Days, weeks passed, and under easy sail, the ivory Pequod had slowly swept across four several cruising-grounds; that off the Azores; off the Cape1 de Verdes; on the Plate (so called), being off the mouth of the Rio de la Plata; and the Carrol Ground, an unstaked, watery2 locality, southerly from St. Helena.
It was while gliding3 through these latter waters that one serene4 and moonlight night, when all the waves rolled by like scrolls5 of silver; and, by their soft, suffusing6 seethings, made what seemed a silvery silence, not a solitude7; on such a silent night a silvery jet was seen far in advance of the white bubbles at the bow. Lit up by the moon, it looked celestial8; seemed some plumed9 and glittering god uprising from the sea. Fedallah first descried10 this jet. For of these moonlight nights, it was his wont11 to mount to the main-mast head, and stand a look-out there, with the same precision as if it had been day. And yet, though herds12 of whales were seen by night, not one whaleman in a hundred would venture a lowering for them. You may think with what emotions, then, the seamen13 beheld14 this old Oriental perched aloft at such unusual hours; his turban and the moon, companions in one sky. But when, after spending his uniform interval15 there for several successive nights without uttering a single sound; when, after all this silence, his unearthly voice was heard announcing that silvery, moon-lit jet, every reclining mariner16 started to his feet as if some winged spirit had lighted in the rigging, and hailed the mortal crew. "There she blows!" Had the trump17 of judgment18 blown, they could not have quivered more; yet still they felt no terror; rather pleasure. For though it was a most unwonted hour, yet so impressive was the cry, and so deliriously19 exciting, that almost every soul on board instinctively20 desired a lowering.
Walking the deck with quick, side-lunging strides, Ahab commanded the t'gallant sails and royals to be set, and every stunsail spread. The best man in the ship must take the helm. Then, with every mast-head manned, the piled-up craft rolled down before the wind. The strange, upheaving, lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows of so many sails, made the buoyant, hovering21 deck to feel like air beneath the feet; while still she rushed along, as if two antagonistic22 influences were struggling in her--one to mount direct to heaven, the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal. And had you watched Ahab's face that night, you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring. While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked. But though the ship so swiftly sped, and though from every eye, like arrows, the eager glances shot, yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night. Every sailor swore he saw it once, but not a second time.
This midnight-spout23 had almost grown a forgotten thing, when, some days after, lo! at the same silent hour, it was again announced: again it was descried by all; but upon making sail to overtake it, once more it disappeared as if it had never been. And so it served us night after night, till no one heeded24 it but to wonder at it. Mysteriously jetted into the clear moonlight, or starlight, as the case might be; disappearing again for one whole day, or two days, or three; and somehow seeming at every distinct repetition to be advancing still further and further in our van, this solitary25 jet seemed for ever alluring26 us on.
Nor with the immemorial superstition27 of their race, and in accordance with the preternaturalness, as it seemed, which in many things invested the Pequod, were there wanting some of the seamen who swore that whenever and wherever descried; at however remote times, or in however far apart latitudes28 and longitudes29, that unnearable spout was cast by one selfsame whale; and that whale, Moby Dick. For a time, there reigned30, too, a sense of peculiar31 dread32 at this flitting apparition33, as if it were treacherously34 beckoning35 us on and on, in order that the monster might turn round upon us, and rend36 us at last in the remotest and most savage37 seas.
These temporary apprehensions38, so vague but so awful, derived39 a wondrous40 potency41 from the contrasting serenity42 of the weather, in which, beneath all its blue blandness43, some thought there lurked44 a devilish charm, as for days and days we voyaged along, through seas so wearily, lonesomely mild, that all space, in repugnance45 to our vengeful errand, seemed vacating itself of life before our urn-like prow46.
But, at last, when turning to the eastward47, the Cape winds began howling around us, and we rose and fell upon the long, troubled seas that are there; when the ivory-tusked Pequod sharply bowed to the blast, and gored48 the dark waves in her madness, till, like showers of silver chips, the foamflakes flew over her bulwarks49; then all this desolate50 vacuity51 of life went away, but gave place to sights more dismal52 than before.
Close to our bows, strange forms in the water darted53 hither and thither54 before us; while thick in our rear flew the inscrutable sea-ravens. And every morning, perched on our stays, rows of these birds were seen; and spite of our hootings, for a long time obstinately55 clung to the hemp56, as though they deemed our ship some drifting, uninhabited craft; a thing appointed to desolation, and therefore fit roosting-place for their homeless selves. And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane58 soul were in anguish59 and remorse60 for the long sin and suffering it had bred.
Cape of Good Hope, do they call ye? Rather Cape Tormentoto, as called of yore; for long allured61 by the perfidious62 silences that before had attended us, we found ourselves launched into this tormented63 sea, where guilty beings transformed into those fowls64 and these fish, seemed condemned65 to swim on everlastingly66 without any haven67 in store, or beat that black air without any horizon. But calm, snow-white, and unvarying; still directing its fountain of feathers to the sky; still beckoning us on from before, the solitary jet would at times be descried.
During all this blackness of the elements, Ahab, though assuming for the time the almost continual command of the drenched68 and dangerous deck, manifested the gloomiest reserve; and more seldom than ever addressed his mates. In tempestuous69 times like these, after everything above and aloft has been secured, nothing more can be done but passively to await the issue of the gale70. Then Captain and crew become practical fatalists. So, with his ivory leg inserted into its accustomed hole, and with one hand firmly grasping a shroud71, Ahab for hours and hours would stand gazing dead to windward, while an occasional squall of sleet72 or snow would all but congeal73 his very eyelashes together. Meantime, the crew driven from the forward part of the ship by the perilous74 seas that burstingly broke over its bows, stood in a line along the bulwarks in the waist; and the better to guard against the leaping waves, each man had slipped himself into a sort of bowline secured to the rail, in which he swung as in a loosened belt. Few or no words were spoken; and the silent ship, as if manned by painted sailors in wax, day after day tore on through all the swift madness and gladness of the demoniac waves. By night the same muteness of humanity before the shrieks75 of the ocean prevailed; still in silence the men swung in the bowlines; still wordless Ahab stood up to the blast. Even when wearied nature seemed demanding repose76 he would not seek that repose in his hammock. Never could Starbuck forget the old man's aspect, when one night going down into the cabin to mark how the barometer77 stood, he saw him with closed eyes sitting straight in his floor-screwed chair; the rain and half-melted sleet of the storm from which he had some time before emerged, still slowly dripping from the unremoved hat and coat. On the table beside him lay unrolled one of those charts of tides and currents which have previously78 been spoken of. His lantern swung from his tightly clenched79 hand. Though the body was erect80, the head was thrown back so that the closed eyes were pointed57 towards the needle of the tell-tale that swung from a beam in the ceiling.*
*The cabin-compass is called the tell-tale, because without going to the compass at the helm, the Captain, while below, can inform himself of the course of the ship.
Terrible old man! thought Starbuck with a shudder81, sleeping in this gale, still thou steadfastly82 eyest thy purpose.
1 cape | |
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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2 watery | |
adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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3 gliding | |
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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4 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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5 scrolls | |
n.(常用于录写正式文件的)纸卷( scroll的名词复数 );卷轴;涡卷形(装饰);卷形花纹v.(电脑屏幕上)从上到下移动(资料等),卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 );(似卷轴般)卷起;(像展开卷轴般地)将文字显示于屏幕 | |
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6 suffusing | |
v.(指颜色、水气等)弥漫于,布满( suffuse的现在分词 ) | |
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7 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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8 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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9 plumed | |
饰有羽毛的 | |
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10 descried | |
adj.被注意到的,被发现的,被看到的 | |
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11 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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12 herds | |
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众 | |
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13 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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14 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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15 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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16 mariner | |
n.水手号不载人航天探测器,海员,航海者 | |
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17 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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18 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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19 deliriously | |
adv.谵妄(性);发狂;极度兴奋/亢奋;说胡话 | |
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20 instinctively | |
adv.本能地 | |
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21 hovering | |
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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22 antagonistic | |
adj.敌对的 | |
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23 spout | |
v.喷出,涌出;滔滔不绝地讲;n.喷管;水柱 | |
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24 heeded | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 );变平,使(某物)变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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26 alluring | |
adj.吸引人的,迷人的 | |
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27 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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28 latitudes | |
纬度 | |
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29 longitudes | |
经度 | |
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30 reigned | |
vi.当政,统治(reign的过去式形式) | |
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31 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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32 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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33 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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34 treacherously | |
背信弃义地; 背叛地; 靠不住地; 危险地 | |
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35 beckoning | |
adj.引诱人的,令人心动的v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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36 rend | |
vt.把…撕开,割裂;把…揪下来,强行夺取 | |
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37 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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38 apprehensions | |
疑惧 | |
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39 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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40 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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41 potency | |
n. 效力,潜能 | |
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42 serenity | |
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
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43 blandness | |
n.温柔,爽快 | |
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44 lurked | |
vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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45 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
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46 prow | |
n.(飞机)机头,船头 | |
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47 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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48 gored | |
v.(动物)用角撞伤,用牙刺破( gore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49 bulwarks | |
n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 );保障;支柱;舷墙 | |
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50 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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51 vacuity | |
n.(想象力等)贫乏,无聊,空白 | |
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52 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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53 darted | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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54 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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55 obstinately | |
ad.固执地,顽固地 | |
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56 hemp | |
n.大麻;纤维 | |
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57 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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58 mundane | |
adj.平凡的;尘世的;宇宙的 | |
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59 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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60 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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61 allured | |
诱引,吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62 perfidious | |
adj.不忠的,背信弃义的 | |
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63 tormented | |
饱受折磨的 | |
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64 fowls | |
鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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65 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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66 everlastingly | |
永久地,持久地 | |
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67 haven | |
n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所 | |
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68 drenched | |
adj.湿透的;充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 );在某人(某物)上大量使用(某液体) | |
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69 tempestuous | |
adj.狂暴的 | |
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70 gale | |
n.大风,强风,一阵闹声(尤指笑声等) | |
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71 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
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72 sleet | |
n.雨雪;v.下雨雪,下冰雹 | |
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73 congeal | |
v.凝结,凝固 | |
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74 perilous | |
adj.危险的,冒险的 | |
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75 shrieks | |
n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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76 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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77 barometer | |
n.气压表,睛雨表,反应指标 | |
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78 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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79 clenched | |
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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81 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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82 steadfastly | |
adv.踏实地,不变地;岿然;坚定不渝 | |
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