Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-color, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.
我們頓時簡直把有關莫比-迪克的所有想法都給忘得干干凈凈,大家盡凝望著那神秘的海洋迄今所曾顯示于人類的最為奇妙的景象。一大團軟綿綿的東西,縱橫有好幾個弗隆(弗隆——英國長度單位,等于八分之一英里或201.167米。),閃著奶油色,漂泛在海面上,在它身體中央輻射出了無數(shù)的長手臂,卷卷曲曲,七纏八繞,活象一窩蟒蛇,仿佛盲沖瞎撞地要把任何碰得到的倒霉東西捉住似的。既看不出它究竟有沒有臉相;又辨不清它有否感覺;但見一個神秘的、無定形的、偶然出現(xiàn)似的活幽靈在波濤間起伏。
As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed,
在它發(fā)出一陣低微的吮吸聲后,又慢慢地消失的時候,還在朝它沉下去的急激的水面凝視著的斯達巴克,突然狂叫起來,
"Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!"
“你這白鬼,看到你這副鬼模樣,我倒寧可看到莫比-迪克,跟它撲打一頓!”
What was it, Sir? said Flask.
“那是什么東西,先生?”弗拉斯克說。
The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it.
“大烏賊魚,這種東西,據(jù)說,捕鯨船難得看到,只聽到看過的人回港埠后說起它。”
But Ahab said nothing; turning his boat, he sailed back to the vessel; the rest as silently following.
可是,亞哈什么都不說,把他的小艇掉了頭,劃回大船去了;其余三只小艇,也都悄悄地跟上去。