捕鯨槍有點象是古代巡洋艦用以劫船的武器。鉤子呢,有點象小艇上用的鉤子。那個鉤手拿著鉤子,一鉤就鉤著一片鯨脂,于是用勁抓住它,免得它滑掉,因為這時船只正在東傾西歪地?fù)u來晃去。那個站在那片鯨油上的鏟手,就把它垂直地砍成一片片。這只鏟子磨得再銳利也沒有了;鏟手都赤了腳;他站在那上面的那片東西,有時會控制不住而滑開去,象只雪橇。如果他把自己的。或者是他的助手的一只腳趾頭砍下來,你總會覺得非常驚奇吧?可是,在鯨脂間里操作的老手們,腳趾頭本來就不很多。
Chapter 95 The Cassock
第九十五章 法衣
Had you stepped on board the Pequod at a certain juncture of this post-mortemizing of the whale; and had you strolled forward nigh the windlass, pretty sure am I that you would have scanned with no small curiosity a very strange, enigmatical object, which you would have seen there, lying along lengthwise in the lee scuppers. Not the wondrous cistern in the whale's huge head; not the prodigy of his unhinged lower jaw; not the miracle of his symmetrical tail; none of these would so surprise you, as half a glimpse of that unaccountable cone,—longer than a Kentuckian is tall, nigh a foot in diameter at the base, and jet-black as Yojo, the ebony idol of Queequeg.
如果你在解剖鯨尸的某一時分跨上"裴廓德號";再如果你信步走近絞車的話,那么,我肯定,你一定會驚訝不置地看到一件非常奇特而難解的東西,看到那些直放在后甲板的排水管里的東西。不管是看到鯨的大頭上那個奇妙的水槽,還是看到它那只非常奇異的卸了鉸鏈的下巴,更或者是看到它的奇跡也似的均勻的尾巴,其使人驚惶的程度,總不及你隱約瞥到那個莫名其妙的圓錐物,它遠(yuǎn)比高大的肯塔基人還長,底端的直徑約近一英尺,黑得象魁魁格那個黑檀木的偶像約約一樣。