Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea.
在高空上,這里那里都掠過一些毫無斑點的小鳥的雪白的翅膀;這就是發(fā)人遐思的女性氣質(zhì)的天空;可是在海里,在無底的深淵里,卻有威力無比的大鯨、劍魚和鯊魚在游來游去;這就是使人激起強烈的、苦惱的、殺氣騰騰的想法的男性氣質(zhì)的大海。
But though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were, that distinguished them.
不過,雖然內(nèi)部有這么截然不同的景況,可是,這種不同,只是表現(xiàn)在外部的幢幢陰影中;這兩種東西似乎就是一體;仿佛區(qū)別它們的只是性別而已。
Aloft, like a royal czar and king, the sun seemed giving this gentle air to this bold and rolling sea; even as bride to groom. And at the girdling line of the horizon, a soft and tremulous motion — most seen here at the Equator — denoted the fond, throbbing trust, the loving alarms, with which the poor bride gave her bosom away.
高高在上、象個威風(fēng)凜凜的帝王的太陽,似乎給這個豪邁翻騰的大海抹上一層柔和的神態(tài);有如新娘之于新郎。而在水平線的邊緣上,有一陣柔和的顫動——在赤道上,這是最常見的景象——標(biāo)示出了那個可憐的新娘,在獻出她的身心時那種迷戀的悸動,鐘情的激動。
Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl's forehead of heaven.
亞哈的眼睛,象是還在灰燼中發(fā)光的兩塊煤炭,瞇得緊緊,打起皺結(jié),皺得如瘤如節(jié)、堅定不移、毫不動搖而形容憔悴的亞哈站在早晨的晴空下,抬起他那碎甲似的額頭,望著那美女的前額似的蒼天。
Oh, immortal infancy, and innocency of the azure! Invisible winged creatures that frolic all round us! Sweet childhood of air and sky! how oblivious were ye of old Ahab's close-coiled woe!
不朽的天真爛漫的穹蒼呵!在我們四周嬉戲的眼所不見的鳥類!可愛的幼年時代的天空呵!你們對亞哈老頭的愁腸百結(jié)的悲傷是多么健忘!