計程儀與測程索

While now the fated Pequod had been so long afloat this voyage, the log and line had but very seldom been in use. Owing to a confident reliance upon other means of determining the vessel’s place, some merchantmen, and many whalemen, especially when cruising, wholly neglect to heave the log... But heedless of all this, his mood seized Ahab, as he happened to glance upon the reel, not many hours after the magnet scene, and he remembered how his quadrant was no more, and recalled his frantic oath about the level log and line. The ship was sailing plungingly; astern the billows rolled in riots.

這趟航程裡，命定的裴廓德號早已在海上漂了這麼久，那計程儀與測程索卻極少派上用場。由於篤信還有別的法子能定出船位，有些商船、許多捕鯨船，尤其在巡游時，索性完全不去拋計程儀……可亞哈對這一切毫不在意，磁針那一幕過後沒幾個鐘頭，他碰巧瞥見那捲線輪，一股情緒攫住了他，他記起自己的象限儀已不復存在，又想起先前那句關於平躺計程儀與測程索的瘋誓。船正一頭一頭地栽著浪前行；船尾巨浪翻騰如亂。

“Forward, there! Heave the log!” Two seamen came. The golden-hued Tahitian and the grizzly Manxman. “Take the reel, one of ye, I’ll heave.” They went towards the extreme stern, on the ship’s lee side, where the deck, with the oblique energy of the wind, was now almost dipping into the creamy, sidelong-rushing sea. The Manxman took the reel, and holding it high up, by the projecting handle-ends of the spindle, round which the spool of line revolved, so stood with the angular log hanging downwards, till Ahab advanced to him.

「前邊的人！拋計程儀！」兩名水手過來了。一個是金膚色的大溪地人，一個是灰髮的曼島人。「你們倆誰拿線輪，我來拋。」他們朝船尾最末端、靠下風的一側走去，那裡的甲板被風斜斜地一壓，此刻幾乎要浸進那翻著奶白泡沫、斜向奔湧的海水裡。曼島人接過線輪，握住軸心兩端突出的把手高高舉起——線軸便繞著那軸心轉動——就這麼站著，讓那塊有稜角的木片垂在下方，直到亞哈朝他走來。

Ahab stood before him, and was lightly unwinding some thirty or forty turns to form a preliminary hand-coil to toss overboard, when the old Manxman, who was intently eyeing both him and the line, made bold to speak. “Sir, I mistrust it; this line looks far gone, long heat and wet have spoiled it.”

亞哈站到他面前，輕輕鬆開三四十圈線，先在手裡盤成一卷好拋下海去，這時那一直緊盯著他和那索的老曼島人，壯著膽子開了口：「先生，我信不過它；這索看著不行了，長年的熱與濕把它泡壞了。」

“’Twill hold, old gentleman. Long heat and wet, have they spoiled thee? Thou seem’st to hold. Or, truer perhaps, life holds thee; not thou it.” “I hold the spool, sir. But just as my captain says. With these grey hairs of mine ’tis not worth while disputing, ’specially with a superior, who’ll ne’er confess.”

「它撐得住的，老先生。長年的熱與濕，把你泡壞了嗎？你看著還撐得住嘛。或者，更確切地說，是生命撐著你；不是你撐著生命。」「我撐著這線軸，先生。可一切但憑船長吩咐。憑我這把灰白頭髮，不值得爭辯，尤其是跟一個永不認錯的上司爭。」

“What’s that? There now’s a patched professor in Queen Nature’s granite-founded College; but methinks he’s too subservient. Where wert thou born?” “In the little rocky Isle of Man, sir.” “Excellent! Thou’st hit the world by that.” “I know not, sir, but I was born there.” “In the Isle of Man, hey? Well, the other way, it’s good. Here’s a man from Man; a man born in once independent Man, and now unmanned of Man; which is sucked in—by what? Up with the reel! The dead, blind wall butts all inquiring heads at last. Up with it! So.”

「那是什麼話？這倒是『自然女王那花崗岩奠基的學院』裡一位打了補丁的教授了；可我看他太唯命是從了些。你生在哪兒？」「生在曼島那小小的多岩石的島上，先生。」「妙極！你這一說，正巧戳中了這世界。」「我不懂您的意思，先生，我只是生在那兒。」「生在曼島，嗯？嘿，反過來說，倒也妙。瞧這兒有個從『人島』來的人；一個生在曾經獨立的『人之島』、如今卻被『人』所褫奪了人性的人；他被吸進去了——被什麼吸進去的？把線輪舉起來！那死寂、盲然的牆，到頭來把所有探問的腦袋都頂了回來。舉起來！好。」

The log was heaved. The loose coils rapidly straightened out in a long dragging line astern, and then, instantly, the reel began to whirl. In turn, jerkingly raised and lowered by the rolling billows, the towing resistance of the log caused the old reelman to stagger strangely. “Hold hard!” Snap! the overstrained line sagged down in one long festoon; the tugging log was gone.

木片拋了下去。鬆盤的線飛快地拉直，在船尾拖出長長一條，緊接著，那線輪立刻飛轉起來。被翻滾的巨浪一上一下地猛顛著，木片拖曳的阻力弄得那老掌輪人怪模怪樣地踉蹌。「拽緊了！」啪！那繃得太緊的線一鬆，垂成長長的一彎索花；被拖著的木片不見了。

“I crush the quadrant, the thunder turns the needles, and now the mad sea parts the log-line. But Ahab can mend all. Haul in here, Tahitian; reel up, Manxman. And look ye, let the carpenter make another log, and mend thou the line. See to it.”

「我砸碎了象限儀，雷弄反了磁針，如今這發瘋的海又扯斷了測程索。可亞哈樣樣都能補。往這兒收線，大溪地人；繞線輪，曼島人。還有你們聽著，叫木匠再做一塊計程木片，你把這索補一補。去辦。」

“There he goes now; to him nothing’s happened; but to me, the skewer seems loosening out of the middle of the world. Haul in, haul in, Tahitian! These lines run whole, and whirling out: come in broken, and dragging slow. Ha, Pip? come to help; eh, Pip?”

「瞧他這就走了；對他來說什麼事都沒發生過；可對我來說，那根串著世界中心的扦子像是要鬆脫出來了。收線，收線，大溪地人！這些索放出去時是整條、飛快旋著；收回來卻斷了、慢慢拖著。哈，皮普？來幫忙啦；嗯，皮普？」

“Pip? whom call ye Pip? Pip jumped from the whale-boat. Pip’s missing. Let’s see now if ye haven’t fished him up here, fisherman. It drags hard; I guess he’s holding on. Jerk him, Tahiti! Jerk him off; we haul in no cowards here. Ho! there’s his arm just breaking water. A hatchet! a hatchet! cut it off—we haul in no cowards here. Captain Ahab! sir, sir! here’s Pip, trying to get on board again.”

「皮普？你們喊誰皮普？皮普從捕鯨小艇上跳下去了。皮普失蹤了。咱們瞧瞧，你是不是把他從這兒釣上來了，漁夫。拽得真沉；我猜他正抓著呢。抖他一下，大溪地！把他抖掉；我們這兒不撈懦夫。嗬！他的胳臂剛冒出水面。拿斧頭來！斧頭！把它砍斷——我們這兒不撈懦夫。亞哈船長！先生，先生！這兒有個皮普，想再爬上船來呢。」

“Peace, thou crazy loon,” cried the Manxman, seizing him by the arm. “Away from the quarter-deck!” “The greater idiot ever scolds the lesser,” muttered Ahab, advancing. “Hands off from that holiness! Where sayest thou Pip was, boy?”

「安靜，你這發瘋的呆鳥，」曼島人喊著，一把抓住他的胳臂。「滾離後甲板！」「越是大傻瓜，越愛罵小傻瓜，」亞哈邊走近邊咕噥。「把手從那神聖的孩子身上拿開！你說皮普在哪兒，孩子？」

“Astern there, sir, astern! Lo! lo!” “And who art thou, boy? I see not my reflection in the vacant pupils of thy eyes. Oh God! that man should be a thing for immortal souls to sieve through! Who art thou, boy?”

「在船尾那兒，先生，船尾！瞧！瞧！」「那你又是誰，孩子？我在你那空洞的瞳孔裡照不見自己的影子。哦，上帝啊！人竟成了讓不朽的靈魂篩濾而過的一件東西！你是誰，孩子？」

“Bell-boy, sir; ship’s-crier; ding, dong, ding! Pip! Pip! Pip! One hundred pounds of clay reward for Pip; five feet high—looks cowardly—quickest known by that! Ding, dong, ding! Who’s seen Pip the coward?”

「敲鐘的小廝，先生；船上的傳報員；叮，噹，叮！皮普！皮普！皮普！懸賞一百磅黏土尋皮普；五呎高——一臉懦樣——憑這個最好認！叮，噹，叮！誰見過那膽小鬼皮普？」

“There can be no hearts above the snow-line. Oh, ye frozen heavens! look down here. Ye did beget this luckless child, and have abandoned him, ye creative libertines. Here, boy; Ahab’s cabin shall be Pip’s home henceforth, while Ahab lives. Thou touchest my inmost centre, boy; thou art tied to me by cords woven of my heart-strings. Come, let’s down.”

「雪線之上不可能有心。哦，你們這些冰凍的諸天哪！往這下頭看看。是你們生下了這不幸的孩子，又把他拋棄了，你們這些只管創造的浪蕩鬼。來，孩子；從今往後，只要亞哈還活著，亞哈的艙房就是皮普的家。你觸動了我最內裡的中心，孩子；你被一條用我心弦織成的繩索，繫在了我身上。來，咱們下去。」

“What’s this? here’s velvet shark-skin,” intently gazing at Ahab’s hand, and feeling it. “Ah, now, had poor Pip but felt so kind a thing as this, perhaps he had ne’er been lost! This seems to me, sir, as a man-rope; something that weak souls may hold by. Oh, sir, let old Perth now come and rivet these two hands together; the black one with the white, for I will not let this go.”

「這是什麼？這兒有塊天鵝絨般的鯊魚皮，」他出神地凝望著亞哈的手，伸手摸著。「啊，要是可憐的皮普早摸到過這麼仁慈的一樣東西，興許他就永遠不會迷失了！在我看來，先生，這像是一條扶手繩；一樣讓軟弱的靈魂可以攀住的東西。哦，先生，讓老珀斯這就來，把這兩隻手鉚在一起吧；黑的這隻和白的那隻，因為我再不肯放開它了。」

“Oh, boy, nor will I thee, unless I should thereby drag thee to worse horrors than are here. Come, then, to my cabin. Lo! ye believers in gods all goodness, and in man all ill, lo you! see the omniscient gods oblivious of suffering man; and man, though idiotic, and knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude. Come! I feel prouder leading thee by thy black hand, than though I grasped an Emperor’s!”

「哦，孩子，我也再不肯放開你——除非那樣做會把你拖向比這兒更可怕的恐怖裡去。那麼，來吧，到我的艙房裡來。瞧！你們這些相信神全然至善、相信人全然邪惡的人哪，看哪！瞧那無所不知的諸神，對受苦的人視若無睹；而人，儘管愚癡、不知自己在做什麼，卻仍滿懷著愛與感激的甜美之情。來吧！牽著你這隻黑手領你走，我覺得比握著一位皇帝的手還要驕傲！」

“There go two daft ones now,” muttered the old Manxman. “One daft with strength, the other daft with weakness. But here’s the end of the rotten line—all dripping, too. Mend it, eh? I think we had best have a new line altogether. I’ll see Mr. Stubb about it.”

「瞧那兒去了兩個瘋子，」老曼島人咕噥道。「一個瘋在強，一個瘋在弱。可這兒就是這爛索的盡頭了——還滴著水呢。補它，嗯？我看我們最好乾脆換一條新的。這事我去找斯塔布先生說。」