The intense Pequod sailed on; the rolling waves and days went by; the life-buoy-coffin1 still lightly swung; and another ship, most miserably3 misnamed the Delight, was descried4. As she drew nigh, all eyes were fixed5 upon her broad beams, called shears6, which, in some whaling-ships, cross the quarter-deck at the height of eight or nine feet; serving to carry the spare, unrigged, or disabled boats.
Upon the stranger's shears were beheld7 the shattered, white ribs8, and some few splintered planks10, of what had once been a whale-boat; but you now saw through this wreck11, as plainly as you see through the peeled, half-unhinged, and bleaching12 skeleton of a horse.
"Hast seen the White Whale?"
"Look!" replied the hollow-cheeked captain from his taffrail; and with his trumpet13 he pointed14 to the wreck.
"Hast killed him?"
"The harpoon15 is not yet forged that will ever will do that," answered the other, sadly glancing upon a rounded hammock on the deck, whose gathered sides some noiseless sailors were busy in sewing together.
"Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming--"Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! Tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning are these barbs16; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin2, where the White Whale most feels his accursed life!"
"Then God keep thee, old man--see'st thou that"-- pointing to the hammock--"I bury but one of five stout17 men, who were alive only yesterday; but were dead ere night. Only that one I bury; the rest were buried before they died; you sail upon their tomb." Then turning to his crew--"Are ye ready there? place the plank9 then on the rail, and lift the body; so, then--Oh! God"--advancing towards the hammock with uplifted hands--"may the resurrection and the life-"
"Brace18 forward! Up helm!" cried Ahab like lightning to his men.
But the suddenly started Pequod was not quick enough to escape the sound of the splash that the corpse19 soon made as it struck the sea; not so quick, indeed, but that some of the flying bubbles might have sprinkled her hull20 with their ghostly baptism.
As Ahab now glided21 from the dejected Delight, the strange life-buoy hanging at the Pequod's stern came into conspicuous22 relief.
"Ha! yonder! look yonder, men!" cried a foreboding voice in her wake. "In vain, oh, ye strangers, ye fly our sad burial; ye but turn us your taffrail to show us your coffin!"
1 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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2 fin | |
n.鳍;(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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3 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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4 descried | |
adj.被注意到的,被发现的,被看到的 | |
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5 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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6 shears | |
n.大剪刀 | |
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7 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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8 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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9 plank | |
n.板条,木板,政策要点,政纲条目 | |
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10 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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11 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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12 bleaching | |
漂白法,漂白 | |
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13 trumpet | |
n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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14 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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15 harpoon | |
n.鱼叉;vt.用鱼叉叉,用鱼叉捕获 | |
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16 barbs | |
n.(箭头、鱼钩等的)倒钩( barb的名词复数 );带刺的话;毕露的锋芒;钩状毛 | |
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18 brace | |
n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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19 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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20 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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21 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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22 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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