英語聽書《白鯨記》第484期

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Not only that, but the subtle insanity of Ahab respecting Moby Dick was noways more significantly manifestedthan in his superlative sense and shrewdness in foreseeing that, for the present, the hunt should in some way be stripped of that strange imaginative impiousness which naturally invested it; that the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action); that when they stood their long night watches, his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than Moby Dick. For however eagerly and impetuously the savage crew had hailed the announcement of his quest; yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable-- they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness-- and when retained for any object remote and blank in the pursuit, however promissory of life and passion in the end, it is above all things requisite that temporary interests and employments should intervene and hold them healthily suspended for the final dash.

他準(zhǔn)會隨時公開反抗他的船長的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)。不僅如此，這個又機靈又癲狂的亞哈對于莫比－迪克的看法也決不會明顯地表現(xiàn)出來，而是運用他那最高的判斷力和機靈性預(yù)先看出了，在目前，應(yīng)該設(shè)法除去那層本來蒙在獵擊上的奇特。不可思議的邪惡性的外衣，應(yīng)該把航行的恐怖性給掩蓋起來(因為人的勇氣抵擋不住為行動所無法解決的長期胡思亂想)，他也看出了當(dāng)那些大小船員在漫漫長夜中值班的時候，心里所想的一定都是一些私人的事情，決不會想到莫比－迪克。因為，不管這些野蠻的水手對他所宣布的搜捕鯨魚計劃，報以多么熱烈和激動的歡呼；這些包括各式人等的水手，總不免有點反復(fù)無常。不可靠——他們生活在變化無常的海洋上，吸到的又是海洋那種變幻無定的氣息——既然是雇他們來追擊一種縹緲的東西，不論到頭來需要付出怎樣的生命和熱情，那么，目前最需要做的就是公私兼顧，使他們養(yǎng)精蓄銳，以便用于最后一擊了。

Nor was Ahab unmindful of another thing. In times of strong emotion mankind disdain all base considerations;but such times are evanescent. The permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought Ahab,is sordidness. Granting that the White Whale fully incites the hearts of this my savage crew, and playing round their savageness even breeds a certain generous knight-errantism in them, still, while for the love of it they give chase to Moby Dick, they must also have food for their more common, daily appetites. For even the high lifted and chivalric Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two thousand miles of land to fight for their holy sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious perquisites by the way.

亞哈也注意到另外一件事情。人在情緒激動的時候，雖然不作種種卑劣的打算；可是，這種時分卻是倏忽而逝的。亞哈認(rèn)為，生來矯揉造作的人始終是卑鄙的。就算白鯨的確已使我這些野蠻的水手的心都跳動起來了，甚至使他們的野心滋長出一種慷慨好義的俠義行為來；然而，為了使他們心甘情愿地去追擊莫比－迪克，也還必須滿足他們那日常的口腹之需。因為，哪怕是古代那些情緒激昂，富有騎士風(fēng)的十字軍，要是不讓他們順便干些偷盜，摸摸口袋的勾當(dāng)，順便撈到其它一些以宗教為口實的油水的話，那他們也不見得會心甘情愿，跋涉二千多英里去為他們那圣墓作戰(zhàn)。