英語聽書《白鯨記》第363期

When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a whileleaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had beenusual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch,he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also hispipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp andplanting the stool on the weather side of the deck, hesat and smoked.

斯塔布走后,亞哈靠著舷墻,站了一會兒;接著,按照他近來的習慣,叫來一個值班的水手,要他到下面去拿他那只牙凳子和煙斗。他湊著羅盤燈點燃起煙斗,把凳子放在甲板的向風地方,坐在那里抽煙。

In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition,of the tusks of the narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones,without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of thesea and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

在古挪威時代,據(jù)說,那些熱愛航海的丹麥皇帝的寶座都是用獨角鯨的牙齒做的。那么,看到亞哈坐在那只用牙骨做成的三腳凳上,怎不叫人想到那就是象征著他的王位呢?因為亞哈就是船上的可汗,海中之王,也是大海獸的太君。

Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick andconstant puffs, which blew back again into his face. "How now," he soliloquized at last,withdrawing the tube, "this smoking no longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me ifthy charm be gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring-- aye, andignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs, as if,like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What businesshave I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vaporsamong mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I'll smoke no more-"

過了一會兒,他嘴里就不住迅速地噴出陣陣濃煙來,濃煙又直飄回到他臉上。"這是怎么一回事,"他終于一邊自言自語,一邊拿掉煙斗,"吸煙也不再會減輕痛苦了。我的煙斗呵!如果連你都失卻了魔力,那我一定是弄不好嘍!我一直在這里不知不覺地苦干著,不是為了享樂,不錯,而且一直沒有注意到是在當風抽煙;當著風,而且這樣一個勁兒吹吹噴噴,仿佛就象條垂死的大鯨,我這最后的噴射,都是充滿著最強烈的苦惱。我還要跟這支煙斗打什么交道?這東西本來就是意味著寧靜,把柔和的白煙吹進柔和的白發(fā)里,而不是吹進我這樣蓬亂的鐵灰色的發(fā)綹里。我再也不吸它了..."

He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant theship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced theplanks.

他把那支還燃點著的煙斗扔到海里去了。煙火在浪里咝的一聲;同時,船只掠過那下沉的煙斗冒起的泡泡,颼地往前駛去。亞哈戴著垂邊帽,在甲板上蹣蹣跚跚地踱來踱去。