英語聽書《白鯨記》第756期

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then, the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake of the whales, at length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the ship neared them; and the wind now dying away, word was passed to spring to the boats. But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful instinct of the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three keels that were after them,— though as yet a mile in their rear,—than they rallied again, and forming in close ranks and battalions, so that their spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with redoubled velocity.

這時，標槍手們對于那些疾奔的大鯨之迫近船邊所感到的憂傷，似乎遠遠超過這只船之這么勝利地超越于馬來人所感到的歡樂。不過，再繼續(xù)緊跟在鯨群后邊追趕一陣后，那些鯨好象終于也把速度降低下來，船也逐漸逼近它們了；現(xiàn)在風已停息，船上也下令要跳下小艇了。但是，這一大群鯨，好象出自抹香鯨的奇妙的本能，一發(fā)覺后邊有三只小艇在追趕他們——雖然相距還有一英里之遙——它們就又聚攏來，列成緊密的隊伍，所以它們的噴水完全象是一片閃光的槍林彈雨，以加倍的速力奮勇向前。

Stripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and after several hours' pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase, when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating tokens that they were now at last under the influence of that strange perplexity of inert irresolution, which, when the fishermen perceive it in the whale, they say he is gallied*. The compact martial columns in which they had been hitherto rapidly and steadily swimming, were now broken up in one measureless rout; and like King Porus' elephants in the Indian battle with Alexander, they seemed going mad with consternation. In all directions expanding in vast irregular circles, and aimlessly swimming hither and thither, by their short thick spoutings, they plainly betrayed their distraction of panic.

我們脫下衣服，只剩襯衫襯褲，把小艇一沖就沖到迷蒙的白霧里去，經(jīng)過了幾個鐘頭的劃槳，劃得差不多叫人要放棄這個追逐了，這時，鯨群中卻普遍呈現(xiàn)一片要停下來的騷亂，生動地顯示出，它們現(xiàn)在終于陷入失卻自主，進退兩難的古怪窘境，這也就是捕鯨人在看到大鯨這種情況時，管它叫"嚇怕了"（"嚇怕了"——原文為gallied，據(jù)人人文庫版的注解，此字即等于gal-low，為"嚇昏了"。"嚇壞了"的意思。這個薩克遜的古字，在莎士比亞的《李爾王》第三幕第二場中曾經(jīng)出現(xiàn)過："狂怒的天色，嚇怕了黑暗中的漫游者。"）的時候。這支緊密結合的勇武的隊伍本來游得那么迅速穩(wěn)定，如今卻是七零八落，潰不成軍了；它們象是古印度波拉斯王（波拉斯（公元前？—321？）——印度王子，公元前四世紀時為馬其頓王亞歷山大所征服。）的象隊跟亞歷山大作戰(zhàn)時那樣，似乎都嚇得要發(fā)瘋了。到處都是雜亂無章的大圈圈，毫無目的地游來游去，從它們那種短促而濃密的噴水看來，教人清清楚楚地看出它們驚惶失措，走投無路了。