Chapter 133 The Chase — First Day
第一百三十三章 追擊——第一天
That night, in the mid-watch when the old man — as his wont at intervals — stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot-hole, he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing up the sea air as a sagacious ship's dog will, in drawing nigh to some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale must be near. Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given forth by the living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch; nor was any mariner surprised when, after inspecting the compass, and then the dog-vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing of the odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened.
那天夜里,夜班時分,這個老人——他總是隔不多久就上來——從他倚著的小艙口跨了出來,走到他那鏇孔去時,他突然兇巴巴地把臉向前一沖,猛吸一下海上的空氣,象條船上的伶俐的狗,在駛近什么蠻荒的島嶼時那樣。他宣稱附近一定有條鯨。不一會,所有的值班人都聞到那股特別的氣味,那股時常是活的抹香鯨在老遠發(fā)出來的氣味。等到檢查過羅盤針,又看一看風信器,再盡可能地肯定那氣味的確切方向后,水手們都不覺得奇怪了,亞哈迅速下令,略轉(zhuǎn)航向,收縮風帆。
The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil, and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it, the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide-rip, at the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.
發(fā)布這些行動的精明措施,到了黎明時分,便完全得到證實,因為在正前方的海上,已出現(xiàn)了一片筆直而長長的、象油一般滑的景色,而且在它周圍還好象有打褶的漣漪,象在一條深澈的急流的出口,那種锃亮的金器般的湍急的浪潮那樣。
Man the mast-heads! Call all hands!
準備爬上桅頂!把大家都召攏來!
Thundering with the butts of three clubbed handspikes on the forecastle deck, Daggoo roused the sleepers with such judgment claps that they seemed to exhale from the scuttle, so instantaneously did they appear with their clothes in their hands.
大個兒拿起三根木槌柄,象打雷般敲著船頭樓,把所有睡著的人都敲醒來,這樣天雷般的轟擊聲,弄得大家都象是從小艙口里給轟了出來,手里拿著衣服,一涌而出。