英語聽書《白鯨記》第956期
Flat obedience to thy own flat commands, this is all thou breathest. Aye, and say'st the men have vow'd thy vow; say'st all of us are Ahabs. Great God forbid! — But is there no other way? no lawful way? — Make him a prisoner to be taken home? What! hope to wrest this old man's living power from his own living hands? Only a fool would try it. Say he were pinioned even; knotted all over with ropes and hawsers; chained down to ring-bolts on this cabin floor; he would be more hideous than a caged tiger, then. I could not endure the sight; could not possibly fly his howlings; all comfort, sleep itself, inestimable reason would leave me on the long intolerable voyage. What, then, remains? The land is hundreds of leagues away, and locked Japan the nearest. I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans and a whole continent between me and law. — Aye, aye, 'tis so. — Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together? — And would I be a murderer, then, if" — and slowly, stealthily, and half sideways looking, he placed the loaded musket's end against the door.
決無二話地服從你那決無二話的命令，這就是你所要求的一切。是呀，而且咬定大家都已經(jīng)立過了誓；咬定要我們大家都做亞哈。決沒有這回事！——不過，難道就沒有旁的辦法嗎？沒有合法的方法嗎？——不可把他關(guān)起來，把他當做一個囚犯給帶回家去嗎？怎么！想打這老頭的手里活活剝奪他的權(quán)力嘛？這只有傻瓜才敢去試。甚至就是把他背綁起來；用大小繩索把他渾身都箍住扎牢；用鉸鏈給鎖起來，扔在這個艙室的地板上；他還是比關(guān)在籠里的老虎還更可怕。我受不了這光景；任怎樣都得聽到他的咆哮聲；在這么漫長難挨的航程上，我將是不得太平，無法安眠，心緒繚亂了。那么，又該怎么辦呢。這里離開陸地又有好幾百里，最毗近的地方嘛，卻是閉關(guān)自守的日本。我孤零零地呆在遼闊的海洋上，在我和法律間卻攔著兩個大洋和整整一個大陸——。唉，唉，真是——。如果上天的雷電把一個殺人未遂犯給擊死在他的床鋪上，把床單和皮膚都燒在一起'難道上天就是殺人犯嗎？——那么，如果——我會是個殺人犯嘛"——他遲緩地、偷偷地側(cè)身望著，把那支裝著火藥的槍尖抵在門上。
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