英語聽書《白鯨記》第395期

For, like the Coronation banquet at Frankfort, where the German Emperor profoundly dines with the seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals were somehow solemn meals, eaten in awful silence;

因為跟德王在法蘭克福的加冕筵席上謙恭地宴請七個選帝侯一樣,這種船長室里的吃飯,也總是有點象隆重的宴飲,吃得闃無聲息;

and yet at table old Ahab forbade not conversation; only he himself was dumb.

雖然亞哈老頭本人啞口無言,可他并沒有不許在餐桌上談話的禁令。

What a relief it was to choking Stubb, when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold below.

如果有一只老鼠突然在艙底吵鬧起來,那對于快噎住了的斯塔布說來,可真是一種援救了。

And poor little Flask, he was the youngest son, and little boy of this weary family party.

至于可憐的小弗拉斯克,他是這個使人厭倦的家庭宴會中的最小的兒子和小孩子。

His were the shin-bones of the saline beef; his would have been the drumsticks.

他吃的是咸牛肉的脛骨;他所能得到的只是一些雞爪。

For Flask to have presumed to help himself, this must have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first degree.

因為弗拉斯克如其膽敢隨意用菜的話,那在他看來,就等于是個實足的偷竊犯了。

Had he helped himself at that table, doubtless, never more would he have been able to hold his head up in this honest world; nevertheless, strange to say, Ahab never forbade him.

如果他膽敢在飯桌上隨意用菜,那無疑地,他在這個正經(jīng)的社會里是再也抬不起頭來了;話雖如此,說也奇怪,亞哈可從來沒有不許他隨意用菜。

And had Flask helped himself, the chances were Ahab had never so much as noticed it. Least of all, did Flask presume to help himself to butter.

再說,如果弗拉斯克膽敢隨意用菜的話,也得趁亞哈不很留意的當(dāng)口。弗拉斯克而且是最不敢隨意用牛油。

Whether he thought the owners of the ship denied it to him, on account of its clotting his clear, sunny complexion;

究竟是他認(rèn)為船東老板怕牛油會把他那張明朗樂觀的臉給凝結(jié)了而不讓他吃,

or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage in such marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and therefore was not for him, a subaltern;

還是因為他自己認(rèn)為,在這樣一個沒有市集的海洋上的長長的航行中,牛油是非常珍貴的,因此,不是給象他這樣一個最卑賤的下屬享受的;

however it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!

總之,不管怎樣,可憐的弗拉斯克就是一個沒有牛油吃的家伙!