尾聲

The drama’s done. Why then here does any one step forth?—Because one did survive the wreck.

戲，已經落幕了。那麼，這裡又何以有人站出來呢？——因為，畢竟有一個人，從那場沉船中生還了。

It so chanced, that after the Parsee’s disappearance, I was he whom the Fates ordained to take the place of Ahab’s bowsman, when that bowsman assumed the vacant post; the same, who, when on the last day the three men were tossed from out of the rocking boat, was dropped astern. So, floating on the margin of the ensuing scene, and in full sight of it, when the half-spent suction of the sunk ship reached me, I was then, but slowly, drawn towards the closing vortex. When I reached it, it had subsided to a creamy pool. Round and round, then, and ever contracting towards the button-like black bubble at the axis of that slowly wheeling circle, like another Ixion I did revolve. Till, gaining that vital centre, the black bubble upward burst; and now, liberated by reason of its cunning spring, and, owing to its great buoyancy, rising with great force, the coffin life-buoy shot lengthwise from the sea, fell over, and floated by my side. Buoyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirge-like main. The unharming sharks, they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths; the savage sea-hawks sailed with sheathed beaks. On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

事情就這麼湊巧：在那拜火教徒消失之後，命運偏偏指派了「我」，去頂替亞哈艇上那名槳手的位置——當那槳手接補了空出的職位時；也正是「我」，在最後一天那三個人被甩出搖晃的小艇時，落在了艇後。於是，「我」漂浮在那隨之而來的場景的邊緣，將它盡收眼底；當那沉船已耗去大半的吸力捲到「我」身上時，「我」便緩緩地、被拉向那正在閉合的漩渦。等「我」抵達它時，它已平息成一汪乳白的水潭。「我」便一圈又一圈地，朝著那緩緩旋轉的圓圈軸心、那枚鈕釦般的黑色氣泡，不斷收緊地打轉，像另一個伊克西翁那樣旋轉著。直到「我」抵達那生命的中心，那黑色氣泡驀地向上爆開；而此刻，那具棺材改成的救生浮筒，憑著那巧妙的彈簧得以鬆脫、又仗著它極大的浮力，猛地、以巨大的力道升起，縱身從海裡彈射而出，翻了個身，浮到了「我」的身旁。「我」便靠那口棺材托著，在一片柔軟而如輓歌般的大海上，漂了將近一整個晝夜。那些鯊魚從身旁游過卻不傷「我」，彷彿牠們的嘴上都上了鎖；那些兇野的海鷹掠空而過，喙也像收進了鞘。到了第二天，一張帆駛近了，再近些，終於把「我」救了起來。那是一路迂迴巡弋、搜尋著的拉結號——她在回頭尋找自己失蹤孩子的途中，卻只尋到了另一個孤兒。