救生浮筒

Steering now south-eastward by Ahab’s levelled steel, and her progress solely determined by Ahab’s level log and line; the Pequod held on her path towards the Equator. Making so long a passage through such unfrequented waters, descrying no ships, and ere long, sideways impelled by unvarying trade winds, over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed the strange calm things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.

如今靠著亞哈那根重新磁化的鋼針掌著東南向、船速全憑亞哈那具平躺計程儀與測程索測定，裴廓德號繼續朝赤道進發。在這般人煙罕至的水域裡走著這麼漫長的一段航程，看不見一艘船，不久又被那始終不變的信風從側旁推著，駛過單調而平緩的波浪；這一切，都像是某場狂暴而絕望的場面到來之前，那種詭異的平靜前奏。

At last, when the ship drew near to the outskirts of the Equatorial fishing-ground, and in the deep darkness that goes before the dawn, was sailing by a cluster of rocky islets; the watch—then headed by Flask—was startled by a cry so plaintively wild and unearthly—like half-articulated wailings of the ghosts of all Herod’s murdered Innocents—that one and all, they started from their reveries, and for the space of some moments stood, or sat, or leaned all transfixedly listening. The Christian or civilized part of the crew said it was mermaids, and shuddered; but the pagan harpooneers remained unappalled. Yet the grey Manxman—the oldest mariner of all—declared that the wild thrilling sounds that were heard, were the voices of newly drowned men in the sea.

終於，當船駛近赤道捕鯨場的邊緣地帶、在黎明前那片深沉的黑暗裡，正經過一簇礁石小島時；當時由弗拉斯克帶領的值班人員，被一陣哀切狂野、不似人間的叫聲駭住了——那聲音像是希律王屠殺的所有無辜嬰孩的鬼魂，發出含混不清的哀號——以至於人人都從各自的出神中驚醒，有那麼一陣，或站、或坐、或倚，全都呆若木雞地聽著。船上信基督的、或者說開化的那部分人說那是美人魚，渾身打顫；可那幾名異教標槍手卻不為所動。然而那灰髮的曼島人——全船最老的海員——卻斷言：所聽見的那些狂野而令人心顫的聲音，是海裡那些剛溺死之人的聲音。

Below in his hammock, Ahab did not hear of this till grey dawn, when he came to the deck; it was then recounted to him by Flask, not unaccompanied with hinted dark meanings. He hollowly laughed, and thus explained the wonder. Those rocky islands the ship had passed were the resort of great numbers of seals, and some young seals that had lost their dams, or some dams that had lost their cubs, must have risen nigh the ship and kept company with her, crying and sobbing with their human sort of wail. But this only the more affected some of them, because most mariners cherish a very superstitious feeling about seals, arising not only from their peculiar tones when in distress, but also from the human look of their round heads and semi-intelligent faces.

亞哈在底下的吊床裡，直到灰濛濛的破曉、上到甲板來時才聽說此事；當時是弗拉斯克講給他聽的，言談間還不無暗示著什麼陰沉的含義。他空洞地一笑，便這樣解開了這樁怪事。船方才經過的那些礁石小島，是大批海豹聚集棲息之地，準是有些失了母親的小海豹、或是失了幼崽的母海豹，浮到船邊來，伴著船一道走，發出牠們那種近似人聲的哭叫與啜泣。可這反倒更教其中一些人心神不寧，因為多數海員對海豹懷著一種很迷信的感覺，這不僅是因為牠們遇難時那種奇特的聲調，也因為牠們從水裡探出的圓腦袋與半懂事似的臉，看著太像人了。

But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. At sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore; and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep, there is now no telling; but, be that as it may, he had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard—a cry and a rushing—and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; and looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the sea.

可水手們那些不祥的預感，注定要在當天上午其中一人的命運裡，得到一個極為逼真的印證。日出時分，這人從吊床起身，爬上前桅的桅頂；究竟是不是因為他還沒從睡夢中半醒過來，如今已無從說起；但無論如何，他在那高處待了沒多久，便聽見一聲喊叫——一聲喊叫，緊接著一陣疾墜的呼嘯——眾人抬頭往上看，只見半空中一個墜落的幻影；再往下看，是藍色海面上一小堆翻騰的白色泡沫。

The life-buoy—a long slender cask—was dropped from the stern, where it always hung obedient to a cunning spring; but no hand rose to seize it, and the sun having long beat upon this cask it had shrunken, so that it slowly filled, and that parched wood also filled at its every pore; and the studded iron-bound cask followed the sailor to the bottom, as if to yield him his pillow, though in sooth but a hard one. And thus the first man of the Pequod that mounted the mast to look out for the White Whale, on the White Whale’s own peculiar ground; that man was swallowed up in the deep. But few, perhaps, thought of that at the time.

那具救生浮筒——一只細長的木桶——從船尾被拋了下去，它平日總靠一具巧妙的彈簧聽話地懸在那兒；可水面下沒有一隻手伸上來抓它，而太陽久曬之下這木桶早已乾縮，於是它慢慢進了水，那曬乾的木頭也從每一個毛孔吸飽了水；於是這只釘著飾釘、箍著鐵圈的木桶，跟著那水手一同沉入海底，彷彿要給他遞上一只枕頭——說實在的，不過是只硬枕罷了。就這樣，裴廓德號上第一個爬上桅杆、在白鯨自家的地盤上瞭望白鯨的人，就此被深淵吞沒了。可在當時，想到這一層的人，也許寥寥無幾。

Indeed, in some sort, they were not grieved at this event, at least as a portent; for they regarded it, not as a foreshadowing of evil in the future, but as the fulfilment of an evil already presaged. They declared that now they knew the reason of those wild shrieks they had heard the night before. But again the old Manxman said nay. The lost life-buoy was now to be replaced; Starbuck was directed to see to it; but as no cask of sufficient lightness could be found, and as in the feverish eagerness of what seemed the approaching crisis of the voyage, all hands were impatient of any toil but what was directly connected with its final end; therefore, they were going to leave the ship’s stern unprovided with a buoy, when by certain strange signs and inuendoes Queequeg hinted a hint concerning his coffin.

說真的，從某種意義上，他們並不為這件事悲傷，至少不把它當凶兆看；因為他們把它視為，並非預示未來的災禍，而是早已預兆過的一樁災禍的應驗。他們宣稱，如今總算明白了前一夜聽到那些狂野尖叫的緣由。可那老曼島人又一次說，不對。失去的救生浮筒此刻得補上；斯塔巴克奉命去張羅；可既找不到夠輕的木桶，加上在這趟航程似乎正逼近的危機所激起的狂熱裡，全船的人對任何活計都不耐煩，除非那活計與這航程最終的結局——不管那會是什麼——直接相關；於是，他們正打算讓船尾就這麼空著、不配浮筒，這時魁魁格用某些古怪的手勢與暗示，旁敲側擊地提了一個關於他那口棺材的主意。

“A life-buoy of a coffin!” cried Starbuck, starting. “Rather queer, that, I should say,” said Stubb. “It will make a good enough one,” said Flask, “the carpenter here can arrange it easily.” “Bring it up; there’s nothing else for it,” said Starbuck, after a melancholy pause. “Rig it, carpenter; do not look at me so—the coffin, I mean. Dost thou hear me? Rig it.”

「拿棺材當救生浮筒！」斯塔巴克驚得叫了出來。「這事兒，要我說，可真夠古怪的，」斯塔布道。「拿來改個浮筒倒是綽綽有餘，」弗拉斯克說，「這兒的木匠輕輕鬆鬆就能弄好。」「把它抬上來吧；也沒別的法子了，」斯塔巴克在一陣憂鬱的停頓後說。「把它改裝好，木匠；別這麼瞧著我——我是說那口棺材。你聽見我說的話沒有？把它改裝好。」

“And shall I nail down the lid, sir?” moving his hand as with a hammer. “Aye.” “And shall I caulk the seams, sir?” moving his hand as with a caulking-iron. “Aye.” “And shall I then pay over the same with pitch, sir?” moving his hand as with a pitch-pot. “Away! what possesses thee to this? Make a life-buoy of the coffin, and no more.—Mr. Stubb, Mr. Flask, come forward with me.”

「那要不要我把蓋子釘死，先生？」一面比劃著像在使錘子。「要。」「那要不要我把接縫嵌填密實，先生？」一面比劃著像在使嵌縫鑿。「要。」「那之後要不要我再給它通體塗上一層瀝青，先生？」一面比劃著像在使瀝青罐。「滾開！什麼東西附了你的身，問個沒完？把那棺材改成救生浮筒，別的少囉嗦。——斯塔布先生、弗拉斯克先生，跟我到前頭去。」

“He goes off in a huff. The whole he can endure; at the parts he baulks. Now I don’t like this. I make a leg for Captain Ahab, and he wears it like a gentleman; but I make a bandbox for Queequeg, and he won’t put his head into it. Are all my pains to go for nothing with that coffin? And now I’m ordered to make a life-buoy of it. It’s like turning an old coat; going to bring the flesh on the other side now. I don’t like this cobbling sort of business—it’s undignified; it’s not my place. Let tinkers’ brats do tinkerings; we are their betters. I like to take in hand none but clean, virgin, fair-and-square mathematical jobs. Nail down the lid; caulk the seams; pay over the same with pitch; batten them down tight, and hang it with the snap-spring over the ship’s stern. Were ever such things done before with a coffin? But I’m made of knotty Aroostook hemlock; I don’t budge. Cruppered with a coffin! Sailing about with a grave-yard tray! But never mind. We workers in woods make bridal-bedsteads and card-tables, as well as coffins and hearses. Hem! I’ll do the job, now, tenderly. I’ll have me thirty separate, Turk’s-headed life-lines, each three feet long hanging all round to the coffin. Then, if the hull go down, there’ll be thirty lively fellows all fighting for one coffin, a sight not seen very often beneath the sun! Come hammer, caulking-iron, pitch-pot, and marling-spike! Let’s to it.”

「他氣呼呼地走了。整件事他受得了；偏偏到了零零碎碎的部分就退縮。哼，我可不喜歡這差事。我給亞哈船長做了條腿，他像個紳士似的戴著；可我給魁魁格做了個帽盒（指那口棺材），他偏不肯把腦袋伸進去。我為那口棺材費的所有工夫，難道全要白搭了？如今又命我把它改成救生浮筒。這就像把一件舊外套翻個面；這會兒要把裡子那面翻出來見人了。我不喜歡這種縫縫補補的活計——這有失體面；這不是我幹的事。叫補鍋匠的小崽子們去做修修補補吧；我們可比他們高一等。我只愛接乾乾淨淨、清清白白、方方正正、合乎數學的活。把蓋子釘死；嵌密接縫；通體塗上瀝青；牢牢封緊，再用那彈簧扣懸到船尾外頭去。古往今來可曾有人這麼擺弄過一口棺材？可我是用阿魯斯圖克那多節的鐵杉木做成的；我才不動搖。叫一口棺材給絆住了！拖著一只墳場托盤到處航行！可隨它去吧。我們這些跟木頭打交道的，既做棺材與柩車，也做新婚的床架與牌桌。哼！這活兒，我這就好好地、細細地幹起來。我要給它配上三十根分開的、打著土耳其結頭的救生索，每根三呎長，繞著棺材四周垂下來。這麼一來，萬一船身沉了，就會有三十條活蹦亂跳的好漢，一齊搶這一口棺材，這景象在太陽底下可不常見！來吧，錘子、嵌縫鑿、瀝青罐，還有打索針！咱們動手吧。」