鯨之形象：畫中、牙上、木裡、鐵皮、石頭、山巒、星空

On Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, you may have seen a crippled beggar (or kedger, as the sailors say) holding a painted board before him, representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg. ... Any time these ten years, they tell me, has that man held up that picture, and exhibited that stump to an incredulous world. But the time of his justification has now come. ... But, though for ever mounted on that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman make; but, with downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation.

在塔山（Tower-hill），當你往倫敦碼頭走下去，你或許見過一個跛腳乞丐（水手叫他 kedger）在身前舉著一塊彩繪板，畫著他失去一條腿的悲慘場景。畫上有三隻鯨、三艘小艇；其中一艇（據說連同那條失蹤的腿、原封不動地裝在裡頭）正被最前面那隻鯨的顎咬碎。他們告訴我，這十年來，這人隨時都舉著那幅畫、向一個「將信將疑的世人」展示那截斷肢。可如今他「得到證明的時刻」終於來了。他那三隻鯨，至少跟瓦平（Wapping）刊行過的任何鯨一樣好；他那截斷肢，也跟你在西部墾地能找到的任何斷肢一樣千真萬確。但，雖然永遠「立在」那截斷肢上（mounted on that stump），這可憐的捕鯨人卻從不發表「斷肢演說（stump-speech，雙關：競選演說）」；只是垂著眼，憂傷地凝視著自己的截肢。

Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket... you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies’ busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other like skrimshander articles... But, in general, they toil with their jack-knives alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor, they will turn you out anything you please, in the way of a mariner’s fancy.

遍及太平洋，也在南塔克特、新貝德福、薩格港，你會遇見漁人們親手刻的、生動的鯨與捕鯨場景——刻在抹香鯨的牙上，或刻在露脊鯨骨製的女士束腰板（busk）上，以及其他類似的「鯨骨雕（skrimshander）」物件；捕鯨人就這麼稱呼他們在海上閒暇時、從粗料中精心雕出的那許多小巧靈巧的玩意。其中有些人備有一小盒看似牙醫器械的工具，專為這「鯨骨雕之業」而設。但一般而言，他們只憑自己的摺刀（jack-knife）幹活；憑著水手那把幾乎萬能的工具，他們能給你雕出任何你想要的、屬於「水手奇想」一類的東西。

Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i.e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the Cannibals; and ready at any moment to rebel against him.

久久流放於基督教世界與文明之外，必不可免地把一個人還原到「上帝最初安放他」的那種狀態——即所謂的「野蠻」。你那真正的捕鯨人，野蠻得跟一個易洛魁人一樣。我自己就是個野蠻人，除了對「食人族之王」效忠，再不效忠誰；而且隨時準備造他的反。

Now, one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic hours, is his wonderful patience of industry. An ancient Hawaiian war-club or spear-paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon. For, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark’s tooth, that miraculous intricacy of wooden net-work has been achieved; and it has cost steady years of steady application.

野蠻人在其「持家時刻」的一個奇特特徵，就是他那令人讚嘆的「勤勉的耐性」。一根古代夏威夷的戰棍、或矛槳，以其雕刻的全部繁複與精細，就跟一部拉丁辭典一樣，是人類毅力的偉大戰利品。因為，僅憑一片碎海貝、或一顆鯊魚牙，那木雕網紋那神乎其技的繁複，便被造了出來；而它耗費了「持續多年的持續用功」。

As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-savage. With the same marvellous patience, and with the same single shark’s tooth, of his one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not quite as workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of design, as the Greek savage, Achilles’s shield; and full of barbaric spirit and suggestiveness, as the prints of that fine old Dutch savage, Albert Durer.

夏威夷野蠻人如此，白人水手野蠻人亦然。憑著同樣令人讚嘆的耐性、憑著那同一顆「鯊魚牙」（即他那把可憐的摺刀），他能給你雕出一件鯨骨雕刻——工巧雖稍欠，其設計之「迷宮般繁密」卻不輸那希臘野蠻人阿基里斯的盾；其「野蠻的氣魄與暗示力」，也飽滿得不輸那優秀的荷蘭老野蠻人阿爾布雷希特·杜勒的版畫。

Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of the noble South Sea war-wood, are frequently met with in the forecastles of American whalers. Some of them are done with much accuracy.

木鯨，或從高貴的南洋「戰木」的小塊深色板材上刻出的側影鯨，常見於美國捕鯨船的水手艙（forecastle）。其中有些刻得極為準確。

At some old gable-roofed country houses you will see brass whales hung by the tail for knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is sleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. ... On the spires of some old-fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed there for weather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides that are to all intents and purposes so labelled with “Hands off!” you cannot examine them closely enough to decide upon their merit.

在一些古老的山牆屋頂（gable-roofed）鄉間住宅，你會看到尾巴吊起的銅鯨，當作路邊門上的門環。當看門人打瞌睡時，那「鐵砧頭」的鯨最適合（用來重敲）。但這些「敲門鯨」鮮少作為「忠實之作」而值得稱道。在一些老式教堂的尖頂上，你會看到鐵皮鯨被放在那兒當風信雞（weather-cock）；可它們高高在上，加上實際上明明白白標著「禁止觸碰（Hands off!）」，你無法湊近細看以判定其優劣。

In bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base of high broken cliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain, you will often discover images as of the petrified forms of the Leviathan partly merged in grass, which of a windy day breaks against them in a surf of green surges.

在大地那「瘦骨嶙峋（bony, ribby）」的地帶——高聳斷裂的崖腳下、巨大的岩塊以奇異的組合散布在平原上——你常會發現一些彷彿「巨獸石化之形」的影像，半沒在草裡；颳風的日子，草便以「綠色浪濤的拍岸（a surf of green surges）」撞擊著它們。

Then, again, in mountainous countries where the traveller is continually girdled by amphitheatrical heights; here and there from some lucky point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of whales defined along the undulating ridges. But you must be a thorough whaleman, to see these sights... like the Soloma Islands, which still remain incognita, though once high-ruffed Mendanna trod them and old Figuera chronicled them.

再者，在多山之國，行者不斷被「圓形劇場般環抱（amphitheatrical）」的高地圍住；偶爾從某個幸運的視角，你會瞥見鯨的側影沿著起伏的山稜浮現。但你必須是個徹頭徹尾的捕鯨人，才看得見這些景象；不僅如此，倘若你想再看一次，務必記下你初次立足點精確的經緯交點，否則這種對山巒的觀察是如此「全憑機緣」，以致你那精確的、先前的立足點，得費勁地重新找過——就像所羅門群島（Soloma Islands），雖曾被高領圈的門達尼亞踏過、被老菲格拉記載過，至今仍「未被確知（incognita）」。

Nor when expandingly lifted by your subject, can you fail to trace out great whales in the starry heavens, and boats in pursuit of them... Thus at the North have I chased Leviathan round and round the Pole with the revolutions of the bright points that first defined him to me. And beneath the effulgent Antarctic skies I have boarded the Argo-Navis, and joined the chase against the starry Cetus far beyond the utmost stretch of Hydrus and the Flying Fish.

而當你被你的題材「擴張地高舉」時，你也必不會看不出星空中的巨鯨、與追逐牠們的小艇——正如東方民族久久滿懷戰事之思時，看見雲中兩軍鎖在交戰裡。於是，在北方，我曾隨那最初為我勾出牠的亮點的旋轉，繞著北極一圈又一圈地追逐巨獸；而在燦爛的（effulgent）南極天穹之下，我登上了「南船座（Argo-Navis）」，加入了對那星空「鯨魚座（Cetus）」的追獵——遠至「水蛇座（Hydrus）」與「飛魚座」最遠的伸展之外。

With a frigate’s anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies, to see whether the fabled heavens with all their countless tents really lie encamped beyond my mortal sight!

願我能以一艘巡防艦的錨作我的馬勒銜柱（bridle-bitts）、以一束魚叉（fasces of harpoons）作馬刺，騎上那鯨、躍上至高的九天——看看那傳說中、紮著無數營帳的諸天，是否真的就紮營在我凡人視力的盡頭之外！