蒂尔达·斯文顿 | 朗读《白鲸记》（下）

Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about--however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way-- either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.

由此看来，不管那些老船长们如何把我呼来唤去——如何把我推来搡去，我仍然可以对自己说，这算不得什么，从而感到自慰，要知道所有其余的人谁又不是彼此差不多一样地在奔走呢——这是说，无论从实体上还是从形而上学的眼光来看都是如此。所以说，这样你推搡我，我推搡他，一个个推下去，普天下摩肩接踵，彼此彼此，从而大家悠然自得。

Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay. And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid.

再者，我每次出海都是当水手，还图个他们照例要付我钱来报答我的辛苦；而当乘客，我从来没听说他们付过一个子儿。恰恰相反，乘客自己得掏钱。一个掏钱，一个拿钱，两者之间，天差地别。

The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid,-- what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

掏出钱去这个动作怕是由于那两个果园里的小偷犯了天条，才害得我们遭这最不舒心的罪了。而拿钱——有什么比得了这个？一个人斯斯文文地从别人手里拿到钱，那真叫痛快；想想看，我们万分恳切相信钱财是世上一切弊病的根源；随你怎么说，财主是进不了天堂的。啊！咱们是多么高高兴兴地把自己送进地狱去啊！

Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck. For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle.

最后，我每次出海都是当水手，还为的是那船头楼甲板上的有益健康的运动和洁净的空气。因为在这个世界上，顶风的时候远比风从船艄吹来的时候多。只是有一条，你千万不可违反毕达哥拉斯的箴言，所以司令官待在后甲板上，他呼吸的气息多半就是在船头楼里水手们排泄出来的。

He thinks he breathes it first; but not so. In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it. But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage; this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way-- he can better answer than any one else.

司令以为空气首先到他那里，其实不然。在别的许多事情上，平民百姓也大抵领先于他们的领袖，而领袖们极少有猜想到这一点的。可是在多次当商船水手在船头闻惯了海的气息之后，我怎么会起了上一次捕鲸船的念头来的呢；那就要问命运诸神手下那位随时监督着我，偷偷跟踪我又莫名其妙地影响着我的隐身警官，他可以对此做出比任何其他人更好的回答。

And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. "WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL." "BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN."

毫无疑问，我这次出海捕鲸乃是老天爷许久以前就已一手策划好的宏图的一部分。它是两场范围更大的演出之间的一个短插曲，一出独角戏。我觉得这一节在海报上是这样登的：“轰动全国的美利坚总统竞选；一个名叫以实玛利的人出海捕鲸；阿富汗爆发一场大血战”。

Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces-- though I cannot tell why this was exactly.

虽然我说不上来，为什么作为舞台监督的命运诸神要让我充当出海捕鲸这寒碜角色，而派别人在堂堂正正的悲剧中演可歌可泣的角色，在高雅喜剧中演简短轻松的角色，在闹剧中演叫人笑破肚皮的角色——虽然其中的确切原因，我说不上来。

Yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.

但是如今我把所有情景重温了一遍，自觉多少看穿了其中在我眼前出现时经过种种巧妙的伪装的奥妙和动因，它们除了用甜言蜜语骗得我以为上船捕鲸是我自个儿不存偏见的自由意志和极有眼力的判断所作出的选择之外，还引得我自行粉墨登场演那一个角色。

Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish.

动因中首先是那头大鲸本身，它叫人一想起来就热血沸腾。这样一头凶猛异常而又神秘莫测的怪物激起了我多大的好奇心啊。其次，是那浩渺无际、远在天边的大海，而这怪物就在其中腾跃翻滚它那岛屿一般的身躯；还有那大鲸造成的无从解救、说不出名堂的危险；此外便是随之而来的巴塔哥尼亚式的千奇百怪的景色和声音；所有这些都促成我的愿望产生。

With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be social with it--would they let me--since it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in.

也许换了另外一些人，这些东西都不足以使之动心；不过在我，天涯海角的东西使我心痒难熬，无时或已。我爱在惊涛骇浪的海上航行，登上蛮荒的彼岸。我既不会对好人好事视而不见，对怪异可怖的人事也很快便能辨明，而且还能与之交往——只要对方让我与之交往；因为一个人既在一地栖留，上策是和这一地的人友好相处。

By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.

由于这些原因，这一次出海捕鲸是我求之不得的事；这一神奇世界的大闸已经砉然打开，在促使我作此打算的那些狂想之下，无穷尽的鲸鱼便列阵游进了我的灵魂深处，而在这一切之中，宛如一座雪山跃在空中的是一个仿佛戴着风帽的鬼魅般的庞然大物。