I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, down, to dumbest dust. Old man of oceans! of all this fiery life of thine, what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes!
我坐在塞滿煤炭的火爐前,瞧它燒得通紅,飽含它那熬煎的熾烈的生命;我也看到它最后熄下去,熄下去,熄成一堆無聲無色的灰燼。海上的老人呵!你這個(gè)火一般的生命,到頭來還不是只剩一小堆灰!
Aye, cried Stubb, "but sea-coal ashes — mind ye that, Mr. Starbuck — sea-coal, not your common charcoal. Well, well! I heard Ahab mutter, 'Here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine; swears that I must play them, and no others.' And damn me, Ahab, but thou actest right; live in the game, and die in it!"
喂,斯塔布嚷道,"請(qǐng)記住,只剩一小堆海炭灰,斯達(dá)巴克先生,是海炭,不是普通那種黑炭。唔,唔,我聽到亞哈在自言自語了,'噫,有人在我這雙衰老的手里塞進(jìn)了這幾張牌;還賭神發(fā)誓地說,我必須單獨(dú)玩下去。不過,亞哈,你干得不差,活在賭博里,死也死在賭博里!"
Chapter 119 The Candles
第一百十九章 蠟燭
Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands. So, too, it is, that in these resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms, the Typhoon. It will sometimes burst from out that cloudless sky, like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town.
最熱的地方也就是最會(huì)培育最兇殘的毒物的地方:孟加拉的老虎蹲在那長綠的香料樹叢里。最燦爛的天空最會(huì)窩藏那最會(huì)致人死命的大雷電:綺麗的古巴就經(jīng)歷過那從來不會(huì)刮到單調(diào)的北方地帶的旋風(fēng)(旋風(fēng)——指美洲四月至七月間經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)的一種旋風(fēng)。)。所以,在這輝煌燦爛的日本海上,也會(huì)教水手們碰到最可怕的風(fēng)暴——臺(tái)風(fēng)。它往往會(huì)突然從那晴朗無云的天際颼地刮了起來,象是扔向瞌盹懵懂的小城的一顆大炸彈。
Towards evening of that day, the Pequod was torn of her canvas, and bare-poled was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck her directly ahead.
那天傍晚時(shí)分,突然迎頭來了一陣臺(tái)風(fēng),把"裴廓德號(hào)"的帆布刮得精光,只剩幾根赤裸裸的桅桿在風(fēng)里掙扎。