辯護者

As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling; and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; therefore, I am all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby done to us hunters of whales.

既然魁魁格和我如今已正式投身捕鯨這一行；又既然捕鯨這一行不知怎地在陸地人眼裡，竟被當成一門相當不入詩、又不體面的營生；因此，我急切地想讓你們這些陸地人信服：這是對我們獵鯨人何等的不公。

In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish the fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions.

首先，要證明這一點，也許近乎多餘——在一般人眼中，捕鯨這行，是與所謂的「高尚自由職業」不可同日而語的。

If a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society, it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were he presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm Whale Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed pre-eminently presuming and ridiculous.

倘若一個陌生人被引進某個五方雜處的都會社交圈，把他當作、比方說，一名魚叉手介紹給眾人，那對抬高大家對他才幹的評價，幫助微乎其微；而他若效法海軍軍官，在名片上綴上 S.W.F.（抹香鯨漁業）的縮寫，這舉動準會被視為極其僭越而可笑。

Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honoring us whalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, we are surrounded by all manner of defilements.

世人之所以不肯尊崇我們捕鯨人，一個首要的緣由無疑是這個：他們認為，我們這行當頂多算是一門屠宰的生意；而真幹起來時，我們渾身被各式各樣的污穢所環繞。

Butchers we are, that is true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honor.

我們是屠夫，這沒錯。可是屠夫——而且是佩著最血腥徽記的屠夫——那些世人一向樂於尊崇的軍事統帥們，又何嘗不是？

And as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-ship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth.

至於說我們這行所謂的骯髒，你們很快就會被引入某些迄今普遍不為人知的事實——而這些事實，大體上將揚眉吐氣地把抹香鯨船，至少安放進這潔淨大地上最乾淨的事物之列。

But even granting the charge in question to be true; what disordered slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies’ plaudits?

但就算承認這項指控屬實；捕鯨船上那些凌亂濕滑的甲板，又怎比得上戰場上那些無可名狀的腐屍呢——而那麼多士兵卻能從那兒歸來、暢飲淑女們的滿堂喝采？

And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldier’s profession; let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale’s vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over his head.

而若「危險」這念頭如此抬高了世人對軍人這一職業的看重；那我向你們保證：許多曾從容衝向炮台的老兵，一見抹香鯨那把在他頭頂上空搧起漩渦的龐大尾巴突然現身，也會慌忙倒退。

For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!

因為，人那些可以理解的恐怖，怎比得上神那環環相扣的恐怖與奇蹟！

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!

然而，世界雖嘲笑我們獵鯨人，卻在不知不覺間向我們致上最深的敬意；是的，一種無所不在的崇拜！因為全球幾乎所有點燃的細燭、油燈與蠟燭，都像在無數神龕前一樣，為我們的榮耀而燃燒！

But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of scales; see what we whalemen are, and have been.

不過，且從別的角度看看這事；用各式各樣的秤來掂量它；看看我們捕鯨人是什麼、曾經是什麼。

Why did the Dutch in De Witt’s time have admirals of their whaling fleets?

為什麼荷蘭人在德·維特的時代，要為他們的捕鯨艦隊設海軍上將？

Why did Louis XVI. of France, at his own personal expense, fit out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of Nantucket?

為什麼法王路易十六要自掏腰包，從敦克爾克裝備捕鯨船，還客客氣氣地從我們南塔克特島禮聘了一二十戶人家到那城裡去？

Why did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of £1,000,000?

為什麼英國在 1750 到 1788 年間，付給她的捕鯨人逾一百萬英鎊的獎金？

And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of America now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world; sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen thousand men; yearly consuming 4,000,000 of dollars; the ships worth, at the time of sailing, $20,000,000! and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of $7,000,000.

最後，又怎麼會這樣：我們美國的捕鯨人如今人數超過全世界其餘所有結盟捕鯨人的總和；駕著一支逾七百艘船的「海軍」；由一萬八千人操作；每年耗資四百萬美元；這些船啟航時值兩千萬美元！而且每年往我們港口輸進一筆收成豐厚的七百萬美元進帳。

How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?

若捕鯨裡頭沒有某種雄渾的偉力，這一切又從何而來？

But this is not the half; look again.

可這還不到一半呢；再看。

I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling.

我坦然斷言：那放眼世界的哲學家，無論如何也指不出一股「和平的力量」，在過去六十年裡，比捕鯨這門崇高而強大的營生，更有力地、整體地撼動了整個遼闊的世界。

One way and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb.

左右算來，它所催生的種種事件本身既如此非凡、其後續影響又如此接連不斷地重大，以至於捕鯨大可被看作那位埃及的母親——她生下的子女，自她子宮裡出來時就已各自懷著身孕。

It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue all these things. Let a handful suffice.

要把這一切一一列舉，將是樁沒指望、沒完沒了的差事。舉幾樁就夠了。

For many years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth.

多年以來，捕鯨船一直是搜尋地球最偏遠、最不為人知角落的先鋒。

She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed.

她探勘過沒有海圖的海域與群島，那是庫克或溫哥華都不曾航行過的地方。

If American and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted between them and the savages.

倘若美國與歐洲的軍艦如今能在昔日蠻荒的港口裡平靜地下錨，那就讓它們鳴禮炮，向捕鯨船的榮耀致敬吧——是捕鯨船最初為它們指明了路，最先在它們與野人之間充當了翻譯。

They may celebrate as they will the heroes of Exploring Expeditions, your Cooks, your Krusensterns; but I say that scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket, that were as great, and greater than your Cook and your Krusenstern.

他們儘可隨意去歌頌那些探險遠征的英雄、你們的庫克、你們的克魯森斯特恩；可我要說：有幾十位無名的船長從南塔克特出海，個個跟你們的庫克、你們的克魯森斯特恩一樣偉大，甚至更偉大。

For in their succourless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cook with all his marines and muskets would not willingly have dared.

因為他們是孤立無援、兩手空空的，卻在那異教的、鯊群出沒的水域，在那無人記載、土人持矛的島嶼海灘旁，與處女般原始的奇蹟和恐怖搏鬥——那是庫克帶著他全部的海軍陸戰隊和火槍也不肯輕易去冒的險。

All that is made such a flourish of in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the life-time commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers.

那些在古老的《南海航記》裡被大書特書、誇耀不已的事，對我們英勇的南塔克特人來說，不過是一輩子司空見慣的家常便飯。

Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set down in the ship’s common log.

往往，溫哥華要用三章篇幅去記的冒險，這些人卻認為不值得寫進船上的普通航海日誌。

Ah, the world! Oh, the world!

唉，這世界！噢，這世界！

Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between Europe and the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast.

在捕鯨業繞過合恩角之前，歐洲與太平洋沿岸那一長列富庶的西班牙殖民省之間，除了殖民貿易，幾乎沒有別的商業；除了殖民往來，也幾乎沒有別的交流。

It was the whaleman who first broke through the jealous policy of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies; and, if space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.

正是捕鯨人，最先衝破了西班牙王室對那些殖民地戒備森嚴的政策；倘若篇幅允許，大可清楚地說明：秘魯、智利和玻利維亞如何最終正是由那些捕鯨人，掙脫了舊西班牙的軛、在那一帶建立起永恆的民主。

That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the whaleman.

地球另一端那個偉大的「美洲」——澳洲——是捕鯨人獻給文明世界的。

After its first blunder-born discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships long shunned those shores as pestiferously barbarous; but the whale-ship touched there.

在一個荷蘭人糊裡糊塗發現它之後，其餘所有船隻都長久地避開那片海岸，視之為瘟疫般野蠻之地；唯有捕鯨船在那兒靠了岸。

The whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony.

捕鯨船是那如今強盛殖民地的真正母親。

Moreover, in the infancy of the first Australian settlement, the emigrants were several times saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the whale-ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters.

不僅如此，在第一個澳洲殖民地草創之初，那些移民曾好幾次靠著一艘恰巧在他們水域拋錨的捕鯨船「仁慈的餅乾」，從餓死邊緣被救了回來。

The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same truth, and do commercial homage to the whale-ship, that cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant, and in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their first destinations.

整個玻里尼西亞數不清的島嶼，都承認同一個事實，並向捕鯨船獻上商業上的敬意——是它為傳教士與商人清出了道路，許多時候還把最早的傳教士送到他們的第一個目的地。

If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.

倘若那個「雙重上鎖」的國度日本終有一天變得好客起來，那這功勞將唯獨歸於捕鯨船；因為她早已站在那門檻上了。

But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no æsthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.

但若在這一切面前，你仍宣稱捕鯨與任何「美學上的高貴」毫不相干，那我隨時準備在那兒跟你折斷五十支長矛較量一番，並且每一回都把你的頭盔劈裂、將你掀下馬來。

The whale has no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler, you will say.

你會說：鯨沒有出過名作家，捕鯨也沒有過著名的史家。

The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler? Who wrote the first account of our Leviathan? Who but mighty Job!

鯨沒出過名作家，捕鯨沒著名史家？是誰寫下了關於我們這「巨獸（Leviathan）」的第一篇記述？不正是偉大的約伯！

And who composed the first narrative of a whaling-voyage? Who, but no less a prince than Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal pen, took down the words from Other, the Norwegian whale-hunter of those times!

又是誰寫成了第一篇捕鯨航行的記敘？不正是阿爾弗雷德大帝這樣一位君王嗎——他親用御筆，記下了當時那位挪威獵鯨人奧瑟的口述！

And who pronounced our glowing eulogy in Parliament? Who, but Edmund Burke!

又是誰在國會裡為我們發表了那篇熱情洋溢的頌詞？不正是艾德蒙·伯克！

True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor devils; they have no good blood in their veins.

這倒沒錯，可話說回來，捕鯨人自己都是些可憐蟲；他們血管裡流的不是什麼好血。

No good blood in their veins? They have something better than royal blood there.

血管裡沒有好血？他們那兒流著比皇家血統更好的東西呢。

The grandmother of Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel; afterwards, by marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of Nantucket, and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and harpooneers—all kith and kin to noble Benjamin—this day darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to the other.

班傑明·富蘭克林的外祖母是瑪麗·莫雷爾；後來因婚嫁成了瑪麗·佛爾格，她是南塔克特的老拓荒者之一，也是一長串佛爾格家族與魚叉手的女祖先——全是高貴的班傑明的親朋骨肉——而他們此時此刻，正把帶倒鉤的鐵叉從世界這一頭擲向那一頭。

Good again; but then all confess that somehow whaling is not respectable.

又答得好；可大家總都承認，捕鯨這事不知怎地就是不體面。

Whaling not respectable? Whaling is imperial! By old English statutory law, the whale is declared “a royal fish.”

捕鯨不體面？捕鯨是帝王級的！按古老的英格蘭成文法，鯨被宣告為「皇家之魚」。

Oh, that’s only nominal! The whale himself has never figured in any grand imposing way.

噢，那不過是個虛名！鯨本身可從沒以任何宏偉堂皇的方式登過場。

The whale never figured in any grand imposing way? In one of the mighty triumphs given to a Roman general upon his entering the world’s capital, the bones of a whale, brought all the way from the Syrian coast, were the most conspicuous object in the cymballed procession.

鯨從沒以任何宏偉堂皇的方式登過場？在獻給一位羅馬將軍、慶他進入這世界之都的某次盛大凱旋式上，一具老遠從敘利亞海岸運來的鯨骨，正是那敲著鐃鈸的遊行隊伍裡最醒目的東西。

*See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.

＊關於這一點，更多內容詳見後面幾章。

Grant it, since you cite it; but, say what you will, there is no real dignity in whaling.

既然你引了證，那就算你說對；可隨你怎麼講，捕鯨終究沒有真正的尊嚴。

No dignity in whaling? The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more!

捕鯨沒尊嚴？我們這行的尊嚴，連諸天都作證。南天上有一個「鯨魚座（Cetus）」！別再多說了！

Drive down your hat in presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more!

在沙皇面前你儘管把帽子壓低，可對魁魁格你得脫帽致敬！別再多說了！

I know a man that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty whales. I account that man more honorable than that great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.

我認識一個人，他一生捕了三百五十頭鯨。我認為那人比古代那位誇耀自己攻下同樣多座城池的偉大統帥更可敬。

And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of; if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone; if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honor and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

至於我自己——倘若我身上萬一還藏著什麼尚未發掘的上乘之物；倘若我終有一天，在那個小而崇高、寂然無聲的世界裡（我懷著這份野心並不算過分）配得上幾分真正的聲名；倘若日後我做出什麼大體上「寧可做了、勝過沒做」的事；倘若在我死時，我的遺囑執行人——更確切地說，我的債主——在我桌裡發現了什麼珍貴的手稿，那麼，在此我預先把這一切的榮耀都歸於捕鯨；因為一艘捕鯨船，就是我的耶魯學院、我的哈佛大學。