But all these seemed only his casual stopping-places and ocean-inns, so to speak, not his places of prolonged abode.
不過,所有這種地方,仿佛都不過是它的偶然的歇腳處或者海洋客店,而不處它的久居之地。
And where Ahab's chances of accomplishing his object have hitherto been spoken of, allusion has only been made to whatever way-side, antecedent, extra prospects were his,
到這里,關(guān)于亞哈想到什么地方去完成他那目的已是交代清楚了,還隱約指出,在達(dá)到一個特定的時間和地點之前,他有什么碰巧的。
ere a particular set time or place were attained, when all possibilities would become probabilities, and, as Ahab fondly thought, every possibility the next thing to a certainty.
已有先例可循的。額外的前景。亞哈總喜歡認(rèn)為,如果一切的可能性都可以成為蓋然性,那么每一個可能性就幾乎是等于必然性了。
That particular set time and place were conjoined in the one technical phrase-the Season-on-the-Line.
所謂特定的時間和地點,是跟那句術(shù)語"赤道線上的當(dāng)令季節(jié)"相結(jié)合的。
For there and then, for several consecutive years, Moby Dick had been periodically desCRIed, lingering in those waters for awhile, as the sun, in its annual round, loiters for a predicted interval in any one sign of the Zodiac.
因為在當(dāng)時當(dāng)?shù)?連續(xù)好幾年來,人們都定期發(fā)現(xiàn)莫比-迪克在這種海面上留連一陣,如象一年一轉(zhuǎn)的太陽,總預(yù)先在黃道帶上耽擱一會兒那樣。
There it was, too, that most of the deadly encounters with the white whale had taken place;
這種地方,也大多是白鯨跟追擊者進(jìn)行生死搏斗的地方;
there the waves were storied with his deeds; there also was that tragic spot where the monomaniac old man had found the awful motive to his vengeance.
在這種地方,波濤都刻記了它的許多業(yè)績;這種地方,也就是這個害偏熱癥的老人產(chǎn)生了他那怕人的報仇動機(jī)的悲劇地點。
But in the cautious comprehensiveness and unloitering vigilance with which Ahab threw his brooding soul into this unfaltering hunt, he would not permit himself to rest all his hopes upon the one crowning fact above mentioned, however flattering it might be to those hopes;
但是,亞哈雖然具有慎重的理解力和警惕不懈的精神,處心積慮地想干這種專心一意的獵擊,他卻還是不會把一切希望都寄托在上述的主要事實上,不論這種事實對那些希望說來,具有多大成功的可能;
nor in the sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillize his unquiet heart as to postpone all intervening quest.
他的信誓旦旦也無法教他那不安的心靈會鎮(zhèn)定得把一切幸遇的搜索都耽延了的。