收艙與清掃

While still warm, the oil, like hot punch, is received into the six-barrel casks; and while, perhaps, the ship is pitching and rolling this way and that in the midnight sea, the enormous casks are slewed round and headed over, end for end, and sometimes perilously scoot across the slippery deck... till at last man-handled and stayed in their course; and all round the hoops, rap, rap, go as many hammers as can play upon them, for now, ex officio, every sailor is a cooper.

趁著還溫熱，那油（像熱潘趣酒）被裝進六桶裝的大桶裡；而當船或許正在午夜的海上、這樣那樣地顛簸搖晃時，那些巨大的桶被掉頭翻轉、首尾顛倒，有時危險地滑過光滑的甲板（像一場場山崩），直到最後被人力制住、穩在原處；箍桶的鐵箍四周，叮、叮，響著盡可能多的鎚子敲打——因為此刻，依職權（ex officio），每一個水手都是一名箍桶匠（cooper）。

At length, when the last pint is casked, and all is cool, then the great hatchways are unsealed, the bowels of the ship are thrown open, and down go the casks to their final rest in the sea. This done, the hatches are replaced, and hermetically closed, like a closet walled up.

最後，當最後一品脫也裝了桶、一切都冷卻下來，那巨大的艙口便被揭封、船的臟腑被敞開，桶降下去、到海裡（艙底）作牠們最終的安息。這事做完，艙蓋復位、密封得（hermetically closed）像一個被砌死的壁櫥。

One day the planks stream with freshets of blood and oil; on the sacred quarter-deck enormous masses of the whale’s head are profanely piled; great rusty casks lie about, as in a brewery yard; the smoke from the try-works has besooted all the bulwarks; the mariners go about suffused with unctuousness; the entire ship seems great leviathan himself; while on all hands the din is deafening.

前一天，船板還流淌著血與油的溪流（freshets）；在那聖潔的後甲板上、褻瀆地（profanely）堆著巨大的鯨頭塊；生鏽的大桶四處橫陳、如同一個釀酒場的院子；煉油間的煙把所有的舷牆都燻黑了（besooted）；水手們走來走去、渾身浸透著油膩（suffused with unctuousness）；整艘船彷彿就是那巨鯨本身；而四面八方，喧囂震耳欲聾。

But a day or two after... you would all but swear you trod some silent merchant vessel, with a most scrupulously neat commander. The unmanufactured sperm oil possesses a singularly cleansing virtue. This is the reason why the decks never look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil. ...then the crew themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland.

但一兩天後……你幾乎會發誓自己踏上了一艘寂靜的商船、有一位最一絲不苟、愛潔成癖的船長。那未經加工的鯨油，有一種奇異的清潔之力。這就是為什麼，甲板從來不會像剛做完他們所謂「一場油的事務」之後那樣雪白。……然後，船員自己去進行他們自己的沐浴（ablutions）、從頭到腳換洗一新，最後走上那一塵不染（immaculate）的甲板，清新而煥發著光彩，如同新郎剛從最精緻的荷蘭亞麻被裡躍出。

Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics... To hint to such musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short of audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and bring us napkins!

此刻，他們以雀躍的步伐、三兩成群地踱著船板，詼諧地談論著客廳、沙發、地毯、與精細的細棉布（cambrics）；提議給甲板鋪上蓆子；想著在桅頂掛點什麼裝飾；不反對在船艏的「露台」上、就著月光喝茶。對這些噴了麝香的水手、提起油、骨、與鯨脂，簡直近乎一種放肆（audacity）。他們根本不知道你隱約所指的那東西。走開，給我們拿餐巾來！

But mark: aloft there, at the three mast heads, stand three men intent on spying out more whales... Oh! my friends, but this is man-killing! Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world’s vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and then, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its defilements, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when—There she blows!—the ghost is spouted up, and away we sail to fight some other world, and go through young life’s old routine again.

但請注意：高處，那三個桅頂上、站著三個人，專注地搜尋著更多的鯨——那些鯨一旦捕到，必定又會弄髒這老橡木家具、至少在某處滴下一小塊油漬。……哦！朋友們，這真是要人命的活（man-killing）！可這，就是人生。因為我們凡人，好不容易靠著漫長的勞作、從這世界龐大的軀體裡萃取出它那微小卻珍貴的腦油；然後，帶著疲憊的耐心，把自己從它的污穢（defilements）中洗淨、學會在這裡、住在靈魂潔淨的聖幕（clean tabernacles）裡；這一切剛剛做完——「鯨噴水了（There she blows）！」——那魂魄又噴湧而上，於是我們又揚帆出航、去搏鬥另一個世界，再一次走過年輕生命那古老的例行公事。

Oh! the metempsychosis! Oh! Pythagoras, that in bright Greece, two thousand years ago, did die, so good, so wise, so mild; I sailed with thee along the Peruvian coast last voyage—and, foolish as I am, taught thee, a green simple boy, how to splice a rope!

哦！靈魂的輪迴（metempsychosis）！哦！畢達哥拉斯（Pythagoras）——你在那光輝的希臘、兩千年前死去，那麼善良、那麼睿智、那麼溫和；上一趟航程，我曾與你一同沿著祕魯的海岸航行——而愚蠢如我，竟還教過你（一個青澀單純的小子）怎麼接繩呢！