away, whole oceans away, from that young girl-wife I wedded past fifty, and sailed for Cape Horn the next day, leaving but one dent in my marriage pillow — wife? wife? — rather a widow with her husband alive? Aye, I widowed that poor girl when I married her, Starbuck; and then, the madness, the frenzy, the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey — more a demon than a man! — aye, aye! what a forty years' fool — fool — old fool, has old Ahab been! Why this strife of the chase? why weary, and palsy the arm at the oar, and the iron, and the lance? how the richer or better is Ahab now? Behold. Oh, Starbuck! is it not hard, that with this weary load I bear, one poor leg should have been snatched from under me? Here, brush this old hair aside; it blinds me, that I seem to weep. Locks so grey did never grow but from out some ashes! But do I look very old, so very, very old, Starbuck? I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise. God! God! God! — crack my heart! — stave my brain! — mockery! mockery!
走了,遠(yuǎn)走重洋,離開我那過了五十歲才結(jié)婚的年輕妻子,第二天出發(fā)到合恩角去,只在我結(jié)婚的枕頭上留下了一個凹痕——妻子?妻子?——還不如說是在守活寡!唉,斯達(dá)巴克,我一跟她結(jié)婚,就叫那個可憐的姑娘守寡;于是,瘋呀,狂呀,熱血呀,汗水直冒的額頭呀,亞哈老頭就這樣放下了無數(shù)次的小艇,憤怒兇狂地去追擊他的獵物——簡直不是個人,而是個惡魔!——唉,唉!亞哈老頭可過了四十年多么傻瓜——傻瓜——老傻瓜的生活呀!干嗎要這樣拚命的追擊?又干嗎要這樣不怕疲累,不怕雙手發(fā)麻地扳槳?拿標(biāo)槍,拿捕鯨槍呢?亞哈現(xiàn)在可發(fā)了財,可過得好些?斯達(dá)巴克啊,你瞧!我背著這么個發(fā)膩的包袱,可憐一條腿又給搞掉了,這不艱苦嗎?喏,給我把這簇老發(fā)撩開吧;它弄得我看不見了,弄得我象是要哭了。這么灰白的頭發(fā),決不是長出來的,而是打什么灰堆里出來的!可是,斯達(dá)巴克,我可顯得很老,非常非常的老了嗎?我覺得極其乏力,腰彎,背曲,好象我是打樂園時代起便蹣蹣跚跚地走了不知多少年代的亞當(dāng)。天啊!天啊!天啊!——費(fèi)盡我的心機(jī),——絞盡我的腦汁!——滑稽!滑稽!