亞哈的艇與船員·費達拉

“Who would have thought it, Flask!” cried Stubb; “if I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe. Oh! he’s a wonderful old man!”

「誰料得到呢，弗拉斯克！」斯塔布嚷道；「我要是只剩一條腿，你休想在艇上抓得到我——頂多拿我那木頭腳趾去塞排水孔吧。噢！他真是個了不起的老頭！」

“I don’t think it so strange, after all, on that account,” said Flask. “If his leg were off at the hip, now, it would be a different thing. That would disable him; but he has one knee, and good part of the other left, you know.”

「就這點而言，我倒覺得也沒那麼怪，」弗拉斯克說。「他若是從髖部就斷了腿，那才另當別論。那會使他殘廢；可他還有一個膝蓋、另一條腿也留了大半呢，你知道。」

“I don’t know that, my little man; I never yet saw him kneel.”

「那我可說不準，我的小個子；我還從沒見他跪過呢。」

Among whale-wise people it has often been argued whether, considering the paramount importance of his life to the success of the voyage, it is right for a whaling captain to jeopardize that life in the active perils of the chase. So Tamerlane’s soldiers often argued with tears in their eyes, whether that invaluable life of his ought to be carried into the thickest of the fight.

在懂鯨的人之間，常有這樣的爭論：鑑於船長的命對航程的成敗如此至關重要，一個捕鯨船長把那條命投入追獵那些活生生的凶險裡，是否恰當。正如帖木兒的士兵，也常含淚爭論：他那無價的性命，是否該被帶進戰鬥最激烈之處。

But with Ahab the question assumed a modified aspect. Considering that with two legs man is but a hobbling wight in all times of danger... under these circumstances is it wise for any maimed man to enter a whale-boat in the hunt? As a general thing, the joint-owners of the Pequod must have plainly thought not.

但對亞哈，這問題呈現出一種變了樣的面貌。考慮到：人即便有兩條腿，在一切危難時刻也不過是個步履蹣跚的可憐傢伙；考慮到：捕鯨總是伴隨著巨大而非比尋常的困難，每一個瞬間其實都含著一份凶險；在這些情況下，讓任何一個殘廢之人下到獵鯨的小艇裡，明智嗎？一般而言，裴廓德號的眾共同船東，顯然必定認為不明智。

Ahab well knew that although his friends at home would think little of his entering a boat in certain comparatively harmless vicissitudes of the chase... yet for Captain Ahab to have a boat actually apportioned to him as a regular headsman in the hunt—above all for Captain Ahab to be supplied with five extra men, as that same boat’s crew, he well knew that such generous conceits never entered the heads of the owners of the Pequod. ... Nevertheless he had taken private measures of his own touching all that matter.

亞哈很清楚：雖然他岸上的朋友不會太在意他在某些「相對無害的追獵起伏」中下艇——為的是就近指揮、親自下令；可要正式撥一艘艇給亞哈船長、讓他當獵鯨的正規「艇長」——尤其再給亞哈船長配上五個額外的人當這同一艘艇的艇員——他很清楚，這種慷慨的念頭，絕不會進裴廓德號船東的腦袋。因此，他既沒向他們索求過一組艇員，也從沒以任何方式透露過他在這方面的願望。然而，關於這整件事，他私下自有一套安排。（直到卡巴科把發現公開之前，水手們幾乎沒料到這事；不過，可以肯定的是：出港不久、眾人辦完了裝備獵艇出勤的例行工作之後；過了一陣，人們不時發現亞哈親手忙著為一艘被當作備用艇的艇做槳栓、甚至細心地削那些小木扦——跑線時，這些木扦會別在艇首的凹槽上；當人們在他身上觀察到這一切，尤其他那份用心——要在艇底加一層額外的包板，彷彿要讓它更耐得住他象牙腿的尖壓；以及他在精確修整那塊「靠膝板（thigh board，有時也叫笨重的 cleat）」——即艇首那塊水平的板、擲叉或戳鯨時頂著膝蓋用的——時所顯出的焦切；當人們看見他多麼頻繁地單膝插進那板上半圓形的凹槽裡站著、拿木匠的鑿子這兒摳一點、那兒修直一點；）我說，這一切當時都喚起了許多興趣與好奇。但幾乎人人都以為，亞哈這份特別的準備上心，必定只是著眼於最終追獵莫比敵——因為他早已表明要親自去獵那致命的怪物。可這樣的猜想，絕沒有牽涉到哪怕最隱微的、關於「會有一組艇員被派給那艘艇」的疑心。

Now, with the subordinate phantoms, what wonder remained soon waned away; for in a whaler wonders soon wane. ... that Beelzebub himself might climb up the side and step down into the cabin to chat with the captain, and it would not create any unsubduable excitement in the forecastle.

如今，至於那幾個次要的幽靈，剩下的驚奇也很快就消退了；因為在捕鯨船上，奇事很快就見怪不怪。何況，時不時就有這麼些古怪的、零零碎碎的異族，從地球不知名的角落與灰坑裡冒出來，操這些「水上漂浮的亡命之船（捕鯨船）」；而船本身也常撿到這樣古怪的棄兒——他們攀著木板、殘骸碎片、槳、捕鯨艇、獨木舟、被風吹離的日本帆船等等，在公海上顛簸漂流；以致連魔王別西卜（Beelzebub）親自爬上船舷、下到艙裡來跟船長聊天，水手艙裡也不會掀起任何壓不住的騷動。

But be all this as it may, certain it is that while the subordinate phantoms soon found their place among the crew, though still as it were somehow distinct from them, yet that hair-turbaned Fedallah remained a muffled mystery to the last. ... He was such a creature as civilized, domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams, and that but dimly; but the like of whom now and then glide among the unchanging Asiatic communities, especially the Oriental isles to the east of the continent... when though, according to Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbins, indulged in mundane amours.

但無論如何，可以肯定的是：那幾個次要的幽靈雖很快在船員中找到了位置（卻仍彷彿與眾人有某種區別），唯獨那「以髮為纏頭的費達拉」，始終是一團裹著面紗的謎，直到最後。他從這麼一個有禮的（文明的）世界的哪兒來、憑哪一種莫名其妙的紐帶，很快顯出自己與亞哈那特殊的命運相連——不，竟連繫到對亞哈有某種半暗示的影響；不，天曉得，那或許還是凌駕於他之上的「權威」——這一切，無人知曉。可沒有人能對費達拉保持一副漠然之態。他是這麼一種造物：溫帶地區那些文明、安居的人，只在夢裡、且只朦朧地見過；而其同類，至今仍不時滑行於亞洲那些亙古不變的社群之間，尤其是大陸以東那些東方島嶼——那些與世隔絕、自古不易、不可更改的國度，即便在當今，仍大量保有大地原初世代那種鬼魅般的蠻荒原始：那時，對「第一個人」的記憶還是清晰的回憶，所有人都是他的後裔，卻不知他從何而來，彼此相望如真正的幽靈，並向日、月叩問：它們為何被造、為了什麼目的；那時——雖然據《創世記》，天使固然曾與人的女兒交合，而（非正典的猶太拉比又補充說）魔鬼也耽溺於塵世的情愛。