Upon searching, it was found that the casks last struck into the hold were perfectly1 sound, and that the leak must be further off. So, it being calm weather, they broke out deeper and deeper, disturbing the slumbers2 of the huge ground-tier butts4; and from that black midnight sending those gigantic moles5 into the daylight above. So deep did they go; and so ancient, and corroded6, and weedy the aspect of the lowermost puncheons, that you almost looked next for some mouldy corner-stone cask containing coins of Captain Noah, with copies of the posted placards, vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood. Tierce after tierce, too, of water, and bread, and beef, and shooks of staves, and iron bundles of hoops7, were hoisted8 out, till at last the piled decks were hard to get about; and the hollow hull9 echoed under foot, as if you were treading over empty catacombs, and reeled and rolled in the sea like an air-freighted demijohn. Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head. Well was it that the Typhoons did not visit them then.
Now, at this time it was that my poor pagan companion, and fast bosom-friend, Queequeg, was seized with a fever, which brought him nigh to his endless end.
Be it said, that in this vocation10 of whaling, sinecures11 are unknown; dignity and danger go hand in hand; till you get to be Captain, the higher you rise the harder you toil12. So with poor Queequeg, who, as harpooneer, must not only face all the rage of the living whale, but--as we have elsewhere seen--mount his dead back in a rolling sea; and finally descend14 into the gloom of the hold, and bitterly sweating all day in that subterraneous confinement15, resolutely16 manhandle the clumsiest casks and see to their stowage. To be short, among whalemen, the harpooneers are the holders17, so called.
Poor Queequeg! when the ship was about half disembowelled, you should have stooped over the hatchway, and peered down upon him there; where, stripped to his woollen drawers, the tattooed19 savage20 was crawling about amid that dampness and slime, like a green spotted21 lizard22 at the bottom of a well. And a well, or an ice-house, it somehow proved to him, poor pagan; where, strange to say, for all the heat of his sweatings, he caught a terrible chill which lapsed23 into a fever; and at last, after some days' suffering, laid him in his hammock, close to the very sill of the door of death. How he wasted and wasted away in those few long-lingering days, till there seemed but little left of him but his frame and tattooing24. But as all else in him thinned, and his cheek-bones grew sharper, his eyes, nevertheless, seemed growing fuller and fuller; they became of a strange softness of lustre25; and mildly but deeply looked out at you there from his sickness, a wondrous26 testimony27 to that immortal28 health in him which could not die, or be weakened. And like circles on the water, which, as they grow fainter, expand; so his eyes seemed rounding and rounding, like the rings of Eternity29. An awe18 that cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this waning30 savage, and saw as strange things in his face, as any beheld31 who were bystanders when Zoroaster died. For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books. And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell. So that--let us say it again-- no dying Chaldee or Greek had higher and holier thoughts than those, whose mysterious shades you saw creeping over the face of poor Queequeg, as he quietly lay in his swaying hammock, and the rolling sea seemed gently rocking him to his final rest, and the ocean's invisible flood-tide lifted him higher and higher towards his destined32 heaven.
Not a man of the crew but gave him up; and, as for Queequeg himself, what he thought of his case was forcibly shown by a curious favor he asked. He called one to him in the grey morning watch, when the day was just breaking, 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 isle33; and upon inquiry34, he had learned that all whalemen who died in Nantucket, were laid in those same dark canoes, and that the fancy of being so laid had much pleased him; for it was not unlike the custom of his own race, who, after embalming35 a dead warrior36, stretched him out in his canoe, and so left him to be floated away to the starry37 archipelagoes; for not only do they believe that the stars are isles38, but that far beyond all visible horizons, their own mild, uncontinented seas, interflow with the blue heavens; and so form the white breakers of the milky39 way. He added, that he shuddered40 at the thought of being buried in his hammock, according to the usual sea-custom, tossed like something vile41 to the death-devouring sharks. No: he desired a canoe like those of Nantucket, all the more congenial to him, being a whaleman, that like a whale-boat these coffin42-canoes were without a keel; though that involved but uncertain steering43, and much lee-way adown the dim ages.
Now, when this strange circumstance was made known aft, the carpenter was at once commanded to do Queequeg's bidding, whatever it might include. There was some heathenish, coffin-colored old lumber3 aboard, which, upon a long previous voyage, had been cut from the aboriginal44 groves45 of the Lackaday islands, and from these dark planks46 the coffin was recommended to be made. No sooner was the carpenter apprised47 of the order, than taking his rule, he forthwith with all the indifferent promptitude of his character, proceeded into the forecastle and took Queequeg's measure with great accuracy, regularly chalking Queequeg's person as he shifted the rule.
"Ah! poor fellow! he'll have to die now," ejaculated the Long Island sailor.
Going to his vice-bench, the carpenter for convenience sake and general reference, now transferringly measured on it the exact length the coffin was to be, and then made the transfer permanent by cutting two notches48 at its extremities49. This done, he marshalled the planks and his tools, and to work.
When the last nail was driven, and the lid duly planed and fitted, he lightly shouldered the coffin and went forward with it, inquiring whether they were ready for it yet in that direction.
Overhearing the indignant but half-humorous cries with which the people on deck began to drive the coffin away, Queequeg, to every one's consternation50, commanded that the thing should be instantly brought to him, nor was there any denying him; seeing that, of all mortals, some dying men are the most tyrannical; and certainly, since they will shortly trouble us so little for evermore, the poor fellows ought to be indulged.
Leaning over in his hammock, Queequeg long regarded the coffin with an attentive51 eye. He then called for his harpoon13, had the wooden stock drawn52 from it, and then had the iron part placed in the coffin along with one of the paddles of his boat. All by his own request, also, biscuits were then ranged round the sides within; a flask53 of fresh water was placed at the head, and a small bag of woody earth scraped up in the hold at the foot; and a piece of sail-cloth being rolled up for a pillow, Queequeg now entreated54 to be lifted into his final bed, that he might make trial of its comforts, if any it had. He lay without moving a few minutes, then told one to go to his bag and bring out his little god, Yojo. Then crossing his arms on his breast with Yojo between, he called for the coffin lid (hatch he called it) to be placed over him. The head part turned over with a leather hinge, and there lay Queequeg in his coffin with little but his composed countenance55 in view. "Rarmai" (it will do; it is easy), he murmured at last, and signed to be replaced in his hammock.
But ere this was done, Pip, who had been slily hovering56 near by all the while, drew nigh to him where he lay, and with soft sobbings, took him by the hand; in the other, holding his tambourine57.
"Poor rover! will ye never have done with all this weary roving? Where go ye now? But if the currents carry ye to those sweet Antilles where the beaches are only beat with water-lilies, will ye do one little errand for me? Seek out one Pip, who's now been missing long: I think he's in those far Antilles. If ye find him, then comfort him; for he must be very sad; for look! he's left his tambourine behind;-- I found it. Rig-a-dig, dig, dig! Now, Queequeg, die; and I'll beat ye your dying march."
"I have heard," murmured Starbuck, gazing down the scuttle58, "that in violent fevers, men, all ignorance, have talked in ancient tongues; and that when the mystery is probed, it turns out always that in their wholly forgotten childhood those ancient tongues had been really spoken in their hearing by some lofty scholars. So, to my fond faith, poor Pip, in this strange sweetness of his lunacy, brings heavenly vouchers59 of all our heavenly homes. Where learned he that, but there?--Hark! he speaks again; but more wildly now."
"Form two and two! Let's make a General of him! Ho, where's his harpoon? Lay it across here.--Rig-a-dig, dig, dig! huzza! Oh for a game cock now to sit upon his head and crow! Queequeg dies game!--mind ye that; Queequeg dies game!-- take ye good heed60 of that; Queequeg dies game! I say; game, game, game! but base little Pip, he died a coward; died all a'shiver;--out upon Pip! Hark ye; if ye find Pip, tell all the Antilles he's a runaway61; a coward, a coward, a coward! Tell them he jumped from a whale-boat! I'd never beat my tambourine over base Pip, and hail him General, if he were once more dying here. No, no! shame upon all cowards-- shame upon them! Let'em go drown like Pip, that jumped from a whale-boat. Shame! shame!"
During all this, Queequeg lay with closed eyes, as if in a dream. Pip was led away, and the sick man was replaced in his hammock.
But now that he had apparently62 made every preparation for death; now that his coffin was proved a good fit, Queequeg suddenly rallied; soon there seemed no need of the carpenter's box; and thereupon, when some expressed their delighted surprise, he, in substance, said, that the cause of his sudden convalescence63 was this;-- at a critical moment, he had just recalled a little duty ashore64, which he was leaving undone65; and therefore had changed his mind about dying: he could not die yet, he averred66. They asked him, then, whether to live or die was a matter of his own sovereign will and pleasure. He answered, certainly. In a word, it was Queequeg's conceit67, that if a man made up his mind to live, mere68 sickness could not kill him: nothing but a whale, or a gale69, or some violent, ungovernable, unintelligent destroyer of that sort.
Now, there is this noteworthy difference between savage and civilized70; that while a sick, civilized man may be six months convalescing71, generally speaking, a sick savage is almost half-well again in a day. So, in good time my Queequeg gained strength; and at length after sitting on the windlass for a few indolent days (but eating with a vigorous appetite) he suddenly leaped to his feet, threw out his arms and legs, gave himself a good stretching, yawned a little bit, and then springing into the head of his hoisted boat, and poising72 a harpoon, pronounced himself fit for a fight.
With a wild whimsiness, he now used his coffin for a sea-chest; and emptying into it his canvas bag of clothes, set them in order there. Many spare hours he spent, in carving73 the lid with all manner of grotesque74 figures and drawings; and it seemed that hereby he was striving, in his rude way, to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body. And this tattooing had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic75 marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise76 on the art of attaining77 truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle78 to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder79 away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed80, and so be unsolved to the last. And this thought it must have been which suggested to Ahab that wild exclamation81 of his, when one morning turning away from surveying poor Queequeg--"Oh, devilish tantalization82 of the gods!"
收听单词发音 |
1
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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moles
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| 防波堤( mole的名词复数 )； 鼹鼠； 痣； 间谍 | |
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corroded
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| 已被腐蚀的 | |
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hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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sinecures
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| n.工作清闲但报酬优厚的职位，挂名的好差事( sinecure的名词复数 ) | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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harpoon
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| n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获 | |
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14
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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tattooing
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| n.刺字，文身v.刺青，文身( tattoo的现在分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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wondrous
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| 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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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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beheld
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| 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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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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embalming
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| v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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milky
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| adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的 | |
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shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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43
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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45
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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46
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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notches
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| n.（边缘或表面上的）V型痕迹( notch的名词复数 )；刻痕；水平；等级 | |
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49
extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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50
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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51
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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52
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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53
flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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54
entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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56
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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57
tambourine
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| n.铃鼓，手鼓 | |
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58
scuttle
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| v.急赶，疾走，逃避；n.天窗；舷窗 | |
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vouchers
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| n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据 | |
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60
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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61
runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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62
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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63
convalescence
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| n.病后康复期 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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66
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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67
conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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69
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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70
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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71
convalescing
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| v.康复( convalesce的现在分词 ) | |
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72
poising
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| 使平衡( poise的现在分词 )； 保持（某种姿势）； 抓紧； 使稳定 | |
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73
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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74
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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75
hieroglyphic
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| n.象形文字 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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77
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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78
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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79
moulder
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| v.腐朽，崩碎 | |
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80
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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81
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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82
tantalization
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| n.逗弄，使干着急 | |
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