群與校長

Now, though such great bodies are at times encountered... small detached bands are occasionally observed, embracing from twenty to fifty individuals each. Such bands are known as schools. They generally are of two sorts; those composed almost entirely of females, and those mustering none but young vigorous males, or bulls...

如今，雖然偶爾會遇上那種大群，但即使在今天，也常觀察到二十到五十頭的小散群。這種群被稱為「school（群）」。它們一般分兩類：幾乎全由雌鯨組成的，與只聚集（mustering）年輕壯公鯨（俗稱「公牛 bulls」）的。

In cavalier attendance upon the school of females, you invariably see a male of full grown magnitude... this gentleman is a luxurious Ottoman, swimming about over the watery world, surroundingly accompanied by all the solaces and endearments of the harem. ...Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that upon the whole they are hereditarily entitled to en bon point.

殷勤騎士般（cavalier）護衛著雌鯨群的，你總會見到一頭成年壯碩、但不老的公鯨；一有警報，牠便落到隊尾、掩護「貴婦們」逃走，以顯其風度（gallantry）。其實，這位先生是個奢華的「鄂圖曼（Ottoman）」，在水的世界裡悠遊、四周簇擁著「後宮（harem）」一切的慰藉與愛撫。這蘇丹與牠的「妻妾（concubines）」對比鮮明：因為牠總是最巨大的巨獸體型，而那些貴婦即使完全長成、也不過平均公鯨的三分之一大。她們確實相對嬌弱；我敢說，腰圍不超過半打碼。不過，不可否認，總體而言，她們「世襲地有資格略顯豐腴（en bon point）」。

It is very curious to watch this harem and its lord in their indolent ramblings. Like fashionables, they are for ever on the move in leisurely search of variety. ...By the time they have lounged up and down the promenade of the Equator awhile, they start for the Oriental waters in anticipation of the cool season there...

看這「後宮」與其主人慵懶的漫遊，很是有趣：像時髦人士，牠們永遠在動、悠閒地尋求變化。你在赤道遇上牠們，正趕上赤道覓食季的全盛——牠們或許剛從北方海域避暑歸來，這麼著就騙過了夏天所有討厭的倦怠與暑熱。等牠們在赤道的「散步道（promenade）」上來回逛了一陣，便啟程去東方水域、趕那兒的涼季，這麼著又避開了一年中另一個過分的氣溫。

...Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan... presume to draw confidentially close to one of the ladies, with what prodigious fury the Bashaw assails him, and chases him away! ...though do what the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious Lothario out of his bed; for, alas! all fish bed in common. ...They fence with their long lower jaws, sometimes locking them together, and so striving for the supremacy like elks that warringly interweave their antlers.

……若有不知分寸、放肆的（pert）年輕鯨膽敢親密地湊近一位貴婦，那「帕夏（Bashaw）」便以何等驚人的狂怒撲上去、把牠趕走！——若容這種無原則的浪蕩子（rake）侵犯家庭幸福的神聖，那可真不得了；可帕夏再怎麼防，也擋不住那最惡名昭彰的「羅塔里奧（Lothario，情聖）」上牠的床——唉，因為魚都「共床」。正如岸上貴婦常在情敵間引起最可怕的決鬥，鯨亦如此——有時為了愛拚到死戰：牠們以長長的下顎相鬥、有時把顎扣在一起、爭奪雄主之位（supremacy），像以角好鬥地相纏的麋鹿。不少被捕的鯨帶著這些搏鬥的深疤——犁溝般的頭、斷掉的牙、扇貝邊般的（scolloped）鰭；有些甚至嘴被扭脫了臼。

...Gently he insinuates his vast bulk among them again and revels there awhile... like pious Solomon devoutly worshipping among his thousand concubines. ...my Lord Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for the bower; and so... he leaves his anonymous babies all over the world; every baby an exotic. ...as a general lassitude overtakes the sated Turk; then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; our Ottoman... forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about all alone... warning each young Leviathan from his amorous errors.

……牠輕柔地把龐大的身軀重新插進妻妾之間、在那兒縱情（revels）一陣，仍逗弄似地貼近年輕的羅塔里奧，像虔誠的所羅門（Solomon）在他千名妃嬪間虔敬地禮拜。只要視野裡有別的鯨，漁人很少去追這些「土耳其大君」——因為這些大君太揮霍（lavish）牠們的體力、因而油脂少。至於牠生的兒女嘛，那些兒女得自己照顧自己（至少只有母親幫忙）；因為，像某些四處游蕩、雜食的情人一樣，「鯨爺」對「育嬰室」沒興趣、對「閨房（bower）」倒興致勃勃；身為大旅行家，牠把牠那些無名的嬰兒撒遍全世界、每個嬰兒都是個異邦人（exotic）。不過到時候，隨青春的熱情衰退、隨年歲與鬱悶漸增、隨反思帶來莊嚴的停頓——簡言之，隨一種普遍的倦怠（lassitude）襲上這饜足的土耳其人——對安逸與美德的愛，便取代了（supplants）對少女的愛：我們的鄂圖曼進入了人生那「陽痿、悔過、好說教」的階段，發誓棄絕（forswears）、遣散後宮，長成一個堪為楷模、憂鬱的老靈魂，獨自在經緯線之間遊蕩、念著牠的禱告、警告每一頭年輕鯨切勿重蹈牠愛慾的錯誤。

Now, as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school, so is the lord and master of that school technically known as the schoolmaster. It is therefore not in strict character, however admirably satirical, that after going to school himself, he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly of it. ...some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read the memoirs of Vidocq...

如今，既然漁人把鯨的「後宮」叫做「school（群／學校）」，那這群的主人，便在術語上被稱為「schoolmaster（校長）」。所以——雖極盡諷刺之妙——這校長在自己「上完學」之後，竟出外去傳授（inculcating）的不是他在那兒學到的東西、而是那東西的愚蠢，倒也不算嚴格地不合身分。牠「校長」這名號，自然似乎源自賜給「後宮」本身的那個名；但有人猜想，頭一個這麼稱呼這種鄂圖曼鯨的人，必定讀過維多克（Vidocq）的回憶錄、知道這位法國名人年輕時是個怎樣的鄉村校長、又把怎樣的「隱秘課程」灌輸給他某些學生。

The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm Whales. Almost universally, a lone whale—as a solitary Leviathan is called—proves an ancient one. Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone, he will have no one near him but Nature herself; and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though she keeps so many moody secrets.

校長鯨晚年退守的那種「孤隱與隔絕（secludedness and isolation）」，對所有年老的抹香鯨都成立。幾乎無一例外，一頭「孤鯨（lone whale）」——人們這麼稱呼一頭離群的巨獸——總證明是頭老鯨。像長著青苔鬍鬚、可敬的丹尼爾·布恩（Daniel Boone），牠身邊不要別人、只要大自然本身；牠在水的荒野裡娶她為妻——而她是最好的妻子，儘管她藏著那麼多陰鬱的秘密。

...the young males, or forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious of all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter; excepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales... and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.

……前面提過、只由年輕壯公鯨組成的群，與後宮群形成強烈對比。因為那些雌鯨向來膽怯，而年輕的公鯨（俗稱「四十桶公鯨 forty-barrel-bulls」）卻遠是一切巨獸中最好鬥的（pugnacious）、出了名最危險遭遇的——除了那些偶爾遇上的、奇妙的灰頭、花白的老鯨，這些老鯨會像被一場「刑罰般的痛風」激怒的猙獰惡魔（fiends）一樣跟你拚命。

The Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. Like a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness, tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. They soon relinquish this turbulence though... break up, and separately go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems.

「四十桶公鯨」群比後宮群大。像一幫年輕的大學生（collegians），牠們滿是打鬥、玩鬧與壞勁，以那麼莽撞、喧鬧放肆（rollicking）的勁頭在世上翻滾，以致沒有哪個精明的保險商（underwriter）肯為牠們投保，就像他不肯保耶魯或哈佛一個鬧事的小子一樣。不過牠們很快會放棄這份狂躁；長到約四分之三大時，便解散，各自去尋「定居處」——也就是後宮。

Another point of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic of the sexes. Say you strike a Forty-barrel-bull—poor devil! all his comrades quit him. But strike a member of the harem school, and her companions swim around her with every token of concern, sometimes lingering so near her and so long, as themselves to fall a prey.

公群與雌群之間，還有一個更能體現性別特徵的差別。比方說，你擊中一頭四十桶公鯨——可憐的傢伙！——牠所有的同伴都棄牠而去。但你若擊中後宮群的一員，她的同伴卻會帶著種種關切之情圍著她游，有時逗留得那麼近、那麼久，以致她們自己也成了獵物。