割脂頭目

Concerning the officers of the whale-craft, this seems as good a place as any to set down a little domestic peculiarity on ship-board, arising from the existence of the harpooneer class of officers, a class unknown of course in any other marine than the whale-fleet.

談到捕鯨船的軍官，這裡似乎跟別處一樣，正好可以記下一個船上的小小特殊風俗——它源於「標槍手」這一階級軍官的存在，而這個階級，當然是除了捕鯨船隊之外、任何別的航海行當都沒有的。

The large importance attached to the harpooneer’s vocation is evinced by the fact, that originally in the old Dutch Fishery, two centuries and more ago, the command of a whale ship was not wholly lodged in the person now called the captain, but was divided between him and an officer called the Specksnyder.

標槍手這職務所繫的重大分量，可由一個事實看出：兩百多年前的古荷蘭捕鯨業，一艘捕鯨船的指揮權並非全然歸於今日所謂的「船長」一人，而是由他與一名叫「割脂頭目（Specksnyder）」的軍官分掌。

Literally this word means Fat-Cutter; usage, however, in time made it equivalent to Chief Harpooneer.

這詞的字面意思是「割脂者（Fat-Cutter）」；但用著用著，久而久之它便等同於「標槍手長」了。

In those days, the captain’s authority was restricted to the navigation and general management of the vessel; while over the whale-hunting department and all its concerns, the Specksnyder or Chief Harpooneer reigned supreme.

在那些日子裡，船長的權限僅限於航行與全船的一般管理；而捕鯨這一部門及其一切事務，則由割脂頭目（即標槍手長）至高無上地統轄。

In the British Greenland Fishery, under the corrupted title of Specksioneer, this old Dutch official is still retained, but his former dignity is sadly abridged.

在英國的格陵蘭捕鯨業裡，這個古荷蘭職位以訛變的頭銜「Specksioneer」保留了下來，但他昔日的尊嚴已被可悲地削減。

At present he ranks simply as senior Harpooneer; and as such, is but one of the captain’s more inferior subalterns.

如今他不過排作「資深標槍手」；以此身分，他只是船長手下較低階的副屬之一。

Nevertheless, as upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends, and since in the American Fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat, but under certain circumstances (night watches on a whaling ground) the command of the ship’s deck is also his; therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior; though always, by them, familiarly regarded as their social equal.

然而，由於捕鯨航程的成敗大半繫於標槍手的良好表現，又由於在美國捕鯨業裡，他不僅是小艇上的重要軍官、在某些情況下（捕鯨海域的夜班）甲板的指揮權也歸他；因此，海上那條宏大的「政治格言」便要求：他名義上應與桅前的水手分開居住，並以某種方式被標示為他們職業上的上級——儘管他們始終親切地把他看作社交上的平輩。

Now, the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea, is this—the first lives aft, the last forward. Hence, in whale-ships and merchantmen alike, the mates have their quarters with the captain; and so, too, in most of the American whalers the harpooneers are lodged in the after part of the ship. That is to say, they take their meals in the captain’s cabin, and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it.

而海上軍官與水手之間劃出的那條大界線，便是這個——前者住船尾，後者住船頭。因此，捕鯨船與商船一樣，船副都與船長同住；同樣地，多數美國捕鯨船的標槍手也住在船的後部。也就是說，他們在船長艙裡用餐，睡在一處與之間接相通的地方。

Though the long period of a Southern whaling voyage (by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man), the peculiar perils of it, and the community of interest prevailing among a company, all of whom, high or low, depend for their profits, not upon fixed wages, but upon their common luck, together with their common vigilance, intrepidity, and hard work; though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally; yet, never mind how much like an old Mesopotamian family these whalemen may, in some primitive instances, live together; for all that, the punctilious externals, at least, of the quarter-deck are seldom materially relaxed, and in no instance done away.

南方捕鯨航程的漫長（迄今或有史以來人類所有航程中最長的）、它特殊的危險、以及全船上下普遍共有的利益關係——無論高低，眾人的利潤都不靠固定工資，而靠共同的運氣，連同共同的警覺、無畏與苦幹；這一切固然在某些情況下會養成比一般商船寬鬆的紀律；然而，不管這些捕鯨人有時——在某些原始的個案裡——活得多麼像一個古美索不達米亞的大家庭；儘管如此，後甲板那套一絲不苟的外在儀節，至少很少真正放鬆，更不曾有一例被徹底廢除。

Indeed, many are the Nantucket ships in which you will see the skipper parading his quarter-deck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in any military navy; nay, extorting almost as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple, and not the shabbiest of pilot-cloth.

的確，許多南塔克特船上，你會看見船長在他的後甲板上趾高氣揚地踱步，那派頭之盛，不輸任何海軍；不，他幾乎榨取著如同身披帝王紫袍般的外在崇敬——儘管他穿的不過是最破舊的領航呢。

And though of all men the moody captain of the Pequod was the least given to that sort of shallowest assumption; and though the only homage he ever exacted, was implicit, instantaneous obedience; though he required no man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon the quarter-deck; and though there were times when, owing to peculiar circumstances connected with events hereafter to be detailed, he addressed them in unusual terms, whether of condescension or in terrorem, or otherwise; yet even Captain Ahab was by no means unobservant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea.

而儘管裴廓德號那位陰鬱的船長，在所有人裡最不愛擺那種最淺薄的架子；儘管他唯一要求的「崇敬」，是默然而即刻的服從；儘管他不要求任何人踏上後甲板前先脫鞋；儘管有些時候——因某些與日後將細述之事相關的特殊情形——他會用異乎尋常的口吻對他們說話，或屈尊俯就、或施以恐嚇、或別的什麼；可即便是亞哈船長，也絕非對海上那些至高無上的形式與慣例視而不見。

Nor, perhaps, will it fail to be eventually perceived, that behind those forms and usages, as it were, he sometimes masked himself; incidentally making use of them for other and more private ends than they were legitimately intended to subserve.

而且，人們最終或許不難察覺：在那些形式與慣例的背後，他有時彷彿是在「給自己戴上面具」；順帶地利用它們，去達成那些它們本不該正當服務的、更為私密的目的。

That certain sultanism of his brain, which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested; through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship.

他腦中那股「蘇丹式的專制慾」——本來大半未曾顯露——正是透過那些形式，化身為一種不可抗拒的獨裁。

For be a man’s intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base.

因為，無論一個人智識上多麼超群，若沒有某種外在手段與壁壘的襄助——而這些手段本身或多或少總是卑微鄙陋的——他就永遠無法把那超群，轉化為對他人實際而有效的至高權力。

This it is, that for ever keeps God’s true princes of the Empire from the world’s hustings; and leaves the highest honors that this air can give, to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass.

正是這一點，永遠把「神在這帝國裡真正的王子」擋在世俗的競選講台之外；並把這塵世所能給予的最高榮譽，留給那些人——他們之所以出名，與其說是因為他們確實高出芸芸眾生那死水般的平庸，不如說是因為他們無限地低於那少數隱而不顯、被揀選的「神聖惰者」。

Such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them, that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency.

當極端的政治迷信賦予這些小事物時，其中竟潛藏著如此巨大的「德能」，以至於在某些王室的個案裡，連白痴般的低能也被它們授予了權能。

But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; then, the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization.

但當——如沙皇尼古拉的情形——那頂環狀的「地理帝國」之冠所環繞的，是一顆真正帝王之腦時；那麼，平民的群氓便在那可怕的中央集權之前，匍匐自卑。

Nor, will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now alluded to.

而那想把「凡人不可馴服的精神」以其最完整的氣勢、最直接的揮灑刻畫出來的悲劇劇作家，也永遠不會忘記此刻所暗示的、在他這門藝術裡如此重要的一點。

But Ahab, my Captain, still moves before me in all his Nantucket grimness and shagginess; and in this episode touching Emperors and Kings, I must not conceal that I have only to do with a poor old whale-hunter like him; and, therefore, all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me. Oh, Ahab! what shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air!

但亞哈，我的船長，仍以他全部南塔克特式的陰鬱與粗獷，在我面前移動著；在這段論及皇帝與國王的插曲裡，我必須坦白：我所要打交道的，不過是像他這樣一個可憐的老獵鯨人；因此，一切外在的、帝王般的華飾與披掛，都與我無緣。噢，亞哈！你身上若要有什麼宏偉之物，那就必得從天上攫取、從深淵潛探、從那無形的空氣中描摹出來！