The coffin1 laid upon two line-tubs, between the vice-bench and the open hatchway; the Carpenter caulking2 its seams; the string of twisted oakum slowly unwinding from a large roll of it placed in the bosom3 of his frock.--Ahab comes slowly from the cabin-gangway, and hears Pip following him.
Back lad; I will be with ye again presently. He goes! Not this hand complies with my humor more genially4 than that boy.-- Middle aisle5 of a church! What's here?"
"Life-buoy, sir. Mr. Starbuck's orders. Oh, look, sir! Beware the hatchway!"
"Thank ye, man. Thy coffin lies handy to the vault7."
"Sir? The hatchway? oh! So it does, sir, so it does."
"Art not thou the leg-maker? Look, did not this stump8 come from thy shop?"
"I believe it did, sir; does the ferrule stand, sir?"
"Well enough. But art thou not also the undertaker?"
"Aye, sir; I patched up this thing here as a coffin for Queequeg; but they've set me now to turning it into something else."
"Then tell me; art thou not an arrant9, all-grasping, intermeddling, monopolizing10, heathenish old scamp, to be one day making legs, and the next day coffins11 to clap them in, and yet again life-buoys out of those same coffins? Thou art as unprincipled as the gods, and as much of a jack-of-all-trades."
"But I do not mean anything, sir. I do as I do."
"The gods again. Hark ye, dost thou not ever sing working about a coffin? The Titans, they say, hummed snatches when chipping out the craters12 for volcanoes; and the grave-digger in the play sings, spade in hand. Dost thou never?"
"Sing, sir? Do I sing? Oh, I'm indifferent enough, sir, for that; but the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there was none in his spade, sir. But the caulking mallet13 is full of it. Hark to it."
"Aye, and that's because the lid there's a sounding-board; and what in all things makes the sounding-board is this-- there's naught14 beneath. And yet, a coffin with a body in it rings pretty much the same, Carpenter. Hast thou ever helped carry a bier, and heard the coffin knock against the churchyard gate, going in?
"Faith, sir, I've-"
"Faith? What's that?"
"Why, faith, sir, it's only a sort of exclamation-like-- that's all, sir."
"Um, um; go on."
"I was about to say, sir, that-"
"Art thou a silk-worm? Dost thou spin thy own shroud15 out of thyself? Look at thy bosom! Despatch16! and get these traps out of sight."
"He goes aft. That was sudden, now; but squalls come sudden in hot latitudes17. I've heard that the Isle6 of Albermarle, one of the Gallipagos, is cut by the Equator right in the middle. Seems to me some sort of Equator cuts yon old man, too, right in his middle. He's always under the Line--fiery hot, I tell ye! He's looking this way--come, oakum; quick. Here we go again. This wooden mallet is the cork18, and I'm the professor of musical glasses--tap, tap!"
(Ahab to himself)
"There's a sight! There's a sound! The greyheaded wood-pecker tapping the hollow tree! Blind and dumb might well be envied now. See! that thing rests on two line-tubs, full of tow-lines. A most malicious19 wag, that fellow. Rat-tat! So man's seconds tick! Oh! how immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts? Here now's the very dreaded20 symbol of grim death, by a mere21 hap22, made the expressive23 sign of the help and hope of most endangered life. A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further? Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver! I'll think of that. But no. So far gone am I in the dark side of earth, that its other side, the theoretic bright one, seems but uncertain twilight24 to me. Will ye never have done, Carpenter, with that accursed sound? I go below; let me not see that thing here when I return again. Now, then, Pip, we'll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous25 philosophies from thee! Some unknown conduits from the unknown worlds must empty into thee!"
1 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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2 caulking | |
n.堵缝;敛缝;捻缝;压紧v.堵(船的)缝( caulk的现在分词 );泥…的缝;填塞;使不漏水 | |
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3 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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4 genially | |
adv.亲切地,和蔼地;快活地 | |
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5 aisle | |
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道 | |
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6 isle | |
n.小岛,岛 | |
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7 vault | |
n.拱形圆顶,地窖,地下室 | |
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8 stump | |
n.残株,烟蒂,讲演台;v.砍断,蹒跚而走 | |
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9 arrant | |
adj.极端的;最大的 | |
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10 monopolizing | |
v.垄断( monopolize的现在分词 );独占;专卖;专营 | |
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11 coffins | |
n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 );使某人早亡[死,完蛋,垮台等]之物 | |
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12 craters | |
n.火山口( crater的名词复数 );弹坑等 | |
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13 mallet | |
n.槌棒 | |
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14 naught | |
n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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15 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
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16 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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17 latitudes | |
纬度 | |
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18 cork | |
n.软木,软木塞 | |
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19 malicious | |
adj.有恶意的,心怀恶意的 | |
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20 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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21 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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22 hap | |
n.运气;v.偶然发生 | |
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23 expressive | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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24 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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25 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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