街道

If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford.

倘若我頭一回瞥見魁魁格這麼一個古怪異類在文明城鎮的上流社會裡走動時曾大吃一驚，那這份驚訝，在我頭一回於白天漫步新貝德福街頭時，很快就煙消雲散了。

In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest looking nondescripts from foreign parts.

在碼頭附近的大街上，任何一個像樣的海港，都常會讓你看到來自異邦、最稀奇古怪、叫不出名堂的人物。

Even in Broadway and Chestnut streets, Mediterranean mariners will sometimes jostle the affrighted ladies.

就連在百老匯與栗子街，地中海來的水手有時也會擠撞到受驚的仕女。

Regent Street is not unknown to Lascars and Malays; and at Bombay, in the Apollo Green, live Yankees have often scared the natives.

攝政街對東印度水手與馬來人並不陌生；而在孟買的阿波羅草坪上，活生生的美國佬也常把當地人嚇著。

But New Bedford beats all Water Street and Wapping.

但新貝德福比起（紐約的）水街和（倫敦的）瓦坪都更勝一籌。

In these last-mentioned haunts you see only sailors; but in New Bedford, actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners; savages outright; many of whom yet carry on their bones unholy flesh.

在後面這兩處地方，你只看得到水手；可在新貝德福，街角站著聊天的是貨真價實的食人族；徹頭徹尾的野人；其中許多人骨頭上還帶著（吃人留下的）不潔之肉。

It makes a stranger stare.

這教一個外地人看得目瞪口呆。

But, besides the Feegeeans, Tongatobooarrs, Erromanggoans, Pannangians, and Brighggians, and, besides the wild specimens of the whaling-craft which unheeded reel about the streets, you will see other sights still more curious, certainly more comical.

但除了斐濟人、東加塔布人、埃羅曼戈人、潘南吉人、布里吉人這些（南太平洋島民），除了那些沒人理會、在街上踉蹌晃蕩的捕鯨界奇人異類，你還會看到別的、更稀奇——當然也更滑稽的景象。

There weekly arrive in this town scores of green Vermonters and New Hampshire men, all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery.

每週都有幾十個青澀的佛蒙特人和新罕布夏人來到這鎮上，個個渴望在捕鯨這行裡撈取利益與榮耀。

They are mostly young, of stalwart frames; fellows who have felled forests, and now seek to drop the axe and snatch the whale-lance.

他們大多年輕、體格壯實；都是些砍過整片森林的漢子，如今想丟下斧頭、改抓捕鯨矛。

Many are as green as the Green Mountains whence they came.

許多人青澀得，就跟他們來自的那片綠山一樣「綠」（生嫩）。

In some things you would think them but a few hours old.

在某些方面，你會以為他們才出生不過幾個鐘頭。

Look there! that chap strutting round the corner.

瞧那邊！那傢伙大搖大擺地拐過街角。

He wears a beaver hat and swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor-belt and sheath-knife.

他戴頂海狸皮帽、穿件燕尾服，腰上束著水手皮帶、別著一把帶鞘的刀。

Here comes another with a sou’-wester and a bombazine cloak.

那邊又來一個，戴著防水油布帽、披著一件斜紋毛葛斗篷。

No town-bred dandy will compare with a country-bred one—I mean a downright bumpkin dandy—a fellow that, in the dog-days, will mow his two acres in buckskin gloves for fear of tanning his hands.

城裡長大的花花公子，沒一個比得上鄉下長大的——我是說那種徹頭徹尾的鄉巴佬花花公子——這種人會在三伏天裡戴著鹿皮手套去割他那兩英畝地，就怕曬黑了手。

Now when a country dandy like this takes it into his head to make a distinguished reputation, and joins the great whale-fishery, you should see the comical things he does upon reaching the seaport.

這麼一個鄉下花花公子，一旦異想天開要博個顯赫名聲、投身偉大的捕鯨業，你真該看看他一到海港都幹些什麼滑稽事。

In bespeaking his sea-outfit, he orders bell-buttons to his waistcoats; straps to his canvas trowsers.

在訂做他那身出海行頭時，他要在背心上加響鈴釦、在帆布褲上加綁帶。

Ah, poor Hay-Seed! how bitterly will burst those straps in the first howling gale, when thou art driven, straps, buttons, and all, down the throat of the tempest.

唉，可憐的「草包土包子」！在第一場咆哮的狂風裡，那些綁帶將崩斷得多麼慘——到時候你連人帶綁帶、帶釦子，一股腦兒被颳進那風暴的喉嚨裡去。

But think not that this famous town has only harpooneers, cannibals, and bumpkins to show her visitors.

但你可別以為這座名鎮拿得出手給訪客看的，只有魚叉手、食人族和鄉巴佬。

Not at all. Still New Bedford is a queer place.

完全不是。話雖如此，新貝德福仍是個古怪的地方。

Had it not been for us whalemen, that tract of land would this day perhaps have been in as howling condition as the coast of Labrador.

要不是有我們這些捕鯨人，那片土地說不定到今天還跟拉布拉多海岸一樣荒涼蕭瑟。

As it is, parts of her back country are enough to frighten one, they look so bony.

即便如此，她內地有些地方還是嶙峋得能把人嚇著，看上去瘦骨嶙峋。

The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in, in all New England.

這鎮子本身，大概是全新英格蘭生活開銷最貴的地方。

It is a land of oil, true enough: but not like Canaan; a land, also, of corn and wine.

這確實是塊「油」的土地：但不像迦南那塊也流著（穀）米與（葡萄）酒的應許之地。

The streets do not run with milk; nor in the spring-time do they pave them with fresh eggs.

這裡的街道不流著奶；春天時也不拿新鮮雞蛋來鋪路。

Yet, in spite of this, nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford.

然而儘管如此，全美國你再也找不到比新貝德福更氣派如貴族的宅邸、更富麗堂皇的園林了。

Whence came they? how planted upon this once scraggy scoria of a country?

這些是打哪兒來的？又是怎麼栽種在這片曾經滿是嶙峋火山渣的土地上的？

Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion, and your question will be answered.

去瞧瞧那座高聳豪宅四周那些象徵性的鐵鑄魚叉，你的疑問就有答案了。

Yes; all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

是的；這一切堂皇的房子與花團錦簇的園子，全是從大西洋、太平洋、印度洋來的。

One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea.

無一例外，它們全是被魚叉叉中、從海底拖上來、一路拖到這裡的。

Can Herr Alexander perform a feat like that?

（大魔術師）亞歷山大先生變得出這樣的戲法嗎？

In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their daughters, and portion off their nieces with a few porpoises a-piece.

聽說在新貝德福，做父親的拿鯨魚當女兒的嫁妝，給姪女置辦陪嫁則一人分上幾條鼠海豚。

You must go to New Bedford to see a brilliant wedding; for, they say, they have reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.

要看一場光彩奪目的婚禮，你非去新貝德福不可；因為聽說那兒家家都有油庫，每晚都豪不吝惜地把成捆的鯨腦油蠟燭一根根點到底。

In summer time, the town is sweet to see; full of fine maples—long avenues of green and gold.

夏日裡，這鎮子看著真叫人舒心；滿是俊秀的楓樹——一條條綠與金交織的長街林蔭道。

And in August, high in air, the beautiful and bountiful horse-chestnuts, candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by their tapering upright cones of congregated blossoms.

而到了八月，高高在空中，那些秀美而繁茂的七葉樹，像一座座燭台般，向過路人呈獻它們那一支支尖頂、直立、簇擁成串的花。

So omnipotent is art; which in many a district of New Bedford has superinduced bright terraces of flowers upon the barren refuse rocks thrown aside at creation’s final day.

人為的造化竟如此無所不能；在新貝德福的許多街區，它硬是在那些創世最後一天被丟棄一旁的貧瘠廢石之上，覆生出一畦畦明豔的花壇。

And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses.

而新貝德福的女子，她們綻放得像她們自家的紅玫瑰。

But roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens.

但玫瑰只在夏天開；她們雙頰那抹嬌好的緋紅，卻像第七重天的陽光一樣四季常在。

Elsewhere match that bloom of theirs, ye cannot, save in Salem, where they tell me the young girls breathe such musk, their sailor sweethearts smell them miles off shore, as though they were drawing nigh the odorous Moluccas instead of the Puritanic sands.

別處你休想找到能與她們那份嬌豔匹敵的——除了塞勒姆；聽說在那兒，年輕姑娘吐氣如麝香，她們當水手的情郎在數哩外的海上就聞得到，彷彿駛近的是芬芳的摩鹿加（香料）群島，而不是那片清教徒的沙岸。