追獵——第二天

At day-break, the three mast-heads were punctually manned afresh. “D’ye see him?” cried Ahab. “See nothing, sir.” “Turn up all hands and make sail! he travels faster than I thought for;—the top-gallant sails!—aye, they should have been kept on her all night. But no matter—’tis but resting for the rush.”

破曉時，三處桅頂準時重新有人值守。「看見牠了嗎？」亞哈喊道。「什麼也沒看見，先生。」「全員起來，張帆！牠游得比我預想的還快；——升上桅帆！——是啊，這些帆整夜都該掛著的。不過沒關係——這不過是為了那一衝養養精神。」

Here be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular whale, continued through day into night, is by no means unprecedented in the South sea fishery. For such is the skill and prescience of experience acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nantucket commanders, that from the simple observation of a whale when last descried, they will pretty accurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to swim while out of sight, as well as his probable rate of progression... as a pilot, when about losing sight of a coast whose general trending he well knows, takes the precise bearing of the cape at present visible. But to render this acuteness successful, the wind and the sea must be the whaleman’s allies.

這裡得說明，這般晝夜不歇地緊咬著一頭特定的鯨窮追不捨，在南海捕鯨業裡絕非前所未有。因為南塔克特船長中某些天生的奇才，憑著經驗練就的本事與先見之明，竟能僅憑最後一次望見鯨時的簡單觀察，便相當精準地預言出：牠在看不見的這段期間，會繼續朝哪個方向游、大致以什麼速度前進……就像一名領航員，在即將望不見一段他熟知其大致走向的海岸時，會先量準眼下還看得見的那個海角的精確方位。可要讓這份精明最終奏效，風與海必須是捕鯨人的盟友。

The ship tore on; leaving such a furrow in the sea as when a cannon-ball, missent, becomes a plough-share and turns up the level field. “By salt and hemp!” cried Stubb, “but this swift motion of the deck creeps up one’s legs and tingles at the heart... by live-oaks! my spine’s a keel. Ha, ha! we go the gait that leaves no dust behind!”

船破浪疾行；在海面上犁出一道深溝，就像一顆射偏的砲彈忽然變成了犁頭，把平坦的田野翻了起來。「憑鹽與麻起誓！」斯塔布喊道，「這甲板飛快的動勢順著腿往上爬，叫人心頭發麻……憑那些活橡木起誓！我這脊梁就是一根龍骨。哈，哈！我們這步速，連一點塵土都不揚！」

“There she blows—she blows!—right ahead!” “Aye, aye!” cried Stubb, “I knew it—ye can’t escape—blow on and split your spout, O whale!... Ahab will dam off your blood, as a miller shuts his watergate upon the stream!” The frenzies of the chase had by this time worked them bubblingly up, like old wine worked anew. Whatever pale forebodings some had felt, these were now broken up and routed, as timid prairie hares that scatter before the bounding bison. The hand of Fate had snatched all their souls.

「牠噴水啦——牠噴水啦！——正前方！」「對，對！」斯塔布喊道，「我就知道——你逃不掉的——噴吧，把你的水柱噴裂吧，哦，鯨啊！……亞哈會把你的血截斷，就像磨坊主把水閘往溪流上一關！」此刻，追獵的狂熱已把眾人燒得沸騰冒泡，像陳酒被重新催發。先前有些人感到的蒼白預感，此刻都被打散、潰退，像膽小的草原野兔，在蹦跳的野牛面前四散奔逃。命運之手已攫走了他們所有人的靈魂。

They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all... yet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, balanced and directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of the crew, this man’s valor, that man’s fear; all varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to. The rigging lived. The mast-heads were outspreadingly tufted with arms and legs... ready and ripe for their fate. Ah! how they still strove through that infinite blueness to seek out the thing that might destroy them!

他們是一個人，不是三十個。因為正如那艘載著他們所有人的船……可這一切（橡木、楓木、松木；鐵、瀝青、麻）全都熔進了那一個渾然一體的船身，由那長長的中央龍骨所平衡、所導向；同樣地，全體船員的種種個性——這人的勇、那人的怯——一切的差異都被熔焊成了一體，全都被導向亞哈這唯一的主、唯一的龍骨所指的那個致命的終點。索具活了過來。桅頂上四下伸展，簇生著一隻隻手臂與腿……萬事俱備、熟透了等著迎接各自的命運。啊！他們竟仍這般奮力地，穿過那無垠的湛藍，去搜尋那可能毀滅他們的東西！

“Why sing ye not out for him, if ye see him?” But it was a false cry. Hardly had Ahab reached his perch, when he struck the key-note to an orchestra that made the air vibrate as with rifles. As—less than a mile ahead—Moby Dick bodily burst into view! For not by any calm spoutings did the White Whale now reveal his vicinity; but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching. Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, the Sperm Whale booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam, shows his place to the distance of seven miles. In those moments, the torn, enraged waves he shakes off, seem his mane; this breaching is his act of defiance.

「你們既看見牠了，怎麼不喊出來？」可那是一聲誤報。亞哈才剛升上他的棲位，便為一整支樂隊敲響了主音——那聲響震得空氣顫動，如同步槍齊發。就在——不到一哩之外——莫比敵整個身軀轟然躍入眼簾！這一回，白鯨揭示自己的逼近，靠的不是任何平靜的噴水；而是那更為驚人的現象——躍身擊浪（breaching）。抹香鯨從最深處以牠最高的速度衝起，把整個龐大的身軀轟然拋進純淨的空氣裡，砸起一座炫目的浪山，七哩之外都能望見牠的所在。在那些瞬間，牠抖落的那些撕裂、狂怒的浪濤，宛如牠的鬃毛；這躍身擊浪，正是牠挑釁的姿態。

“There she breaches! there she breaches!” as the White Whale tossed himself salmon-like to Heaven. The spray he raised, for the moment, intolerably glittered like a glacier; and stood there gradually fading away. “Aye, breach your last to the sun, Moby Dick!” cried Ahab, “thy hour and thy harpoon are at hand!—Down! down all of ye, but one man at the fore. The boats!—stand by!”

「牠躍起來啦！牠躍起來啦！」眾人喊著，白鯨像鮭魚般把自己拋向天空。牠濺起的水沫，有那麼一瞬，刺眼地閃爍如一道冰川；隨後便立在那兒，漸漸地、漸漸地消褪。「向太陽躍你最後一次吧，莫比敵！」亞哈喊道，「你的時辰、你的魚叉，都近在眼前了！——下來！你們全都下來，前桅只留一個人。放艇！——準備！」

“Lower away,” he cried, so soon as he had reached his boat. “Mr. Starbuck, the ship is thine—keep away from the boats, but keep near them. Lower, all!” As if to strike a quick terror into them, Moby Dick had turned, and was now coming for the three crews. Ahab told them he would take the whale head-and-head. But ere that close limit was gained, the White Whale churning himself into furious speed, rushing among the boats with open jaws and a lashing tail, offered appalling battle on every side; and heedless of the irons darted at him, seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of those boats.

「放艇下去，」他一到自己的艇上便喊道。「斯塔巴克先生，這船交給你了——離小艇遠些，可又別離得太遠。全部放下！」彷彿要立刻把恐懼狠狠擊進他們心裡，莫比敵已調轉身，此刻正朝那三組艇員衝來。亞哈告訴眾人，他要迎著鯨頭、正面對撞。可還沒逼近到那臨界距離，白鯨已把自己攪入狂怒的疾速，張著大口、甩著尾巴，在眾艇之間橫衝直撞，四面八方擺出駭人的廝殺架勢；牠對從各艇擲向牠的魚叉毫不在意，似乎一心只想把那些艇的每一塊船板，都一一碾成碎片。

But at last the White Whale so crossed and entangled the slack of the three lines now fast to him, that they warped the boats towards the planted irons in him. Seizing that opportunity, Ahab paid out more line, then was hauling it in again—when lo!—caught and twisted—corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons and lances, with all their bristling barbs, came flashing up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab’s boat. Only one thing could be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he dragged in the line, and twice sundering the rope near the chocks—dropped the intercepted fagot of steel into the sea; and was all fast again.

可最終，白鯨這般來回橫越、把此刻已插中牠的那三條繩索的鬆弛部分纏繞糾結，弄得繩子一收短，竟自行把那幾艘獻身的小艇朝插在牠身上的魚叉拖去。亞哈抓住那個空檔，先放出更多繩索，繼而又飛快地往回拉扯——不料——只見那些鬆脫的魚叉與標槍，連同它們根根倒豎的倒鉤，被纏住、扭絞、像螺絲般絞上來，閃著光、滴著水，直竄到亞哈艇首的繩槽邊！只有一件事可做。他抓起小艇刀，把繩子拖進來，在繩槽附近把繩兩度割斷——將那截攔下的鋼鐵束扔進海裡；於是一切又繫牢了。

That instant, the White Whale dashed Stubb’s and Flask’s boats together like two rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom, in which the odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like grated nutmeg in a bowl of punch. While Flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial, and Stubb was lustily singing out for some one to ladle him up;—in that wild simultaneousness of a thousand perils,—Ahab’s yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards Heaven by invisible wires,—as, arrow-like, the White Whale dashed his broad forehead against its bottom, and sent it, turning over and over, into the air; till it fell again—gunwale downwards—and Ahab and his men struggled out from under it, like seals from a sea-side cave.

就在那一瞬，白鯨把斯塔布和弗拉斯克的兩艘艇撞作一團，像被拍岸浪沖滾的兩個空殼，隨即一頭潛下，消失在一個沸騰的大漩渦裡——那殘骸的芬芳雪松碎片在漩渦中一圈圈打轉，像撒進一碗潘趣酒裡、被飛快攪動的肉豆蔻碎屑。弗拉斯克像個空藥瓶般載浮載沉，斯塔布扯著嗓子喊人來把他舀起來；——就在這千百種凶險瘋狂地同時迸發之際，——亞哈那尚未受創的艇，彷彿被無形的鋼絲往天上吊起，——只見白鯨像箭一般，用牠寬闊的額頭猛撞艇底，把它一翻再翻地拋向空中；直到它再度落下——舷緣朝下——亞哈和他的人從艇底下掙扎著鑽出，像海豹從海邊洞穴裡爬出。

As before, the attentive ship came bearing down to the rescue, and picked up the floating mariners. Some sprained shoulders, livid contusions, wrenched harpoons, inextricable intricacies of rope; but no fatal ill seemed to have befallen any one. As with Fedallah the day before, so Ahab was now found grimly clinging to his boat’s broken half. But when he was helped to the deck, all eyes were fastened upon him; he still half-hung upon the shoulder of Starbuck. His ivory leg had been snapped off, leaving but one short sharp splinter.

一如先前，那艘留神的船駛來救援，撈起了漂浮的水手。有人扭傷了肩、青紫的瘀傷、扭歪了的魚叉、糾纏得理不清的繩結；但似乎沒有一個人遭遇致命之傷。正如前一天的費達拉，此刻的亞哈也被發現正陰沉地攀在他那破成兩半的艇上。可當他被扶上甲板時，所有人的目光都釘在他身上；他仍半倚在斯塔巴克的肩上。他的象牙腿被折斷了，只剩下一截又短又尖的碎刺。

“Aye, aye, Starbuck, ’tis sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he will; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has.” “The ferrule has not stood, sir,” said the carpenter. “But no bones broken, sir, I hope,” said Stubb. “Aye! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb!—But even with a broken bone, old Ahab is untouched; and I account no living bone of mine one jot more me, than this dead one that’s lost. Nor white whale, nor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being.”

「是啊，是啊，斯塔巴克，有時候能靠一靠真好，無論靠的是誰；但願老亞哈這輩子，能比現在多靠那麼幾次。」「那金屬包頭沒撐住，先生，」木匠說。「可沒傷到骨頭吧，先生，我希望，」斯塔布說。「傷了！還碎成了好幾截呢，斯塔布！——可即便斷了骨，老亞哈仍毫髮無傷；我這條丟掉的死腿，跟我任何一根活著的骨頭一樣，半分都算不上『我』。白鯨也好、人也好、魔鬼也好，誰都別想擦到老亞哈那真正的、不可觸及的本體一下。」

“Dead to leeward, sir.” “Up helm, then; pile on the sail again, ship keepers!—Mr. Starbuck away, and muster the boat’s crews.” “Let me first help thee towards the bulwarks, sir.” “Oh, oh, oh! how this splinter gores me now! Accursed fate! that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!” “Sir?” “My body, man, not thee... Muster the men. Surely I have not seen him yet. By heaven it cannot be!—missing?—quick! call them all.”

「正在下風處，先生。」「那就轉舵；再把帆加滿，看船的人！——斯塔巴克你去，把艇員集合起來。」「先生，讓我先扶您到舷牆邊吧。」「哦，哦，哦！這碎刺這會兒戳得我好痛！該死的命運啊！靈魂裡那不可征服的船長，怎麼竟配了這麼一個膽怯的副官！」「先生？」「我說的是我的身子，老兄，不是你……把人集合起來。我好像還沒看見他。天哪，不會吧！——失蹤了？——快！把他們全都叫來。」

The old man’s hinted thought was true. Upon mustering, the Parsee was not there. “The Parsee!” cried Stubb—“he must have been caught in——” “The black vomit wrench thee!—run all of ye above, alow, cabin, forecastle—find him—not gone—not gone!” But quickly they returned with the tidings that the Parsee was nowhere to be found. “Aye, sir,” said Stubb—“caught among the tangles of your line—I thought I saw him dragging under.”

老人那暗暗的念頭成真了。一清點，那拜火教徒不在。「拜火教徒！」斯塔布喊道——「他準是纏進了——」「願黑色嘔吐病絞死你！——你們全都去，上頭、底下、艙裡、前甲板——找他——沒走——他沒走！」可眾人很快回來稟報：那拜火教徒哪兒都找不著。「是啊，先生，」斯塔布說——「纏進了您那繩索的亂結裡——我好像看見他被拖下水去了。」

“My line! my line? Gone?—gone? What means that little word?—What death-knell rings in it, that old Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry... ’tis in the fish!—Aloft there! Keep him nailed—Quick!—all hands to the rigging of the boats... I’ll ten times girdle the unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight through it, but I’ll slay him yet!”

「我的繩索！我的繩索？沒了？——沒了？那個小小的詞是什麼意思？——它裡頭敲響的，是什麼樣的喪鐘，竟讓老亞哈抖得像他自己就是那座鐘樓……它就在那魚身上！——桅頂的人！把牠死死盯住——快！——全員去裝配小艇……我要環繞這無從丈量的地球十次；對，還要筆直地潛穿它，可我終究要殺了牠！」

“Great God! but for one single instant show thyself,” cried Starbuck; “never, never wilt thou capture him, old man—In Jesus’ name no more of this, that’s worse than devil’s madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow gone—all good angels mobbing thee with warnings:—what more wouldst thou have?—Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man?... Oh, oh,—Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!”

「偉大的上帝啊！哪怕只現一現身，就一瞬，」斯塔巴克喊道；「你永遠、永遠捕不到牠的，老人家——看在耶穌的名分上，別再這樣了，這比魔鬼的瘋狂還可怕。追了兩天；兩度被撞得粉身碎骨；你的腿又一次從身下被奪走；你那邪惡的影子也沒了——所有善良的天使都簇擁著你、向你示警：——你還想要怎樣？——難道我們要一直追這條殺人的魚，直到牠把最後一個人也淹沒？……哦，哦，——再去獵牠，就是褻瀆，就是不敬神明！」

“Starbuck, of late I’ve felt strangely moved to thee... But in this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this hand—a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act’s immutably decreed. ’Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders... ’Tis Ahab—his body’s part; but Ahab’s soul’s a centipede, that moves upon a hundred legs... Believe ye, men, in the things called omens?... drowning things will twice rise to the surface; then rise again, to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dick—two days he’s floated—tomorrow will be the third. Aye, men, he’ll rise once more,—but only to spout his last!”

「斯塔巴克，近來我莫名地對你動了情……可在這頭鯨的事上，就讓你那張臉朝向我時，如同這隻手的手掌一般——一片無唇、無五官的空白吧。亞哈永遠是亞哈，老兄。這整齣戲是不可更改地註定了的。早在這海洋翻滾之前的十億年，你我就已排演過它了。傻瓜！我是命運的副官；我奉命行事……這是亞哈——是他身體的那一部分；可亞哈的靈魂是條蜈蚣，靠一百條腿行走……弟兄們，你們相信那叫做『凶兆』的東西嗎？……溺水的東西會兩度浮上水面；然後再浮起一次，便永遠沉沒。莫比敵也是如此——牠已浮了兩天——明天便是第三天。是的，弟兄們，牠會再浮起一次，——可那只是為了噴出牠最後的一口氣！」

“As fearless fire,” cried Stubb. “And as mechanical,” muttered Ahab. Then he muttered on: “The things called omens! And yesterday I talked the same to Starbuck, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I seek to drive out of others’ hearts what’s clinched so fast in mine!—The Parsee—gone, gone? and he was to go before:—but still was to be seen again ere I could perish—How’s that?—There’s a riddle now might baffle all the lawyers... like a hawk’s beak it pecks my brain. I’ll, I’ll solve it, though!” When dusk descended, the whale was still in sight to leeward.

「勇得像無畏的火，」斯塔布喊道。「也機械得像火，」亞哈咕噥道。接著他兀自喃喃下去：「那叫做『凶兆』的東西！昨天我才對斯塔巴克說過同樣的話，講我那艘破艇。哦！我竟這般英勇地，想把別人心裡那釘得鬆鬆的東西趕出去，而它在我自己心裡卻釘得這麼死！——那拜火教徒——沒了，沒了？他本該先我而去的：——可他還說過，我尚未殞命之前，會再見到他一次——這怎麼解釋？——這可是個謎，足以難倒所有律師……它像一隻鷹喙，啄著我的腦子。可我，我終究要解開它！」當暮色降臨時，那鯨仍在下風處的視野之內。

So once more the sail was shortened; only, the sound of hammers, and the hum of the grindstone was heard till nearly daylight, as the men toiled by lanterns in the rigging of the spare boats and sharpening their fresh weapons for the morrow. Meantime, of the broken keel of Ahab’s wrecked craft the carpenter made him another leg; while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.

於是船帆又一次被收短；只是，錘子的聲響、磨石的嗡鳴，一直響到天快亮，眾人就著燈籠埋頭苦幹，裝配備用的小艇、為明日磨利嶄新的武器。與此同時，木匠用亞哈那破艇的折斷龍骨，給他又做了一條腿；而亞哈仍像前一夜那樣，壓低帽子、一動不動地立在艙口；他那隱藏的、向日葵般的目光，已預先地、沿著刻度盤回轉過去；定定地朝向正東，等待那最早的一輪太陽。