Had you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin after the squall that took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew, you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom, and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts, spread them before him on his screwed-down table. —
如果你跟随船长艾哈布进入风暴后在那夜里与船员们达成野性而坚决的协议之后，你会看到他打开舱底的一个储藏柜，并拿出一卷又大又褶的黄色海图，展开放在他固定在桌子上的表上。 —

Then seating himself before it, you would have seen him intently study the various lines and shadings which there met his eye; —
然后他坐在图表前，专心地研究眼前的各种线条和阴影。 —

and with slow but steady pencil trace additional courses over spaces that before were blank. —
他会用缓慢而坚定的铅笔在之前的空白处追加航线。 —

At intervals, he would refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein were set down the seasons and places in which, on various former voyages of various ships, sperm whales had been captured or seen.
偶尔他会查看旁边的一堆旧航海日志，上面记录了各个往年航行中捕获或遇见抹香鲸的季节和地点。

While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his head, continually rocked with the motion of the ship, and for ever threw shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till it almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts, some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead.
在这样的操作中，船舱顶上悬挂着的沉重的锡灯不停地随船的晃动而摇晃，并不断在他褶皱的额头上投下不断变换的光影，几乎让人觉得他自己在褶皱的图表上标记航线和航线时，一只看不见的铅笔也在他额头深深的图表上描绘着线条和航线。

But it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts. —
但并不是特别在这个夜晚，独自在舱内思索图表的艾哈布。 —

Almost every night they were brought out; —
几乎每个晚上都会拿出来； —

almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and others were substituted. —
几乎每个晚上都会擦去一些铅笔记号，并替换其他的。 —

For with the charts of all four oceans before him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul.
因为在所有四大洋的图表前，艾哈布正在穿越一团洋流和漩涡迷宫，以更确定地实现他灵魂中的那个疯狂的念头。

Now, to any one not fully acquainted with the ways of the leviathans, it might seem an absurdly hopeless task thus to seek out one solitary creature in the unhooped oceans of this planet. —
现在，对于不太了解鲸鱼习性的人来说，这样寻找这个星球无框海洋中的一个孤立生物似乎是一个绝望的荒谬任务。 —

But not so did it seem to Ahab, who knew the sets of all tides and currents; —
但对于艾哈布来说并非如此，他熟知所有潮汐和洋流的走向； —

and thereby calculating the driftings of the sperm whale’s food; —
并以此计算抹香鲸食物的漂移； —

and, also calling to mind the regular, ascertained seasons for hunting him in particular latitudes; —
并且回想在特定纬度狩猎他们的固定、确定季节； —

could arrive at reasonable surmises, almost approaching to certainties, concerning the timeliest day to be upon this or that ground in search of his prey.
可以推断出关于在寻找猎物的这个或那个地点最及时日子的合理猜测，几乎接近确定。

So assured, indeed, is the fact concerning the periodicalness of the sperm whale’s resorting to given waters, that many hunters believe that, could he be closely observed and studied throughout the world; —
实际上，有关抹香鲸定期在给定水域出现的事实如此确定，以至于许多猎人相信，如果他能在全球范围内被密切观察和研究； —

were the logs for one voyage of the entire whale fleet carefully collated, then the migrations of the sperm whale would be found to correspond in invariability to those of the herring-shoals or the flights of swallows. —
如果整支鲸群的一次航行日志被仔细整理，那么抹香鲸的迁徙将会发现与鲱鱼群或燕子的飞行具有不变性一致性。 —

On this hint, attempts have been made to construct elaborate migratory charts of the sperm whale.*
根据这个提示，人们已经尝试制作了复杂的抹香鲸迁徙图。

*Since the above was written, the statement is happily borne out by an official circular, issued by Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, Washington, April 16th, 1851. —
自上述内容写出后，幸运的是，一份由国家观测台的Mauryn上尉于1851年4月16日发布的官方通告证实了这一说法。 —

By that circular, it appears that precisely such a chart is in course of completion; —
根据该通告，一份正好正在制作中的类似图表； —

and portions of it are presented in the circular. —
部分内容呈现在该通告中。 —

“This chart divides the ocean into districts of five degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude; —
“这份图将海洋分为每个五度纬度和五度经度的区域； —

perpendicularly through each of which districts are twelve columns for the twelve months; —
每个区域内都有十二列代表十二个月； —

and horizontally through each of which districts are three lines; —
每个区域内横向有三条线； —

one to show the number of days that have been spent in each month in every district, and the two others to show the number of days in which whales, sperm or right, have been seen.”
一条用于显示每个月在每个区域内花费的时间，另外两条则显示鲸鱼，无论是抹香鲸还是露脊鲸，出现的天数。”

Besides, when making a passage from one feeding-ground to another, the sperm whales, guided by some infallible instinct–say, rather, secret intelligence from the Deity–mostly swim in veins, as they are called; —
此外，当从一个觅食场地前往另一个时，抹香鲸受某种不可辜负的本能引导 - 更确切地说，是来自神的秘密情报 - 大多会游动在所谓的血管中； —

continuing their way along a given ocean-line with such undeviating exactitude, that no ship ever sailed her course, by any chart, with one tithe of such marvellous precision. —
以一种非常准确的方式沿着给定的海洋线前进，没有任何船只曾经依赖任何图表以十分之一的奇妙精确度航行。 —

Though, in these cases, the direction taken by any one whale be straight as a surveyor’s parallel, and though the line of advance be strictly confined to its own unavoidable, straight wake, yet the arbitrary vein in which at these times he is said to swim, generally embraces some few miles in width (more or less, as the vein is presumed to expand or contract); —
尽管，在这些情况下，任何一头鲸走的方向如同测量员的平行线一样直，且前进的直线严格限定在其不可避免的直线轨迹上，但是这些时候他所说的游泳的任意血管，通常贯穿些许宽度的几英里（或小或大，因为血管通常认为扩展或收缩）； —

but never exceeds the visual sweep from the whale-ship’s mast-heads, when circumspectly gliding along this magic zone. —
但是从抹香鲸船椅的桅顶朝着这个神奇区域顺着谨慎滑行时，从未超过视觉范围。 —

The sum is, that at particular seasons within that breadth and along that path, migrating whales may with great confidence be looked for.
总的来说，在特定季节和沿着这个路径的范围内，迁徙鲸鱼可以非常有把握地寻找到。

And hence not only at substantiated times, upon well known separate feeding-grounds, could Ahab hope to encounter his prey; —
因此不仅在已知的独立觅食地点的一些被证实的时间，Ahab可以希望遇到他的猎物； —

but in crossing the widest expanses of water between those grounds he could, by his art, so place and time himself on his way, as even then not to be wholly without prospect of a meeting.
但是在穿越着他能够的最宽广水域时，通过他的艺术，他可以在路上选择合适的时间和位置，即使那时仍有可能遇见。

There was a circumstance which at first sight seemed to entangle his delirious but still methodical scheme. —
有一个看起来开始混乱他的神志错乱但仍有条理的计划的情况。 —

But not so in the reality, perhaps. Though the gregarious sperm whales have their regular seasons for particular grounds, yet in general you cannot conclude that the herds which haunted such and such a latitude or longitude this year, say, will turn out to be identically the same with those that were found there the preceding season; —
但在现实中也许并非如此。尽管群居的抹香鲸有它们常规的逗留地的季节，但通常你不能得出结论，今年在特定纬度或经度出现的鲸群将与上一季发现的完全相同； —

though there are peculiar and unquestionable instances where the contrary of this has proved true. —
尽管有明确且无可置疑的例外情况证明了相反的情况。 —

In general, the same remark, only within a less wide limit, applies to the solitaries and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales. —
总的来说，同样的评论，只是在更狭窄的范围内，适用于成熟的孤立抹香鲸。 —

So that though Moby Dick had in a former year been seen, for example, on what is called the Seychelle ground in the Indian ocean, or Volcano Bay on the Japanese Coast; —
所以虽然白鲸白鲸在前一年曾在印度洋的所谓塞舌尔区或日本海岸的火山湾被发现过； —

yet it did not follow that were the Pequod to visit either of those spots at any subsequent corresponding season, she would infallibly encounter him there. —
但这并不意味着Pequod号在随后的相应季节访问任何这些地点时，就必然会在那里遇到它。 —

So, too, with some other feeding-grounds, where he had at times revealed himself. —
同样，在其他一些进食地点，他有时也露面。 —

But all these seemed only his casual stopping-places and ocean-inns, so to speak, not his places of prolonged abode. —
但所有这些似乎只是他偶然的临时停留地和海洋客栈，可以这么说，并不是他长时间居住的地方。 —

And where Ahab’s chances of accomplishing his object have hitherto been spoken of, allusion has only been made to whatever way-side, antecedent, extra prospects were his, ere a particular set time or place were attained, when all possibilities would become probabilities, and, as Ahab fondly thought, every possibility the next thing to a certainty. —
而在先前谈到Ahab实现他目标的机会时，已经提到了他所拥有的任何路边的，先前的额外前景，直到特定的时间或地点达到时，所有可能性都将变为可能性，正如Ahab所痴心妄想的那样，每一个可能性都接近确定性。 —

That particular set time and place were conjoined in the one technical phrase–the Season-on-the-Line. For there and then, for several consecutive years, Moby Dick had been periodically descried, lingering in those waters for awhile, as the sun, in its annual round, loiters for a predicted interval in any one sign of the Zodiac. —
那个特定的时间和地点在一个技术短语中被结合起来–在赤道线上的季节。 因为在那里，在连续几年的时间里，人们周期性地发现了Moby Dick，在那些水域逗留了一段时间，就像太阳在其年度环行中在黄道十二宫中任何一个星座中预定的间隔中徘徊一样。 —

There it was, too, that most of the deadly encounters with the white whale had taken place; —
在那里，大部分与白鲸的致命遭遇发生了； —

there the waves were storied with his deeds; —
那里的海浪被他的行为故事化； —

there also was that tragic spot where the monomaniac old man had found the awful motive to his vengeance. —
那也是一个悲剧性的地点，一个疯狂的老人为了他的复仇找到了可怕的动机。 —

But in the cautious comprehensiveness and unloitering vigilance with which Ahab threw his brooding soul into this unfaltering hunt, he would not permit himself to rest all his hopes upon the one crowning fact above mentioned, however flattering it might be to those hopes; —
但是在Ahab将他沉思的灵魂投入这个毫不动摇的追猎中时的谨慎的包容性和不懈的警惕中，他不会将所有的希望都寄托在上述所提的那个最为重要的事实上，尽管这个事实对于那些希望来说可能是令人鼓舞的； —

nor in the sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillize his unquiet heart as to postpone all intervening quest.
然而，即使在他的誓言中失眠，他也无法平静他不安的心，以至于推迟一切干扰的追求。

Now, the Pequod had sailed from Nantucket at the very beginning of the Season-on-the-Line. No possible endeavor then could enable her commander to make the great passage southwards, double Cape Horn, and then running down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the equatorial Pacific in time to cruise there. —
现在，佩克德号在季风航线开始时就从南泰晤士河启航了。那时任何努力也不能让她的指挥官完成南方的重要航行，绕过好望角，然后沿着六十度纬线向南航行，及时到达赤道太平洋进行巡航。 —

Therefore, he must wait for the next ensuing season. —
因此，他必须等待接下来的季节。 —

Yet the premature hour of the Pequod’s sailing had, perhaps, been correctly selected by Ahab, with a view to this very complexion of things. —
然而，佩克德号提前启航的时机，或许确实是由艾哈布明智选择的，考虑到了这个状况。 —

Because, an interval of three hundred and sixty-five days and nights was before him; —
因为，在他面前有三百六十五天和夜晚的间隔； —

an interval which, instead of impatiently enduring ashore, he would spend in a miscellaneous hunt; —
这段间隔，他不会在陆地上焦躁地等待，而会在各种各样的狩猎中度过； —

if by chance the White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote from his periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his wrinkled brow off the Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay, or China Seas, or in any other waters haunted by his race. —
如果白鲸碰巧在距其定期觅食地遥远的海域度假，可能会出现在波斯湾、孟加拉湾、中国海或其他常有其族群出没的水域。 —

So that Monsoons, Pampas, Nor-Westers, Harmattans, Trades; —
所以，东北季风、潘帕斯风、西北风、哈马班风、贸易风； —

any wind but the Levanter and Simoon, might blow Moby Dick into the devious zig-zag world-circle of the Pequod’s circumnavigating wake.
任何风吹向，除了利瓦特风和沙漠风，都可能把白鲸鲸吹到佩克德号的绕行轨迹上。

But granting all this; yet, regarded discreetly and coolly, seems it not but a mad idea, this; —
但即使承认了这一切；然而，从理智和冷静的角度来看，这难道不是一个疯狂的想法吗； —

that in the broad boundless ocean, one solitary whale, even if encountered, should be thought capable of individual recognition from his hunter, even as a white-bearded Mufti in the thronged thoroughfares of Constantinople? —
在广阔无垠的海洋中，一个孤独的鲸鱼，即使遇到了，也应能被其猎人个别认出吗，就像在君士坦丁堡拥挤的大街上的白胡须的穆夫提一样？ —

Yes. For the peculiar snow-white brow of Moby Dick, and his snow-white hump, could not but be unmistakable. —
是的。因为白鲸的独特的雪白色额和雪白色背部，无可置疑。 —

And have I not tallied the whale, Ahab would mutter to himself, as after poring over his charts till long after midnight he would throw himself back in reveries–tallied him, and shall he escape? —
我记过这头鲸，艾哈布会对自己喃喃自语，深夜翻阅着海图后，他会陷入思索之中——记过他，他会逃到哪里去？ —

His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep’s ear! —
他那宽阔的鳍被钻孔，像一只丢失耳朵的绵羊一样！ —

And here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; —
于是，他疯狂的思绪会在呼吸急促的竞赛中继续奔驰； —

till a weariness and faintness of pondering came over him! —
直到他感到疲倦和昏厥！ —

and in the open air of the deck he would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God! —
在甲板上的空气中，他试图恢复体力。啊，上帝！ —

what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; —
那个被一个未实现的复仇欲望所消耗的人受尽折磨的恍惚。他睡觉时握紧双手； —

and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.
醒来时，掌心都是自己的鲜血指甲。

Often, when forced from his hammock by exhausting and intolerably vivid dreams of the night, which, resuming his own intense thoughts through the day, carried them on amid a clashing of phrensies, and whirled them round and round and round in his blazing brain, till the very throbbing of his life-spot became insufferable anguish; —
经常，由于夜晚那些导致他从吊床上醒来的极为激烈和无法忍受的梦境，这些梦境承接白天他激烈的思想，使他在狂热中打转，头脑燃烧，他的生命点的悸动变成了难以忍受的痛苦； —

and when, as was sometimes the case, these spiritual throes in him heaved his being up from its base, and a chasm seemed opening in him, from which forked flames and lightnings shot up, and accursed fiends beckoned him to leap down among them; —
当这种心灵上的折磨让他从基座上升起，一条裂缝似乎在他身上开启，从中喷出分叉的火焰和闪电，邪恶的魔鬼招手让他跳下去时； —

when this hell in himself yawned beneath him, a wild cry would be heard through the ship; —
当这个地狱在他身下张开时，船上会传来一声野蛮的哭声； —

and with glaring eyes Ahab would burst from his state room, as though escaping from a bed that was on fire. —
阿哈伯带着发狂的眼睛从自己的客舱里冲出来，仿佛从一张着火的床上逃出来。 —

Yet these, perhaps, instead of being the unsuppressable symptoms of some latent weakness, or fright at his own resolve, were but the plainest tokens of its intensity. —
然而，这些也许不是某种潜在弱点或对自己决心感到恐惧的无法控制的症状，而只是其强烈性的最明显标志。 —

For, at such times, crazy Ahab, the scheming, unappeasedly steadfast hunter of the white whale; —
因为，在这种时候，那个疯狂的阿哈伯，那个专注而坚定地追捕白鲸的阿哈伯； —

this Ahab that had gone to his hammock, was not the agent that so caused him to burst from it in horror again. —
这个去睡觉的阿哈伯并不是导致他再次惊恐地冲出来的代理人。 —

The latter was the eternal, living principle or soul in him; —
后者是他内心的永恒、活生生的原则或灵魂； —

and in sleep, being for the time dissociated from the characterizing mind, which at other times employed it for its outer vehicle or agent, it spontaneously sought escape from the scorching contiguity of the frantic thing, of which, for the time, it was no longer an integral. —
在睡眠中，暂时与在其他时候将其用作自身外在载体或代理人的带有特征的心智分离时，它会自发地试图逃离与疯狂事物的灼热接触，因为在此时，它不再是一个完整的整体。 —

But as the mind does not exist unless leagued with the soul, therefore it must have been that, in Ahab’s case, yielding up all his thoughts and fancies to his one supreme purpose; —
但由于心智如果不与灵魂合作就不存在，因此在阿哈伯的案例中，所有的思想和幻想都臣服于他唯一的至高目标； —

that purpose, by its own sheer inveteracy of will, forced itself against gods and devils into a kind of self-assumed, independent being of its own. —
这个目标凭借其意志的顽强自观性，迫使自己对抗众神和魔鬼，进入一种自行承担、独立存在的状态。 —

Nay, could grimly live and burn, while the common vitality to which it was conjoined, fled horror-stricken from the unbidden and unfathered birth. —
不，它会冷酷地存在和燃烧，而与之相连的普通活力却惊恐地逃离这个未被邀请和未被生育的孩子。 —

Therefore, the tormented spirit that glared out of bodily eyes, when what seemed Ahab rushed from his room, was for the time but a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic being, a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an object to color, and therefore a blankness in itself. —
因此，当看起来是艾哈伯冲出房间时，从身体眼睛里瞪视出来的折磨灵魂，那只是一个被放弃的东西，一个无形的梦游者，一个确实是活着的光芒，但没有颜色的对象，因此在自身中是一种空白。 —

God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; —
上帝帮助你，老人，你的思想在你心中创造了一个生物； —

and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; —
他的深思熟虑使他成为普罗米修斯； —

a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; —
一只秃鹰永远在啄食那颗心； —

that vulture the very creature he creates.
那只秃鹰正是他所创造的生物。