英语听书《白鲸记》第541期

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　　he indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra, ripening¹ his apricot thigh² upon the sunny deck. 懒散地驾着一叶扁舟，公开地跟他那双颊赤红的克莉奥佩屈拉（克莉奥佩屈拉——埃及女皇，恺撒的情妇，恺撒死后又与罗马另一执政安东尼相爱。这里的“双颊赤红”指她有印第安血统和太阳所晒的缘故。）调情，在阳光洋溢的甲板上把他的大腿晒成杏色。

　　But ashore³, all this effeminacy is dashed. 可是，一上了岸，所有这种柔弱气质就全告消失。

　　The brigandish guise⁴ which the Canaller so proudly sports; his slouched and gaily-ribboned hat betoken⁵ his grand features.  运河船的水手那么洋洋得意地夸示出来的强盗风度，他那花哨地镶了边的垂边帽子就显示出了他的堂皇的相貌。

　　A terror to the smiling innocence⁶ of the villages through which he floats; 当他划船泛过村庄的时候，可教那些嬉笑无邪的村人大吃一惊，

　　his swart visage and bold swagger are not unshunned in cities. 他那副黑黝黝的相貌和冒冒失失、昂首阔步的姿态，也不是不会使城里人望而生畏的。

　　Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received good turns from one of these Canallers; 有一回，我流浪在他们的运河上，我领承了其中一个运河船的水手的好意；

　　I thank him heartily⁷; would fain be not ungrateful; but it is often one of the prime redeeming⁸ qualities of your man of violence,  我真衷心感激；可真是并不是不领情的；不过你们这些好使暴力的人，却往往有一种最为可取的特质，

　　that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger in a strait, as to plunder⁹ a wealthy one.  那就是，济危扶弱和劫富济贫，往往都得使用铁腕。

　　In sum, gentlemen, what the wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; 总的说起来，诸位先生，这种运河生活究竟是狂暴到什么程度，从这一点就可获得有力的证明了；

　　that our wild whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates, and that scarce any race of mankind, 在我们的野蛮的捕鲸业中，就有这么许多运河人的最优秀的毕业生，

　　except Sydney men, are so much distrusted by our whaling captains. 但是，除了悉特尼人以外，从来没有任何一个人种，曾受到我们的捕鲸船船长们那么不信任。

　　Nor does it at all diminish the curiousness of this matter, that to many thousands of our rural boys and young men born along its line,  不过，这并不完全会减少这事情的稀奇性，因为在我们成千上万的、在这一带生长的农村男女看来，

　　the probationary¹⁰ life of the Grand Canal furnishes the sole transition between quietly reaping in a Christian¹¹ corn-field, 大运河的见习性的生活，就是在基督徒的麦田里太太平平地收割，

　　and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric seas. 和在最蛮荒的海里不顾一切地耕耘这两件事情间起了唯一的桥梁作用。

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