英语听书《白鲸记》第904期

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and, as for Queequeg himself, what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favor he asked. 至于魁魁格自己呢，究竟他对于自己的病情怎么想法，这从他请人帮他一个古怪的忙就充分地表现出来了。

He called one to him in the grey morning watch, when the day was just breaking, 在灰蒙蒙的晨班时分，他要一个人到他跟前去，当时天刚刚破晓，

and taking his hand, said that while in Nantucket he had chanced to see certain little canoes of dark wood, like the rich war-wood of his native isle¹; 魁魁格抓住那人的手说：他从前在南塔开特的时候，有一回，偶然看到一只用黑木头做的小独木舟，样子就跟他家乡作战用的厚重的木棍相仿佛；

and upon inquiry², he had learned that all whalemen who died in Nantucket, were laid in those same dark canoes, 他问了人家后，才知道所有死在南塔开特的捕鲸人，都被放在那种黑色的独木舟里，

and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him; for it was not unlike the custom of his own race, who, 他说，他一想到自己如果也那么地被放在里边，他就很高兴；因为，这就跟他自己的种族的习俗没有什么不同了。他们那个种族，

after embalming³ a dead warrior⁴, stretched him out in his canoe, and so left him to be floated away to the starry⁵ archipelagoes; 把一个死了的武士抹了香油后，把他直挺挺地放进了独木舟里，

for not only do they believe that the stars are isles⁶, 听他漂泛到满天星斗的群岛那里去；

but that far beyond all visible horizons, their own mild, uncontinented seas, interflow with the blue heavens; 因为他们不但相信星星就是群岛，而且认为那些一望无涯的水平线，就是他们自己那个柔和而无法控制的、跟蓝天合而为一的大海，

and so form the white breakers of the milky⁷ way. 而且就此形成银河似的滔滔白浪。

He added, that he shuddered⁸ at the thought of being buried in his hammock, according to the usual sea-custom, 接着他又说，他一想到自己要葬身在他这只吊铺里，不禁浑身打颤，因为按照通常的海上习俗，

tossed like something vile⁹ to the death-devouring sharks. 人们会象什么讨厌的东西一般把他给抛到海里死了，让那些贪婪的鲨鱼大啖一顿。

No: he desired a canoe like those of Nantucket, 不！他希望有一只象南塔开特人那样的独木舟，

all the more congenial to him, being a whaleman, that like a whale-boat these coffin-canoes were without a keel; 而且因为他是个捕鲸人，最使他适意的，就是这种棺材式的独木舟会象一只捕鲸小艇一样，也是没有龙骨的；

though that involved but uncertain steering¹⁰, and much lee-way adown the dim ages. 而没有龙骨就自然不好把舵，更容易往后驶到浑沌的境界去。

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