英語聽書《白鯨記》 第261期

But, alas! the practices of whalemen soon convincedhim that even Christians could be both miserableand wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father'sheathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor; andseeing what the sailors did there; and then going onto Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wagesin that place also, poor Queequeg gave it up for lost.Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'lldie a pagan.

但是,天呀!這些捕鯨者的行動立刻就教他看出了文明人的卑鄙與邪惡;甚至比他父親治下的那些異教徒還要來得厲害。他后來到了薩格港,看到了許多水手在那邊的行為;接著又到了南塔開特,看到他們怎樣在那地方花掉他們的薪水,可憐的魁魁格認為一切完全絕望了。他想,這世界到處都是邪惡的;我還是做一輩子的異教徒吧。

And thus an old idolator at heart, he yet lived among these Christians, wore their clothes, andtried to talk their gibberish. Hence the queer ways about him, though now some time fromhome.

于是,他雖然生活在這些文明人中間,穿著他們的服裝,學(xué)說他們那種結(jié)結(jié)巴巴的話,內(nèi)心里卻依然是個偶像崇拜者。因此,雖然他已離開故鄉(xiāng)好久,卻仍有著那種古怪的生活習(xí)慣。

By hints I asked him whether he did not propose going back, and having a coronation; since hemight now consider his father dead and gone, he being very old and feeble at the lastaccounts. He answered no, not yet; and added that he was fearful Christianity, or ratherChristians, had unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty pagan Kingsbefore him. But by and by, he said, he would return,--as soon as he felt himself baptized again.For the nonce, however, he proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans.They had made a harpooneer of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a sceptre now.

因為他在最后說,他父親年紀(jì)很大,身體衰弱,我便以暗示的方法問他,既然他現(xiàn)在可能認為他父親已經(jīng)死了,他是否打算回家,去繼承他父親的王位。他回答說不,還沒有這個打算;不過他補充說,他深怕文明,或者不如說是文明人的影響,已經(jīng)使他不配登上那相承三十代的純凈無疵的異教王座了。但是,他又說,他不久還是要回去的,一到他認為自己已經(jīng)又受了一次洗禮的時候,他就立刻回去。不過,目前他打算到各處航游,到四大洋去放蕩一番。他們已經(jīng)使他成為一個標(biāo)槍手,現(xiàn)在,這支有著倒鉤的武器就是他的王笏的代替物了。