Brit

Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed to be sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.

從克羅澤群島往東北航行，我們遇上了一片片廣袤的「brit 草甸」——那是露脊鯨大量取食的、微小的黃色物質。它在我們四周連綿數里地起伏，以致我們彷彿正航行於無邊的、成熟金黃的麥田之中。

On the second day, numbers of Right Whales were seen, who, secure from the attack of a Sperm Whaler like the Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly swam through the brit, which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that wondrous Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner separated from the water that escaped at the lip.

第二天，看見了許多露脊鯨——牠們不怕像裴廓德號這樣的抹香鯨捕鯨船的攻擊，張著大口、懶洋洋地游過 brit；那些 brit 黏附在牠們嘴裡那「奇妙的威尼斯百葉窗（鯨鬚）」的纖維邊緣上，就這麼從由唇邊溢走的海水中被濾分了出來。

As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; even so these monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; and leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.

就像清晨的割草人，並肩、緩緩地、嘶嘶有聲地把鐮刀推過沼澤草地那長長的濕草；這些巨獸便這麼游著，發出一種奇異的、青草般的切割聲，在黃色的海面身後留下無盡的藍色割痕（swath）。

*That part of the sea known among whalemen as the “Brazil Banks” does not bear that name... but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit... Seen from the mast-heads... their vast black forms looked more like lifeless masses of rock than anything else. ...even so, often, with him, who for the first time beholds this species of the leviathans of the sea. And even when recognised at last, their immense magnitude renders it very hard really to believe that such bulky masses of overgrowth can possibly be instinct, in all parts, with the same sort of life that lives in a dog or a horse.

（註：捕鯨人稱「巴西淺灘」的那片海，得名並非如紐芬蘭淺灘那樣因有淺灘可測深，而是因為這片由 brit 的廣大漂浮所造成的、引人注目的「草甸般景象」——露脊鯨常在那些緯度被追獵。）但只有牠們撥開 brit 時發出的聲音，才讓人多少想起割草人。從桅頂望去（尤其牠們暫停、靜止一會兒時），那龐大的黑色形體看來「更像無生命的岩塊」、別無其他。正如在印度的大獵場上，遠處的陌生人有時會在平原上走過臥地的大象而不知那是象、把牠們當成光禿發黑的土丘隆起；初次目睹這種海中巨獸的人，往往也是如此。而即使終於認出了，其巨大的身量也讓人極難真正相信：這麼龐大的肉山，竟能處處都「灌注（instinct with）」著跟一隻狗或一匹馬所擁有的同一種生命。

Indeed, in other respects, you can hardly regard any creatures of the deep with the same feelings that you do those of the shore. ...yet coming to specialties, where, for example, does the ocean furnish any fish that in disposition answers to the sagacious kindness of the dog? The accursed shark alone can in any generic respect be said to bear comparative analogy to him.

的確，在別的方面，你也很難以對待岸上生物的同一種感情，去看待任何深海的生物。雖然一些老博物學家主張「陸上一切生物在海裡都有其同類」、就大體而論這或許很對；可一旦講到具體，譬如說，海洋哪裡提供得出一種在性情上對應於「狗那睿智的善意（sagacious kindness）」的魚？唯有那該詛咒的鯊魚，在任何一種類屬的意義上，勉強可說與牠（狗）有可比的類比。

But though, to landsmen in general, the native inhabitants of the seas have ever been regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling; though we know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita... yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.

但是，雖然對一般陸地人而言，海的原住居民向來被以一種「難以言喻的不親、令人排斥」的情感看待；雖然我們知道海是一片永恆的「未知之地（terra incognita）」——以致哥倫布航過了無數未知的世界，才發現他那「一個表面的西方世界」；雖然，遠遠地說，一切凡人災難中最可怖的那些，自古以來無差別地降臨於成千上萬的航海者；雖然只消片刻思量便會明白：無論幼稚的人類如何吹噓他的科學與技藝、無論在一個諂媚的未來裡那科學技藝如何增長——永永遠遠，直到末日的轟響（the crack of doom），海都將侮辱他、謀殺他，把他所能造出最雄偉、最堅固的巡防艦碾成粉末（pulverize）；然而，正因為這些印象的不斷重複，人已經喪失了海「本源上（aboriginally）」所具有的那份全部的可畏。

The first boat we read of, floated on an ocean, that with Portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow. That same ocean rolls now; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of last year. Yea, foolish mortals, Noah’s flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.

我們所讀到的第一艘船，漂浮在這樣一片海上——它曾以「葡萄牙式的復仇」吞沒了整個世界、連一個寡婦也不剩。同一片海如今仍在翻滾；同一片海毀掉了去年那些失事的船。是的，愚蠢的凡人啊，諾亞的洪水尚未退去；它仍覆蓋著這美麗世界的三分之二。

Wherein differ the sea and the land, that a miracle upon one is not a miracle upon the other? Preternatural terrors rested upon the Hebrews, when under the feet of Korah and his company the live ground opened and swallowed them up for ever; yet not a modern sun ever sets, but in precisely the same manner the live sea swallows up ships and crews.

海與陸究竟有何不同，使得發生在其一上的奇蹟，到了另一上就不算奇蹟？當可拉（Korah）及其同夥腳下那「活的大地」裂開、把他們永遠吞下時，希伯來人被「超自然的恐怖（preternatural terrors）」籠罩；然而，沒有一個現代的太陽會落下，而那「活的海」不正以一模一樣的方式吞下船隻與船員。

But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own off-spring... Like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks... No mercy, no power but its own controls it. Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe.

但海不僅是對它而言為異鄉人的那個「人」的仇敵，它也是它自己骨肉的惡魔（fiend）；比那謀殺自己賓客的波斯人更壞——連它自己所孵育的生靈也不放過。像一頭在叢林裡翻滾、壓死了自己幼崽的兇猛母虎，海便這麼把最強壯的鯨也撞向岩石，將牠們與失事船的碎片並排棄置在那兒。沒有慈悲，沒有任何力量——除了它自己——能控制它。像一匹失了騎手的瘋戰馬般喘息、噴著鼻息，這「無主的海（masterless ocean）」橫掃整個地球。

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

想想海的「狡黠（subtleness）」吧；想想它最可怕的生物如何在水下滑行、多半不露形跡，狡詐地藏在「最可愛的蔚藍色調（azure）之下」。也想想它許多最「無情的（remorseless）」族類那魔鬼般的燦爛與美麗——譬如許多鯊魚那精緻華美的形體。再想一想，海那「普遍的同類相食（universal cannibalism）」；它一切的生物彼此獵食，自開天闢地以來進行著永恆的戰爭。

Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!

把這一切都想透；然後轉向這翠綠、溫柔、最馴順（docile）的大地；把它們兩個——海與陸——都想一想；你難道不在自己身上找到一種奇異的類比嗎？因為，正如這令人膽寒的海洋環繞著青翠的（verdant）陸地，人的靈魂裡也躺著一座島嶼般的大溪地（insular Tahiti），充滿和平與喜悅，卻被「半知生命（the half known life）」的一切恐怖團團圍住。上帝保佑你！別駛離那座島嶼吧——你將永遠回不來！