英語聽書《白鯨記》第594期

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Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany, than you will hear over the half-inch white cedar of the whaleboat, when thus hung in hangman's nooses; and, like the six burghers of Calais before King Edward, the six men composing the crew pull into the jaws of death, with a halter around every neck, as you may say.

然而，習慣就是不可思議的東西！有什么是習慣所克服不了的？——象這樣給吊在絞架的套索上，坐在半英寸厚的白杉木的捕鯨艇上，人們所聽到的那種快活的俏皮話，愉快的打趣，盡情的開玩笑，和伶俐的應對，是在一般餐桌上從來聽不到的。你不妨這么說，這只小艇上那六個劃到鬼門關去的水手，就跟那六個站在愛德華國王面前的卡勒斯市民卡勒斯——法國北部的商港。在英法百年戰(zhàn)爭期間，這地方于一三四六年為英王愛德華三世所攻占，當時，有六個市民為了保全當?shù)鼐用竦纳庠庥④姶笸罋?，各人在脖子上套了一根絞索，到愛德華跟前去犧牲自己?，F(xiàn)在那里還立有羅丹所塑的六個人的銅像。）一樣，每個人的頸脖子上都套有一根絞索。

Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those repeated whaling disasters—some few of which are casually chronicled—of this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line, and lost. For, when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat, is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and wheel, is grazing you. It is worse; for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils, because the boat is rocking like a cradle, and you are pitched one way and the other, without the slightest warning; and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action, can you escape being made a Mazeppa of, and run away with where the all-seeing sun himself could never pierce you out.

這會兒，你也許不大會想到那些一再發(fā)生的捕鯨業(yè)的災難——雖說偶爾也有一些記載——不大會想到有這個或者那個人讓捕鯨索給摔出了小艇而完了蛋。因為捕鯨索一經拋了出去，坐在小艇上，就如置身在開足馬力的蒸汽機的大鬧聲里，這時候每一支飛滾的杠桿呀，軸呀，輪盤呀，都在摩擦著你。最糟糕的是，坐在這種危險的中心里，卻不能坐在那里，一動不動，因為那只小艇本身就搖簸得象只搖籃，你只能毫無防備地聽其搖來擺去；只有靠著一陣自動調節(jié)的彈力，和同時發(fā)生的意志力與活動力，才不至于做麥齊巴（麥齊巴（1645—1709）——波蘭貴族，先為波蘭王克西米宮廷的學習騎士，后因與某貴族的妻子有糾葛，被縛在馬身上，由馬飛馳狂拖，哪知馬匹把他拖到烏克蘭后，馬死，麥齊巴卻為烏克蘭人所救，后為彼得一世所賞識，使他成為烏克蘭王子，到了俄國與瑞典作戰(zhàn)時，他又背棄俄國。英國詩人拜倫曾寫有同名的一首詩。），不至于飛奔而去，飛奔到那個始終張開眼睛的太陽也看不見你的地方去。