英语听书《白鲸记》第855期

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　　touching² the probable quantity of stock-fish, etc, consumed by every Low Dutch harpooneer in that ancient Greenland and Spitzbergen whale fishery. 想计算出在先前格陵兰和斯匹次卑尔根群岛的捕鲸业中，每个荷兰标枪手的消耗量来。

　　In the first place, the amount of butter, and Texel and Leyden cheese consumed, seems amazing. 首先，就所消耗的牛油，泰克塞尔和来顿奶酪的数量说来，似乎就颇为惊人。

　　I impute³ it, though, to their naturally unctuous⁴ natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation⁵, 不过，我认为这是他们天生爱好吃油的缘故，而且也更进一步地考虑到他们那行业的性质就是油腻腻的，

　　and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid⁶ Polar Seas, 尤其是他们都在那种严寒的北极地带，

　　on the very coasts of that Esquimaux country where the convivial⁷ natives pledge each other in bumpers⁸ of train oil. 在那个爱斯基摩的沿海地方，追击猎物，在那里，那些快活的土人，就是经常彼此用满杯的鲸油来干杯的。

　　The quantity of the beer, too, is very large, 10,800 barrels. 啤酒的数量，一万零八百桶，也是十分可观。

　　Now, as those polar fisheries could only be prosecuted⁹ in the short summer of that climate, 由于那些北极捕鱼业只能在那地方的短促夏季中活动，

　　so that the whole cruise of one of these Dutch whalemen, including the short voyage to and from the Spitzbergen sea, 所以，一只荷兰捕鲸船的整个巡游期间，包括到斯匹次卑尔根群岛的短促的来回航程，

　　did not much exceed three months, say, and reckoning 30 men to each of their fleet of 180 sail, we have 5,400 Low Dutch seamen¹⁰ in all; 总是不大会超过三个月，假定这一百八十艘船，算它每艘船有三十个人，那么，总共便是五千四百个荷兰捕鲸人了；

　　therefore, I say, we have precisely¹¹ two barrels of beer per man, for a twelve weeks' allowance, exclusive of his fair proportion of that 550 ankers of gin. 因此，我说，正好是每个人摊到二桶啤酒（十二个星期的饮量），还不包括那数量相当可观的五百五十安克杜松子酒在内。

　　Now, whether these gin and beer harpooneers, so fuddled as one might fancy them to have been, 这就不免叫人对他们发生怀疑了，究竟这些把杜松子酒和啤酒喝得这么泥醉的标枪手，

　　were the right sort of men to stand up in a boat's head, and take good aim at flying whales; this would seem somewhat improbable. 是否会神清志爽地站在艇头上，瞄得准那如飞的大鲸的目标，看来这好象有点不大可能。

　　Yet they did aim at them, and hit them too. 然而，他们的确不仅都瞄准了目标，而且还都中了的。

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