英語聽書《白鯨記》第822期

所屬教程:英語聽書《白鯨記》

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2019年04月11日

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Chapter 97 The Lamp

第九十七章燈

Had you descended from the Pequod's try-works to the Pequod's forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping, for one single moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some illuminated shrine of canonized kings and counsellors. There they lay in their triangular oaken vaults, each mariner a chiselled muteness; a score of lamps flashing upon his hooded eyes.

如果你打"裴廓德號"的煉油間下來，走到船頭樓去，在那里，看到一些不當(dāng)班的人正在睡覺，你頓時簡直會以為是置身在一個光輝閃耀、超凡入圣的王卿的圣殿里。他們都躺在自己的三角形的橡木窠里，每個水手都是一尊靜默的鋼像；二十來盞燈照在他們那閉起的眼睛上。

In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens. To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot. But the whaleman, as he seeks the food of light, so he lives in light. He makes his berth an Aladdin's lamp, and lays him down in it; so that in the pitchiest night the ship's black hull still houses an illumination.

在商船里，對于水手說來，燈油是比王后的奶汁還要希罕。在黑暗中穿衣，在黑暗中吃東西，在黑暗中跌跌撞撞地摸上他的小床，這就是他的通常的命運。可是，捕鯨人，因為他們找的是點燈的東西，所以，他生活在亮光中。他把自己的床鋪搞得象只阿拉丁的神燈（阿拉丁——《天方夜譚》中神燈的主人公。）后，就在燈光里躺下來。所以，即使在最漆黑的夜晚，捕鯨船的墨黑的船身仍是到處燈火輝煌。

See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lamps—often but old bottles and vials, though—to the copper cooler at the tryworks, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat. He burns, too, the purest of oil, in its unmanufactured, and, therefore, unvitiated state; a fluid unknown to solar, lunar, or astral contrivances ashore. It is sweet as early grass butter in April. He goes and hunts for his oil, so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness, even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game.

你看，那些捕鯨人可多么隨便地拿著一大把燈盞——不過，往往拿的都是些破舊的大小瓶子——走到煉油間里那只冷卻器的銅鍋邊，象把一大杯一大杯麥酒灌進大桶似的，在那里加油。他們點的也都是未經(jīng)加工的、最純粹的、因而也是一塵不染的原油；這種液體是岸上的太陽、太陰和星辰所自嘆不如的巧妙發(fā)明品。它有如早春的草漿一樣芬芳。捕鯨人本來就是獵取鯨油的，當(dāng)然要求其新鮮與純真，如同大草原上的旅客，獵取野味做自己的晚餐一樣。