Though, in overseeing the pursuit of this whale, Captain Ahab had evinced his customary activity, to call it so; yet now that the creature was dead, some vague dissatisfaction, or impatience, or despair, seemed working in him; as if the sight of that dead body reminded him that Moby Dick was yet to be slain; and though a thousand other whales were brought to his ship, all that would not one jot advance his grand, monomaniac object. Very soon you would have thought from the sound on the Pequod's decks, that all hands were preparing to cast anchor in the deep; for heavy chains are being dragged along the deck, and thrust rattling out of the port-holes. But by those clanking links, the vast corpse itself, not the ship, is to be moored. Tied by the head to the stern, and by the tail to the bows, the whale now lies with its black hull close to the vessel's, and seen through the darkness of the night, which obscured the spars and rigging aloft, the two—ship and whale, seemed yoked together like colossal bullocks, whereof one reclines while the other remains standing. A little item may as well be related here. The strongest and most reliable hold which the ship has upon the whale when moored alongside, is by the flukes or tail; and as from its greater density that part is relatively heavier than any other (excepting the side-fins), its flexibility even in death, causes it to sink low beneath the surface;
雖然亞哈船長可以說還是象往常一樣,在監(jiān)督著追捕這條大鯨;然而,現(xiàn)在看到這只生物已經(jīng)死了,他心里卻似乎激起了一種隱約的不快和不耐煩,甚至可說是絕望來;仿佛一看到這架死尸,就教他想起那只還有待于捕殺的莫比-迪克,因而盡管把千百條其它的大鯨拖到船邊來,對于他那偉大的、偏熱癥的目標(biāo)說來,卻還是毫無助益。從"裴廓德號"的甲板上所發(fā)出來的聲響中,你也許立刻會認(rèn)為,大家又在準(zhǔn)備把錨拋到海里了;因為沉重的鐵鏈已經(jīng)在甲板上拖拽著,鐺鐺作響地朝舷窗外面拋出去??墒?,這些鐺鐺作響的索鏈所要拴住的可不是船,而是那架大尸體。人們把這條鯨的頭縛在船尾,尾巴縛在船頭,現(xiàn)在它那黑黝黝的身體就緊靠著船身,停在那里。透過漆黑的夜空望去,由于夜幕遮住了船上高處的圓木和索具,使得這兩件東西——船和鯨,似乎象是用軛具連在一起的兩只大牯牛,一條躺著,一條仍是站著(原注:不妨在這里把一些細(xì)節(jié)說一說,船跟鯨拴在一起的時候,最得力而可靠的辦法就是拴住鯨尾巴;不過由于尾巴體積很大,尾巴也相對地比任何一部分(除了兩邊的鰭)重,而且死鯨總是軟綿綿的,這就使得鯨仍然沉在水下;