For not by any calm and indolent spoutings; not by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain in his head, did the White Whale now reveal his vicinity; but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching. Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, the Sperm Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam, shows his place to the distance of seven miles and more. In those moments, the torn, enraged waves he shakes off, seem his mane; in some cases, this breaching is his act of defiance.
白鯨是這樣近在眼前,人們不是看到它那平靜而旁若無(wú)人的噴水;也不是看到它那發(fā)自它頭部的神秘噴泉的平和的迸射;而是看到了遠(yuǎn)更奇妙的跳躍。這條抹香鯨從非常深的海底里用盡全力直冒了起來(lái)后,就此把它整個(gè)身軀全部顯現(xiàn)在清澈的空中,高高地滾起一丘炫目的泡沫,教人看到它已在相距七英里多的地方。這時(shí),它所震撼起來(lái)的飛濺的狂濤,似乎就是它的鬃毛。在某些方面說(shuō)來(lái),這種跳躍就是它的挑釁行為。
There she breaches! there she breaches! was the cry, as in his immeasurable bravadoes the White Whale tossed himself salmon-like to Heaven. So suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea, and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for the moment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity, to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale.
它在跳啦!它在跳啦!又是一陣叫聲,這時(shí),這條白鯨以它無(wú)限的驍勇,身子象只鮭魚(yú)直沖云霄。在青翠的草原也似的海面上,襯著那個(gè)還要青翠的天邊,突然看到它噴出來(lái)的水霧,頓時(shí)有如看到一條閃爍的冰河,閃閃發(fā)光,叫人眼睛難耐;接著,那條冰河從那開(kāi)始時(shí)的炫眼的強(qiáng)度逐漸逐漸消退,終于變成山谷中行將到來(lái)的陣雨那么迷霧朦朧。
Aye, breach your last to the sun, Moby Dick! cried Ahab, "thy hour and thy harpoon are at hand! — Down! down all of ye, but one man at the fore. The boats! — stand by!"
喂,莫比-迪克,向太陽(yáng)跳你的終吧!亞哈叫道,"你的時(shí)辰和你的標(biāo)槍已是近在眼前了!——下來(lái)!你們統(tǒng)統(tǒng)下來(lái),留一個(gè)人在前桅上。小艇!——準(zhǔn)備!"
Unmindful of the tedious rope-ladders of the shrouds, the men, like shooting stars, slid to the deck, by the isolated backstays and halyards; while Ahab, less dartingly, but still rapidly was dropped from his perch.
那些水手忘記踩著那些用護(hù)桅索做成的勞什子索梯,大家都象流星般從孤零零的后支索和桅索上一溜就溜到甲板上;亞哈雖然不象他們那樣沖下來(lái),還是很快就從他的崗位上落下來(lái)。