Even the cabin table itself had been knocked into kindling-wood; and the cabin mess dined off the broad head of an oil-butt, lashed down to the floor for a centrepiece. In the forecastle, the sailors had actually caulked and pitched their chests, and filled them; it was humorously added, that the cook had clapped a head on his largest boiler, and filled it; that the steward had plugged his spare coffee-pot and filled it; that the harpooneers had headed the sockets of their irons and filled them; that indeed everything was filled with sperm, except the captain's pantaloons pockets, and those he reserved to thrust his hands into, in self-complacent testimony of his entire satisfaction.
甚至艙室里的飯桌也給敲來引火了;船長室里只得用一個大油桶緊縛在艙室中央的船板上權(quán)充飯桌。在船頭樓里,水手們都把他們的箱子用瀝青修補(bǔ)了縫縫隙隙后拿來裝油;更有意思的是,那廚司靈機(jī)一動,把他的最大的鍋子也拿來裝油了;茶房也巴結(jié)地拿出一把備用的咖啡壺來裝油;標(biāo)槍手們都把標(biāo)槍頭拔下來,把油裝在承口里;真是什么東西都裝上了鯨油,只除了船長那幾只大褲袋沒裝,因為他要把雙手插在褲袋里,顯顯他那非常心滿意足的得意洋洋的氣派。
As this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody Pequod, the barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle; and drawing still nearer, a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge try-pots, which, covered with the parchment-like poke or stomach skin of the black fish, gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew. On the quarter-deck, the mates and harpooneers were dancing with the olive-hued girls who had eloped with them from the Polynesian Isles; while suspended in an ornamented boat, firmly secured aloft between the foremast and mainmast, three Long Island negroes, with glittering fiddle-bows of whale ivory, were presiding over the hilarious jig.
當(dāng)這艘鴻運(yùn)高照。喜氣洋洋的船向郁郁不歡的"裴廓德號"沖過來的時候,就聽到他們船頭樓上那幾只大鼓發(fā)出的野里野氣的聲音;等到更靠攏的時候,就看到他們那一群水手站在那個大煉油鍋四周,那只大煉油鍋,不知是覆上羊皮紙似的"魚鰾"還是黑魚的魚肚皮,水手們握緊的拳頭每一陣擊打,就發(fā)出一陣巨大的響聲。在后甲板上,大二三副和標(biāo)槍手們正跟那些隨他們從玻利尼西亞群島上私奔出來的棕欖色女郎在跳舞;在那艘緊縛在前桅和主桅間的、高高吊起的裝璜得很漂亮的小艇里,三個長島黑人,手里都拿著用鯨骨做的亮閃閃的提琴弓,正在主持這個興高采烈的急迫而輕快的舞會。