英语听书《白鲸记》第1011期

（单词翻译）

Ripplingly withdrawing from his prey¹, Moby Dick now lay at a little distance, vertically² thrusting his oblong white head up and down in the billows; and at the same time slowly revolving³ his whole spindled body; so that when his vast wrinkled forehead rose — some twenty or more feet out of the water — the now rising swells⁴, with all their confluent waves, dazzlingly broke against it; vindictively⁵ tossing their shivered spray still higher into the air. So, in a gale⁶, the but half baffled Channel billows only recoil⁷ from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly⁸ to overleap its summit with their scud⁹.

莫比－迪克晃来晃去地离开了它的猎物后，就躺在不远的地方，它那长方形的白头笔直地矗立在波涛中，时隐时现；同时慢慢地转动着他那纺锤般的整个躯体。所以，等它那满是皱纹的巨额再次冒起时——高出水面约有二十多英尺——那正在往上直腾的浪潮，就象一大股洪流似的，炫眼地向它的额头冲去；它复仇似地把它那摇摇晃晃的喷水更高地朝空喷去。这就象在狂风里，那些阻塞了半个海峡的波涛之所以要从埃提斯同下面反冲过来，不过是想用它那些泡沫飞溅的浪花一举而穿过塔巅一样。

This motion is peculiar¹⁰ to the sperm¹¹ whale. It receives its designation (pitchpoling) from its being likened to that preliminary up-and-down poise¹² of the whale-lance, in the exercise called pitchpoling, previously¹³ described. By this motion the whale must best and most comprehensively view whatever objects may be encircling him.

（原注：这是抹香鲸的特有的动作。这种动作也叫做投枪，因为它象我们以前所说的在投捕鲸枪前的预备姿势——一起一伏一样。大鲸靠了这一动作，就能够把它周围的随便什么东西都一目了然地观察到了。）

But soon resuming his horizontal attitude, Moby Dick swam swiftly round and round the wrecked¹⁴ crew; sideways churning the water in his vengeful wake, as if lashing¹⁵ himself up to still another and more deadly assault. The sight of the splintered boat seemed to madden him, as the blood of grapes and mulberries cast before Antiochus's elephants in the book of Maccabees.

可是，不一会，莫比－迪克又恢复它那露出水面的平游姿态，在那些狼狈的水手四周迅疾地游来游去，用它那恶毒的尾巴斜搅着浪潮，仿佛想再进行一次更为厉害的攻击。这只粉碎的小艇，有如《马卡比父子书》中，那些抛在安泰奥卡斯的象群面前的血红的葡萄和桑莓子（伪经《马卡比父子书》第一卷第六章三十四节载：安泰奥卡斯跟马卡比和犹太人作战时，最后为了刺激象群出来，把血红的葡萄汁和桑葚汁撒在马前。），所以它一看到这般情景，顿时发起狂来。