鯊魚屠殺

When in the Southern Fishery, a captured Sperm Whale... is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting him in. ...Therefore, the common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a’lee; and then send every one below to his hammock till daylight, with the reservation that, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept; that is, two and two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck to see that all goes well.

在南方漁場，一頭歷經漫長疲累的辛勞才捕到的抹香鯨，若深夜被拖到船旁，一般而言並不習慣立刻動手做「切割（cutting in）」的活兒。因為那活兒極其費力、不會很快完成、又需要全員一起來做。因此，通常的做法是：收起所有的帆，把舵繫向下風（lash the helm a'lee），然後打發每個人下去睡他的吊床、直到天亮——但有一項保留：在那之前，須保持「錨班（anchor-watch）」；也就是每兩人一組、每組一小時，全體船員輪流上甲板，照看一切是否無恙。

But sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific, this plan will not answer at all; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather round the moored carcase, that were he left so for six hours... little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning. ...any man unaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night, would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and those sharks the maggots in it.

但有時——尤其在太平洋的赤道線（the Line）上——這辦法根本行不通；因為圍著繫泊的屍體（carcase）聚集的鯊魚多得無從計算（incalculable），若就這麼擱上、比方說連續六小時，到早上恐怕除了骨架就所剩無幾了。然而在這種魚不那麼大量出沒的其他海域，可以靠鋒利的捕鯨鏟猛力攪戳牠們，相當程度地減弱牠們那驚人的貪食（voracity）——不過這招在某些情況下，似乎反倒像搔癢般、把牠們撩撥得更加活躍。可裴廓德號這晚的鯊魚並非如此；不過說真的，任何不慣見此等景象的人，那晚若往船舷外一望，幾乎會以為整片渾圓的海是一大塊乳酪、那些鯊魚就是裡頭的蛆（maggots）。

Nevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch... Queequeg and a forecastle seaman came on deck... these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades, kept up an incessant murdering of the sharks, by striking the keen steel deep into their skulls, seemingly their only vital part. ...They viciously snapped, not only at each other’s disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and bit their own... A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in their very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual life had departed. Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin, one of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg’s hand off...

儘管如此，斯塔布吃完晚餐、設好錨班後；魁魁格與一名水手艙的水手依約上了甲板，鯊魚群中便起了不小的騷動；因為這兩名水手立刻把切割架懸到舷外、放下三盞燈籠（讓它們在渾濁的海面投出長長的光），擲動他們的長柄捕鯨鏟，把鋒利的鋼狠狠刺進鯊魚的頭顱（似乎那是牠們唯一的要害），不停地（incessant）屠殺著鯊魚。但在牠們那群混雜、掙扎的泡沫亂局中，這兩個射手（marksmen）未必次次命中目標；而這便帶出了關於這敵人「難以置信的兇殘（ferocity）」的新揭示：牠們惡狠狠地咬——不只咬彼此被剖開的內臟（disembowelments），還像柔韌的弓一般折身回咬自己的腸子，直到那些內臟彷彿被同一張嘴一遍遍吞下、又從那裂開的傷口反向吐出。而且還不止如此。連這些生物的屍體與「鬼魂」都碰不得：在所謂「個體的生命」離去之後，牠們的關節與骨頭裡，似乎仍潛伏（lurk）著一種「通屬的、泛神論式的（generic or Pantheistic）生命力」。其中一條鯊魚，為了取牠的皮而被殺、吊上甲板後，當魁魁格試著把牠那兇殘的死顎合上時，竟差點把這可憐人的手咬斷。

*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel; is about the bigness of a man’s spread hand... only its sides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle.

（註：切割用的捕鯨鏟以最上等的鋼製成；約一個人張開的手掌那麼大，整體形狀對應它所得名的那種園藝鏟；只是它兩側完全平整、上端比下端窄得多。這件武器總是被磨得盡可能鋒利；使用時偶爾還要磨一磨，就像磨剃刀一樣。它的銎口（socket）裡，插著一根二十到三十呎長的硬桿當柄。）

“Queequeg no care what god made him shark,” said the savage, agonizingly lifting his hand up and down; “wedder Fejee god or Nantucket god; but de god wat made shark must be one dam Ingin.”

「魁魁格不在乎是哪個神造的鯊魚，」這野蠻人痛苦地把他的手上下甩著說；「不管是斐濟的神還是南塔克特的神；可是造鯊魚的那個神，肯定是個該死的印第安人。」