英語聽書《白鯨記》第486期

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Chapter 47 The Mat-Maker

第四十七章 編緶人

It was a cloudy, sultry afternoon; the seamen were lazily lounging about the decks, or vacantly gazing over into the lead-colored waters. Queequeg and I were mildly employed weaving what is called a sword-mat, for anadditional lashing to our boat. So still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of revelry lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self.

這天下午，陰云密布，十分悶熱。水手們有的懶散地在甲板上蕩來蕩去，有的茫然地眺望著那鉛灰色的海面。我和魁魁格卻在慢條斯理地編一種叫做劍緶的緶子(劍?——一種用棉紗編織的似闊帶子的?子，用以盤扎索具等物，使其不致因碰撞摩擦而損壞。)，用來添縛我們那只小艇。整個景色如此靜寂。柔和，然而，不知怎的，卻好象要發(fā)生什么事情似的，空中又隱伏有那么一種使人陷入遐想的魔力，弄得每個默默的水手都似乎各自化成幽靈了。

I was the attendant or page of Queequeg, while busy at the mat. As I kept passing and repassing the filling or woof of marline between the long yarns of the warp, using my own hand for the shuttle, and as Queequeg, standing sideways, ever and anon slid his heavy oaken sword between the threads, and idly looking off upon the water, carelessly and unthinkingly drove home every yarn; I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates. There lay the fixed threads of the warp subject to but one single, ever returning, unchanging vibration, and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending of other threads with itsown. This warp seemed necessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my owndestiny into these unalterable threads. Meantime, Queequeg's impulsive, indifferent sword, sometimes hittingthe woof slantingly, or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly, as the case might be; and by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric; this savage's sword, thought I, which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof; this easy, indifferent sword must be chance-- aye, chance, free will, and necessity--no wise incompatible-- all interweavingly workingtogether.

在忙著編緶子的時候，我就是魁魁格的隨從和小廝。這時，我不斷地把緯線往復(fù)地穿織在一長排經(jīng)紗中，用我的手做梭子，魁魁格則站在一旁，時時用他那把沉重的橡木劍在線索間輕輕一勒，懶散地望望海面，又漫不經(jīng)心而心不在焉地把每根紗線敲攏。我說，這時整個船上，整個海面確是這么奇如夢境；只有間歇的沉悶的擊劍聲在打破沉默，仿佛這就是時辰的機杼(參閱《浮士德》第一部《夜》中地?的話：“我架起時辰的機杼，替神性制造生動的衣裳。”(見郭沫若譯本，人民文學(xué)出版社出版))，我自己就是一只梭子，無意識地對著命運之神往返地織下去(參閱《舊約。約伯記》第七章六節(jié)：“我的日子比梭更快，都消耗在無指望之中。”)，織機上的經(jīng)線是固定不動的，只能單調(diào)的，始終不變地往返擺動一下，而每次震動也只能夠把交叉穿進(jìn)來的另一根線收攏來，跟它自己混在一起。這種經(jīng)線似乎就是定數(shù)，我心里想，我就在這里用我自己的手，投我自己的梭，把我自己的命運織進(jìn)這些不可更易的繩線里。這時，魁魁格那把沖動而漫不經(jīng)心的木劍，就隨機應(yīng)變地，或輕或重?；蛐被驈澋?fù)糁蔷暰€；于是，由于這種斜曲輕重不同的擊拍，結(jié)果就在整塊織物的最后形式上產(chǎn)生出了相應(yīng)的差別。我在想，這把最后把經(jīng)緯線弄成這種式樣的野蠻的木劍；這把漫不經(jīng)心的木劍一定就是機會——是呀，機會。自由意志和定數(shù)——一點兒也不矛盾——都交織在一起了。