切割剝脂

It was a Saturday night, and such a Sabbath as followed! Ex officio professors of Sabbath breaking are all whalemen. The ivory Pequod was turned into what seemed a shamble; every sailor a butcher. You would have thought we were offering up ten thousand red oxen to the sea gods.

那是個週六夜——而接下來是怎樣的一個安息日（Sabbath）啊！捕鯨人個個都是當然的（ex officio）、破壞安息日的「教授（行家）」。象牙裝飾的裴廓德號變成了一個彷彿屠宰場（shamble）的地方；每個水手都成了屠夫。你會以為我們正在向海神獻上一萬頭紅牛。

In the first place, the enormous cutting tackles... this vast bunch of grapes was swayed up to the main-top and firmly lashed to the lower mast-head, the strongest point anywhere above a ship’s deck. ...When instantly, the entire ship careens over on her side; every bolt in her starts like the nail-heads of an old house in frosty weather... Now as the blubber envelopes the whale precisely as the rind does an orange, so is it stripped off from the body precisely as an orange is sometimes stripped by spiralizing it. ...the prodigious blood-dripping mass sways to and fro as if let down from the sky, and every one present must take good heed to dodge it when it swings, else it may box his ears and pitch him headlong overboard.

首先，那套巨大的切割滑車（cutting tackles）——連同其他沉重的物件，包括一簇通常漆成綠色、沒有任何單人舉得起的滑車組——這「一大串葡萄」被吊上主桅頂、牢牢繫在下桅頂上，那是船甲板以上任何地方最堅固的一點。那條穿過這些錯綜結構、纜索般的繩，接著被引到絞車（windlass）上；滑車那巨大的下方滑輪盪到了鯨的上方；這滑輪上掛著重約一百磅的「脂鉤（blubber hook）」。此刻，懸在舷外切割架上的兩位副手斯塔巴克與斯塔布，持著長鏟，開始在鯨身上、最近的那側鰭正上方，切出一個洞、好插入鉤子。切好後，沿洞口割出一道寬寬的半圓線，鉤子插入，船員主體齊唱起野性的合唱、此刻擠成密密一團、在絞車上猛絞。霎時，整艘船朝一側傾翻（careens）；她身上每根螺栓都像寒冬老屋的釘頭那樣繃起；她顫抖、戰慄，把受驚的桅頂朝天空點動。她越來越向鯨那邊傾斜，而絞車每一下喘息般的絞動，都得到浪濤一下助力般的湧動回應；直到最後，一聲迅疾、駭人的「啪」響起；船嘩地一聲朝後翻正、離開鯨身，得勝的滑車升入眼簾、拖著那脫離的、第一條鯨脂的半圓端。如今，正如鯨脂裹著鯨身恰如橘皮裹著橘子，剝它離身也恰如有時「螺旋地剝橘子」那樣：絞車不斷維持的張力，使鯨在水裡一圈又一圈地翻滾；而鯨脂便沿著那道叫「縫線（scarf）」、由兩位副手斯塔巴克與斯塔布的鏟同時割開的線，均勻地一條條剝下；就在它這樣被剝下的同時、且正是藉著這剝的動作本身，它一直被吊得越來越高，直到上端擦到（grazes）主桅頂；絞車手這才停絞，那塊滴著血的龐然之物來回搖晃個一兩下，彷彿從天上垂下來——在場每個人都得當心、在它擺盪時躲開它，否則它可能掌摑你的耳光、把你頭朝下栽出船外。

One of the attending harpooneers now advances with a long, keen weapon called a boarding-sword... severs it completely in twain; so that while the short lower part is still fast, the long upper strip, called a blanket-piece, swings clear, and is all ready for lowering. ...down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath, into an unfurnished parlor called the blubber-room. Into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanket-piece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents. And thus the work proceeds; the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously; both whale and windlass heaving, the heavers singing, the blubber-room gentlemen coiling, the mates scarfing, the ship straining, and all hands swearing occasionally, by way of assuaging the general friction.

此時，一名隨侍的標槍手持著一把又長又利、叫「登舷劍（boarding-sword）」的武器上前，瞅準時機、靈巧地（dexterously）在那搖晃之物的下部切出一個相當大的洞。第二套交替使用的大滑車的端頭，就鉤進這個洞、好咬住鯨脂，為接下來的步驟作準備。於是，這位高明的劍手警告眾人退開後，再度科學地朝那塊脂猛撲，幾下側向、拼命、刺擊般（lunging）的切割，把它完全割成兩半（in twain）；於是，下面那短截仍掛著，上面那長條（叫「毯片 blanket-piece」）盪開、完全就緒、待降。前面的絞車手此刻重新唱起號子；當一套滑車正從鯨身剝起、吊起第二條時，另一套滑車緩緩鬆放，把第一條從正下方的主艙口送下去，進入一間叫「鯨脂艙（blubber-room）」、空無陳設的房間。在這間幽暗（twilight）的房裡，幾雙靈巧的（nimble）手不停地把那長毯片盤起來，彷彿它是一大團活生生、編成辮的（plaited）群蛇。工作就這麼進行下去：兩套滑車同時起降；鯨與絞車一同喘動，絞車手歌唱，鯨脂艙的紳士們盤繞，副手們割縫，船身緊繃，而全員不時咒罵幾句——藉此緩解（assuaging）這整場勞作的摩擦（friction）。