Suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like vices my hands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency preserved me; with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under our lee, not forty fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, of an Ethiopian hue, glistening in the sun's rays like a mirror. But lazily undulating in the trough of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapory jet, the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon. But that pipe, poor whale, was thy last. As if struck by some enchanter's wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from aloft, shouted forth the accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air.
突然間,陣陣的泡沫似乎正在我那雙閉起的眼睛底下涌出來,我雙手象老虎鉗一般緊握住護(hù)桅索,好象有股冥冥的神力在保護(hù)我,一陣震動,我蘇醒過來了。噯喲!緊靠在我們后邊,在不到二百四十英尺的地方,一條巨大的抹香鯨正躺在海里滾來滾去,直象一只翻了身的快速艦殼,它那闊大而黑油油的背脊象一面鏡子那樣在陽光里閃爍。可是,那只鯨懶洋洋地起伏在浪溝里,不時沉著地噴出它那迷蒙蒙的噴水,它那樣子就象個肥胖的市民,在炎熱的午后吸煙斗。但是,可憐的鯨呀,那只煙斗,就是你最后的煙斗啦。仿佛給什么魔術(shù)家的魔杖擊了一記似的,這艘睡意蒙朧的船和船里每一個睡眠者都立刻給嚇醒了;當(dāng)那只巨獸直向空中遲緩而有規(guī)律地噴出那閃亮的噴水時,船上四面八方的幾十個聲音,加上上邊三個音調(diào)都同時高聲喊出那個慣常的呼號。
"Clear away the boats! Luff!" CRIed Ahab. And obeying his own order, he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.
“解下小艇!搶風(fēng)駛?cè)ィ?rdquo;亞哈叫道。接著,他也執(zhí)行自己的命令,在舵手還來不及撐住舵柄的時候,便沖了過去,轉(zhuǎn)起舵柄,使船背風(fēng)。
The sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and ere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the leeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples as he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed,
水手們這番急速的叫喊聲,一定驚動了那條大鯨,因?yàn)樾⊥н€沒有放下去,它便大模大樣地掉著頭,游向后邊去了,態(tài)度那么沉著鎮(zhèn)定,一路游去,水波不興,簡直教人認(rèn)為直到那時都還一點(diǎn)也沒有驚動它。