And hence not only at substantiated times, upon well known separate feeding-grounds, could Ahab hope to encounter his prey;
因此,亞哈不但可望在相當(dāng)有把握的期間內(nèi),在各個(gè)著名的食料漁場上碰到他的獵物;
but in crossing the widest expanses of water between those grounds he could, by his art, so place and time himself on his way, as even then not to be wholly without prospect of a meeting.
而且,在穿過這些漁場中間的廣袤遼闊的海洋時(shí),他也能通過他的訣竅,一路上安排和計(jì)算時(shí)間,因?yàn)樯踔辆驮谀菚r(shí),也不是完全沒有相遇的機(jī)會(huì)。
There was a circumstance which at first sight seemed to entangle his delirious but still methodical scheme.
初眼看來,有一種情況,仿佛會(huì)打亂他那譫妄而又很有條理的計(jì)劃。
But not so in the reality, perhaps.
但是,實(shí)際上也許并不是這樣。
Though the gregarious sperm whales have their regular seasons for particular grounds, yet in general you cannot conclude that the herds which haunted such and such a latitude or longitude this year, say, will turn out to be identically the same with those that were found there the preceding season;
群居的抹香鯨雖然有它們到某一漁場去的一定季節(jié),然而,一般說來,不能就此認(rèn)為今年常常出沒于某某地方的鯨群,一定就是上一季在那地方所發(fā)現(xiàn)的同一個(gè)鯨群;
though there are peculiar and unquestionable instances where the contrary of this has proved true.
雖然事實(shí)上也確有與此相反的特殊而確實(shí)的事例。
In general, the same remark, only within a less wide limit, applies to the solitaries and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales.
總之,這種說法,只在一種比較不大的范圍內(nèi),適用于一些老耄的抹香鯨中那些寡人和隱士。
So that though Moby Dick had in a former year been seen, for example, on what is called the Seychelle ground in the Indian ocean, or Volcano Bay on the Japanese Coast;
所以,比如說,雖然上年是在印度洋的叫做塞舌耳的漁場上,或者是在日本海的火山灣上,有人看到過莫比-迪克;然
yet it did not follow that were the Pequod to visit either of those spots at any subsequent corresponding season, she would infallibly encounter him there.
而,卻不能就此得出這樣的結(jié)論說,如果"裴廓德號(hào)"在下一季到上述的任何一個(gè)地點(diǎn)去,就可以萬無一失地在那里碰到它。
So, too, with some other feeding-grounds, where he had at times revealed himself.
因此,它有時(shí)也會(huì)在其它一些食料場上露面。