可以肯定的是,這兩艘船上的旅行者相遇時應(yīng)該非常高興,共話友情。
the happy sailors shall cluster in the rigging, and even on the yardarms, to look each other in the face,
桅頂上的旗子會發(fā)出友好的信號。興高采烈的水手會在索具旁,甚至在桁端上簇?fù)淼揭黄?,彼此打量著?/p>
while the exhilarating voices of both crews shall mingle in accents of gladness uncontrollable.
雙方全體船員的歡呼聲與難以抑制的喜悅匯成一片。
It is not so. Not as brothers, not as friends, not as wayfarers of the common ocean, do they come together; but as enemies.
可是,事實不是這樣。他們不像兄弟,不像朋友,也不像在共同的海域航行的旅人,他們只是作為相互的敵人走到一起的。
The gentle vessels now bristle fiercely with death-dealing instruments.
這兩艘本來彬彬有禮的船,現(xiàn)在開始用致人死命的工具發(fā)出兇猛的攻擊。
On their spacious decks, aloft on all their masts, flashes the deadly musketry.
在寬敞的甲板上,在船桅的高處,致命的火器閃爍著火光。
From their sides spout cataracts of flame, amidst the pealing thunders of a fatal artillery.
在大炮的雷鳴聲中從船的兩側(cè)噴出火舌。
They, who had escaped "the dreadful touch of merchant-marring rocks",
本來已經(jīng)逃過“巖礁致命接觸”一劫的他們,
who had sped on their long and solitary way unharmed by wind or wave — whom the hurricane had spared,
本來已經(jīng)在風(fēng)浪伴隨下安然度過漫長而孤寂的航程的他們,
in whose favor storms and seas had intermitted their immitigable war — now at last fall by the hand of each other.
颶風(fēng)也沒能奈何了的他們,最終卻在彼此手中魂歸天外。