Had you descended from the Pequod’s try-works to the Pequod’s forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping, for one single moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some illuminated shrine of canonized kings and counsellors. —
如果你从皮科德号的加工厂下到船舱，看见轮班休息的水手们在睡觉，你几乎会以为自己站在某个被封圣的国王和谋士们的明亮神龛里。 —

There they lay in their triangular oaken vaults, each mariner a chiselled muteness; —
他们躺在三角形的橡木栅门内，每个海员都像是被雕刻成了沉默的雕像； —

a score of lamps flashing upon his hooded eyes.
一排灯罩映在他蒙着的眼睛上。

In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens. —
在商船上，水手必须比皇后的奶更加珍惜油脂。 —

To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot. —
在黑暗中穿衣、进餐和向睡铺摸索，这是他的日常生活。 —

But the whaleman, as he seeks the food of light, so he lives in light. —
但捕鲸者寻找光明的食物，因此他们生活在光明中。 —

He makes his berth an Aladdin’s lamp, and lays him down in it; —
他把铺位当成一个神灯，然后躺在里面； —

so that in the pitchiest night the ship’s black hull still houses an illumination.
所以在漆黑的夜晚，船身仍然散发着一股光芒。

See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lamps–often but old bottles and vials, though–to the copper cooler at the tryworks, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat. —
请看捕鲸者如何完全自由地带着一把灯–尽管通常只是旧瓶和瓶子–到加工厂的铜冷却器那里去，然后在那里把它们装满，就像在一个小酒桶里自己给自己倒一杯麦酒。 —

He burns, too, the purest of oil, in its unmanufactured, and, therefore, unvitiated state; —
他燃烧的是最纯净的油，它还没有经过加工处理，因此不含杂质； —

a fluid unknown to solar, lunar, or astral contrivances ashore. —
这是一种在陆地上的太阳、月亮或星体装置里从未出现过的液体。 —

It is sweet as early grass butter in April. He goes and hunts for his oil, so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness, even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game.
它甚至比四月初的新鲜草黄油还要甜美。他去寻找自己的油，以确保它新鲜而地道，就像草原上的旅人自己去捕猎自己的晚餐一样。