一握手

That whale of Stubb’s, so dearly purchased, was duly brought to the Pequod’s side... others were employed in dragging away the larger tubs, so soon as filled with the sperm; and when the proper time arrived, this same sperm was carefully manipulated ere going to the try-works...

斯塔布那頭代價高昂的鯨，照例被拖到了裴廓德號船邊，先前細述過的那一切切割與吊起的工序，都按部就班地走了一遍，連那「海德堡大桶」即腦油囊的舀取也做了。當有些人忙著舀取時，另一些人則忙著把那一裝滿腦油就拖走的大缸拖開；到適當的時候，這同一批腦油，在送進煉油間（try-works）之前，還要被仔細地「處理」一番——那是後話。

It had cooled and crystallized to such a degree... I found it strangely concreted into lumps... It was our business to squeeze these lumps back into fluid. A sweet and unctuous duty! ...After having my hands in it for only a few minutes, my fingers felt like eels, and began, as it were, to serpentine and spiralise.

它已冷卻、結晶（crystallized）到這樣的程度——當我與其他幾人坐在一大盆腦油前時，我發現它奇異地凝結成了塊，這兒那兒地在流質的部分裡滾來滾去。我們的活兒，就是把這些塊揉捏回流質。一樁甜美而油滑的差事！難怪古時這腦油是這麼受寵的化妝品。何等的潔淨劑！何等的柔軟劑！何等美妙的潤膚膏！手在裡頭才浸了幾分鐘，我的手指便覺得像鰻魚、開始彷彿蜿蜒、盤旋起來。

As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck... as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues... as I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,—literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it... I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.

當我盤著腿、舒坦地坐在甲板上——在絞車上那番苦累的勞作之後；在藍而靜謐的天空下；船揚著懶洋洋的帆、那麼安詳地滑行著；當我把手浸在那些柔軟、溫和、近乎在一小時之內織成的滲透組織的球粒（globules）之間；當它們在我指間豐潤地破開、傾出它們全部的醇厚（opulence），如熟透的葡萄傾出它們的酒；當我嗅進那純淨無染（uncontaminated）的香氣——真真切切，就像春天紫羅蘭的氣味；我向你宣告：那段時間，我活得像在一片麝香的草甸裡；我把我們那可怕的誓言（指追殺白鯨）忘得一乾二淨；在那無可名狀的腦油裡，我把它從我的手、我的心上洗淨了。我幾乎開始相信帕拉塞爾蘇斯那古老的迷信——腦油在平息（allaying）怒火的熱度上有奇效；浸在那盆裡時，我感到自己神聖地擺脫了一切惡意、一切暴躁（petulance）、或任何一種惡毒（malice）。

Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long... I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. ...Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

揉捏！揉捏！揉捏！整個上午；我揉那腦油、揉到我自己幾乎都融化進去了；我揉那腦油、揉到一種奇異的瘋癲攫住了我；我發現自己不知不覺地、把同伴的手也揉進油裡——把他們的手誤當成了那些柔軟的球粒。這份差事生出一種如此洋溢、深情、友愛、慈愛的感覺，以致到最後，我不停地握著他們的手、深情地仰望進他們的眼睛，彷彿在說——哦！我親愛的同類眾生啊，我們何苦再去珍藏任何社交的尖酸（acerbities）、再去懷有絲毫的壞脾氣或嫉妒呢！來吧，讓我們彼此握手吧；不，讓我們所有人都把自己揉捏進彼此之中吧；讓我們把自己普遍地、揉捏進那「善意的乳汁與精華（the very milk and sperm of kindness）」之中吧。

Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! ...in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fireside, the country... In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.

但願我能永遠這樣揉捏下去！因為如今，憑著許多漫長、一再重複的經驗，我已體認到：在一切情況下，人最終都必須降低、或至少轉移他對「可得的幸福（attainable felicity）」的想望——不把它放在智性（intellect）或幻想（fancy）的任何地方，而放在妻子、心、床、餐桌、馬鞍、爐邊、田園裡。既已體認到這一切，我便甘願永遠揉捏腦油了。在夜晚那些異象的思緒裡，我看見天堂中一排排的天使，每一位都把他的手插在一罐鯨腦油裡。

First comes white-horse, so called, which is obtained from the tapering part of the fish, and also from the thicker portions of his flukes. It is tough with congealed tendons—a wad of muscle—but still contains some oil. ...They look much like blocks of Berkshire marble.

首先是所謂的「白馬肉（white-horse）」，取自鯨身漸細的部分、以及牠尾鰭較厚的部位。它因凝結的（congealed）腱而堅韌——一團肌肉——但仍含些油。從鯨身上割下後，白馬肉先被切成可搬運的長方塊，再送去絞碎機。它們看起來很像伯克郡大理石的塊。

Plum-pudding is the term bestowed upon certain fragmentary parts of the whale’s flesh... It is a most refreshing, convivial, beautiful object to behold. ...It is plums of rubies, in pictures of citron. Spite of reason, it is hard to keep yourself from eating it. I confess, that once I stole behind the foremast to try it.

「葡萄乾布丁（plum-pudding）」是賜給某些零碎鯨肉的名字——那些肉這兒那兒地黏在鯨脂的毯子上、往往也相當地分享了它的油潤。它是一個最賞心悅目、令人歡愉（convivial）、美麗的東西。如其名所示，它色澤極為濃郁、斑駁（mottled）——在一片條紋交織的雪白與金黃的底色上，點綴著最深的緋紅與紫色的斑點。它是「畫在檸檬（citron）上的紅寶石葡萄」。理智明知不該、卻很難忍住不去吃它。我承認，有一次我偷偷溜到前桅後面去嚐了它。它的味道，好比我所能想像的、「路易胖王（Louis le Gros）大腿上的一塊御用肉排」的味道——假設他是在鹿肉季的第一天被殺的、而那一個鹿肉季又恰逢香檳葡萄園難得的好年份。

There is another substance, and a very singular one... It is called slobgollion... It is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair... I hold it to be the wondrously thin, ruptured membranes of the case, coalescing. Gurry, so called, is a term properly belonging to right whalemen... It designates the dark, glutinous substance which is scraped off the back of the Greenland or right whale...

還有另一種物質、極其奇特的一種，在這活兒的過程中會冒出來，可我覺得它非常難以恰當地描述。它叫「slobgollion」——一個捕鯨人原創的稱呼，而這物質的性質也正如其名。它是一種說不出的、黏滑（oozy）、絲縷狀的東西，最常見於腦油缸裡——在長時間揉捏、隨後傾倒（decanting）之後。我認為它是腦油囊那奇薄的、破裂的膜「凝聚（coalescing）」而成的。所謂「gurry」，本是個正確地屬於露脊鯨人的詞，但有時也被抹香鯨漁人偶爾借用。它指的是那從格陵蘭鯨或露脊鯨背上刮下來的、深色而黏質的（glutinous）物質——其中很多，覆蓋著那些獵這「下賤巨獸」的低等傢伙的甲板。

Nippers. ...A whaleman’s nipper is a short firm strip of tendinous stuff cut from the tapering part of Leviathan’s tail... Edgewise moved along the oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless blandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.

「Nippers（夾刷）」。嚴格說，這詞並非鯨的詞彙所固有；但經捕鯨人這麼一用，它就成了。捕鯨人的 nipper，是從巨獸尾巴漸細處切下的一條結實的腱質——平均約一吋厚，其餘大小如一把鋤的鐵部。側著立、在油膩的甲板上拖動，它就像一把皮製的刮水器（squilgee）；並以一種說不出的、彷彿魔法般的「媚惑（blandishments）」，把一切雜質都引（allures）著、一同帶走。

But to learn all about these recondite matters, your best way is at once to descend into the blubber-room... When the proper time arrives for cutting up its contents, this apartment is a scene of terror to all tyros, especially by night. ...This spade is sharp as hone can make it; the spademan’s feet are shoeless... If he cuts off one of his own toes, or one of his assistants’, would you be very much astonished? Toes are scarce among veteran blubber-room men.

但要透徹了解這些「深奧難解（recondite）」之事，你最好的辦法，就是立刻下到「鯨脂艙（blubber-room）」、跟裡頭的人好好長談一番。這地方先前提過、是剝下並吊上來的毯片的暫存處。當切割其內容物的時候到了，這房間「對一切新手（tyro）都是個恐怖的場景，尤其在夜裡」。一側，由一盞昏燈照著，騰出一塊空地給工人。他們通常成對行動——一個「鉤叉手（pike-and-gaffman）」與一個「鏟手（spade-man）」。鉤叉手用他的鉤叉（gaff）鉤住一片鯨脂、在船俯仰搖晃時竭力穩住它不滑；與此同時，鏟手就站在那片鯨脂本身上、垂直地把它剁成可搬運的「馬肉塊」。這鏟磨得像磨刀石（hone）所能磨出的一樣鋒利；鏟手的腳是赤的；他所站的那東西，有時會像雪橇般不可抗拒地從他腳下滑走。他若砍掉自己的一根腳趾、或助手的一根，你會很驚訝嗎？——老資格的鯨脂艙工人裡，腳趾是很稀少的。