲板上說過話,或者人們察覺出他說過了話,可他在那里卻象另一根備用桅桿一樣是多余的。好在"裴廓德號"現在只在趕路,并不是在做正規(guī)的巡弋;差不多各種需要督促的捕鯨準備工作,大二三副都還能夠勝任愉快,因此,現在可說是很少或竟沒有什么要亞哈親自處理,或者需得打擾他的事情。船只就這么向前奔趕,在這當兒,他額頭上的云彩,也一層層地堆了起來,好象所有的云彩都看中了這個可以歇腳的。最高的絕巔似的。