英语听书《白鲸记》第1006期

（单词翻译）

Like noiseless nautilus shells, their light prows¹ sped through the sea; but only slowly they neared the foe². As they neared him, the ocean grew still more smooth; seemed drawing a carpet over its waves; seemed a noon-meadow, so serenely³ it spread. At length the breathless hunter came so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey⁴, that his entire dazzling hump was distinctly visible, sliding along the sea as if an isolated⁵ thing, and continually set in a revolving⁶ ring of finest, fleecy, greenish foam⁷. He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turkish-rugged waters, went the glistening⁸ white shadow from his broad, milky⁹ forehead, a musical rippling¹⁰ playfully accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake; and on either hand bright bubbles arose and danced by his side. But these were broken again by the light toes of hundreds of gay fowls¹¹ softly feathering the sea, alternate with their fitful flight; and like to some flag-staff rising from the painted hull¹² of an argosy, the tall but shattered pole of a recent lance projected from the white whale's back; and at intervals¹³ one of the cloud of soft-toed fowls hovering¹⁴, and to and fro skimming like a canopy¹⁵ over the fish, silently perched and rocked on this pole, the long tail feathers streaming like pennons.

三只小艇的轻快的艇头，象无声无息的鹦鹉螺壳般穿过海面疾驰而去；只有等到接近仇敌时，这才放缓下来。到他们划近它的时候，洋面显得更其光滑，好象浪潮上面铺了张地毡；好象午刻时分的草原，一片静穆。最后，这个屏声弃息的猎人已非常迫近他那似乎是无可置疑的猎物了，连它那光闪辉煌的整个背峰也清晰可见，仿佛是件孤寂的东西，一面在海洋上悄悄荡去，一面不断地喷出一圈圈最精致的、羊毛似的、碧绿色的泡沫来。猎人看到了远处有只稍微突出的头，非常大、皱纹百结。在那只头前面，远在那片柔滑如土耳其地毡的海上，映照出它那阔大、乳白色额头的闪闪发光的白影，一阵乐声回旋似的涟漪正伴着那影子在嬉戏着；在后边，蔚蓝的海水交替地流过来，流进了它那滚动的溪谷般的稳定的裂尾里；璀璨的水泡在它两旁腾起跳跃。可是，这些水泡又被点缀在海上的许多偶尔惊惶起飞的灰鸟的细爪搅散了；而且，象只金碧辉煌的大商船上升起一支旗杆似的，这只白鲸背上矗立有一支新近插进的捕鲸枪，枪杆子高高地晃来晃去；时不时地，白云密布似的一群软爪野鸟，一会儿在展翅高飞，象是顶在这条鲸身上的华盖一般，掠过来又掠过去，一会儿又悄悄地栖止在这根杆子上，长尾巴象枪旗般飘扬不息。