No, no, it wasn't; I said the corpusants have mercy on us all; and I hope they will, still. But do they only have mercy on long faces? — have they no bowels for a laugh? And look ye, Mr. Starbuck — but it's too dark to look. Hear me, then; I take that mast-head flame we saw for a sign of good luck; for those masts are rooted in a hold that is going to be chock a' block with sperm-oil, d'ye see; and so, all that sperm will work up into the masts, like sap in a tree. Yes, our three masts will yet be as three spermaceti candles — that's the good promise we saw.
不,不,那并不是哭聲;我是說,電光可憐可憐我們大家吧;我直到此刻還是希望它會可憐我們。難道電光只會可憐哭喪著臉的人嗎?——對于笑容滿面的人就不發(fā)慈悲心嗎?你看,斯達(dá)巴克先生——唉,實在是黑得看都看不清。那么,聽我說吧,我認(rèn)為我們是把桅頂上的火光,看做好運(yùn)氣的兆頭;因為插著那些桅桿的船艙都塞滿了鯨油,你可知道;因此,所有的鯨油都會滲透到桅桿里,就象樹液滲透樹木一樣。是呀,我們那三根桅桿還是會象三根鯨油蠟燭一樣——這就是我們看到的好指望。
At that moment Starbuck caught sight of Stubb's face slowly beginning to glimmer into sight. Glancing upwards, he cried: "See! see!" and once more the high tapering flames were beheld with what seemed redoubled supernaturalness in their pallor.
這時,斯達(dá)巴克看到斯塔布的臉慢慢地開始叫人看得清了。他往上邊一望,不禁叫了起來:"瞧!瞧!"又看到那高高的細(xì)光了,那種灰蒙蒙的光彩似乎格外神奇。
The corpusants have mercy on us all, cried Stubb, again.
電光可憐可憐我們大家吧,斯塔布又叫了起來。
At the base of the main-mast, full beneath the doubloon and the flame, the Parsee was kneeling in Ahab's front, but with his head bowed away from him; while near by, from the arched and overhanging rigging, where they had just been engaged securing a spar, a number of the seamen, arrested by the glare, now cohered together, and hung pendulous, like a knot of numbed wasps from a drooping, orchard twig. In various enchanted attitudes like the standing, or stepping, or running skeletons in Herculaneum, others remained rooted to the deck; but all their eyes upcast.
在主桅腳的地方,就在那只金幣和火光下面,那個祆教徒跪在亞哈跟前,頭往后仰著;而在附近,一群水手在把高掛著的拱彎的索具縛在圓柱上,他們都被那股火光吸住了。這會兒,大家的手都搭住繩索,象鐘擺般掛在那里,活象一群粘在果樹園里的下垂枝椏上的失去感覺的黃蜂。從各人所表現(xiàn)出來的各種著迷似的姿勢看來,就象是赫鳩婁尼恩(赫鳩婁尼恩——意大利那不勒斯附近的一個古城;公元七九年由于維蘇威火山爆發(fā)而毀滅。一七三三年進(jìn)行大規(guī)模發(fā)掘時,損壞了許多古跡和藝術(shù)品。)發(fā)掘出來的一些骷髏:有的站著,有的跨步,有的正在奔跑,還有一些人則象釘牢在甲板上似的動都不動。但是,大家的眼睛都往上瞪著。