It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure1; only, the pensive2 air was transparently3 pure and soft, with a woman's look, and the robust4 and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells5, as Samson's chest in his sleep.
Hither, and thither6, on high, glided7 the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty8 leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea.
But though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were, that distinguished9 them.
Aloft, like a royal czar and king, the sun seemed giving this gentle air to this bold and rolling sea; even as bride to groom10. And at the girdling line of the horizon, a soft and tremulous motion-- most seen here at the Equator--denoted the fond, throbbing11 trust, the loving alarms, with which the poor bride gave her bosom13 away.
Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; untottering Ahab stood forth14 in the clearness of the morn; lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl's forehead of heaven.
Oh, immortal15 infancy16, and innocency17 of the azure! Invisible winged creatures that frolic all round us! Sweet childhood of air and sky! how oblivious18 were ye of old Ahab's close-coiled woe19! But so have I seen little Miriam and Martha, laughing-eyed elves, heedlessly gambol20 around their old sire; sporting with the circle of singed21 locks which grew on the marge of that burnt-out crater22 of his brain.
Slowly crossing the deck from the scuttle23, Ahab leaned over the side and watched how his shadow in the water sank and sank to his gaze, the more and the more that he strove to pierce the profundity24. But the lovely aromas25 in that enchanted26 air did at last seem to dispel27, for a moment, the cankerous thing in his soul. That glad, happy air, that winsome28 sky, did at last stroke and caress29 him; the step-mother world, so long cruel--forbidding--now threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck, and did seem to joyously30 sob31 over him, as if over one, that however wilful32 and erring33, she could yet find it in her heart to save and to bless. From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.
Starbuck saw the old man; saw him, how he heavily leaned over the side; and he seemed to hear in his own true heart the measureless sobbing34 that stole out of the centre of the serenity35 around. Careful not to touch him, or be noticed by him, he yet drew near to him, and stood there.
Ahab turned.
"Starbuck!"
"Sir."
"Oh, Starbuck! it is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky. On such a day--very much such a sweetness as this--I struck my first whale--a boy-harpooneer of eighteen! Forty--forty-- forty years ago!--ago! Forty years of continual whaling! forty years of privation, and peril36, and storm-time! forty years on the pitiless sea! for forty years has Ahab forsaken37 the peaceful land, for forty years to make war on the horrors of the deep! Aye and yes, Starbuck, out of those forty years I have not spent three ashore38. When I think of this life I have led; the desolation of solitude39 it has been; the masoned, walled-town of a Captain's exclusiveness, which admits but small entrance to any sympathy from the green country without--oh, weariness! heaviness! Guinea-coast slavery of solitary40 command!--when I think of all this; only half-suspected, not so keenly known to me before-- and how for forty years I have fed upon dry salted fare-- fit emblem41 of the dry nourishment42 of my soul!--when the poorest landsman has had fresh fruit to his daily hand, and broken the world's fresh bread to my mouldy crusts--away, whole oceans away, from that young girl-wife I wedded43 past fifty, and sailed for Cape44 Horn the next day, leaving but one dent45 in my marriage pillow-- wife? wife?--rather a widow with her husband alive? Aye, I widowed that poor girl when I married her, Starbuck; and then, the madness, the frenzy46, the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey--more a demon47 than a man!--aye, aye! what a forty years' fool--fool--old fool, has old Ahab been! Why this strife48 of the chase? why weary, and palsy the arm at the oar49, and the iron, and the lance? how the richer or better is Ahab now? Behold50. Oh, Starbuck! is it not hard, that with this weary load I bear, one poor leg should have been snatched from under me? Here, brush this old hair aside; it blinds me, that I seem to weep. Locks so grey did never grow but from out some ashes! But do I look very old, so very, very old, Starbuck? I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise. God! God! God!--crack my heart!--stave my brain!-- mockery! mockery! bitter, biting mockery of grey hairs, have I lived enough joy to wear ye; and seem and feel thus intolerably old? Close! stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God. By the green land; by the bright hearthstone! this is the magic glass, man; I see my wife and my child in thine eye. No, no; stay on board, on board!--lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick. That hazard shall not be thine. No, no! not with the far away home I see in that eye!"
"Oh, my Captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all! why should any one give chase to that hated fish! Away with me! let us fly these deadly waters! let us home! Wife and child, too, are Starbuck's--wife and child of his brotherly, sisterly, play-fellow youth; even as thine, sir, are the wife and child of thy loving, longing51, paternal52 old age! Away! let us away!--this instant let me alter the course! How cheerily, how hilariously53, O my Captain, would we bowl on our way to see old Nantucket again! I think, sir, they have some such mild blue days, even as this, in Nantucket."
"They have, they have. I have seen them--some summer days in the morning. About this time--yes, it is his noon nap now-- the boy vivaciously54 wakes; sits up in bed; and his mother tells him of me, of cannibal old me; how I am abroad upon the deep, but will yet come back to dance him again."
"'Tis my Mary, my Mary herself! She promised that my boy, every morning, should be carried to the hill to catch the first glimpse of his father's sail! Yes, yes! no more! it is done! we head for Nantucket! Come, my Captain, study out the course, and let us away! See, see! the boy's face from the window! the boy's hand on the hill!"
But Ahab's glance was averted55; like a blighted56 fruit tree he shook, and cast his last, cindered apple to the soil.
"What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings57, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve58, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike. And all the time, lo! that smiling sky, and this unsounded sea! Look! see yon Albicore! who put it into him to chase and fang59 that flying-fish? Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom60, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar? But it is a mild, mild wind, and a mild looking sky; and the airs smells now, as if it blew from a far-away meadow; they have been making hay somewhere under the slopes of the Andes, Starbuck, and the mowers are sleeping among the new-mown hay. Sleeping? Aye, toil61 we how we may, we all sleep at last on the field. Sleep? Aye, and rust12 amid greenness; as last year's scythes62 flung down, and left in the half-cut swarths--Starbuck!"
But blanched63 to a corpse's hue64 with despair, the Mate had stolen away.
Ahab crossed the deck to gaze over on the other side; but started at two reflected, fixed65 eyes in the water there, Fedallah was motionlessly leaning over the same rail.
1 azure | |
adj.天蓝色的,蔚蓝色的 | |
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2 pensive | |
a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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3 transparently | |
明亮地,显然地,易觉察地 | |
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4 robust | |
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的 | |
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5 swells | |
增强( swell的第三人称单数 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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6 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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7 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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8 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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9 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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10 groom | |
vt.给(马、狗等)梳毛,照料,使...整洁 | |
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11 throbbing | |
a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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12 rust | |
n.锈;v.生锈;(脑子)衰退 | |
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13 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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14 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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15 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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16 infancy | |
n.婴儿期;幼年期;初期 | |
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17 innocency | |
无罪,洁白 | |
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18 oblivious | |
adj.易忘的,遗忘的,忘却的,健忘的 | |
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19 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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20 gambol | |
v.欢呼,雀跃 | |
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21 singed | |
v.浅表烧焦( singe的过去式和过去分词 );(毛发)燎,烧焦尖端[边儿] | |
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22 crater | |
n.火山口,弹坑 | |
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23 scuttle | |
v.急赶,疾走,逃避;n.天窗;舷窗 | |
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24 profundity | |
n.渊博;深奥,深刻 | |
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25 aromas | |
n.芳香( aroma的名词复数 );气味;风味;韵味 | |
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26 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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27 dispel | |
vt.驱走,驱散,消除 | |
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28 winsome | |
n.迷人的,漂亮的 | |
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29 caress | |
vt./n.爱抚,抚摸 | |
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30 joyously | |
ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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31 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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32 wilful | |
adj.任性的,故意的 | |
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33 erring | |
做错事的,错误的 | |
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34 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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35 serenity | |
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
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36 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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37 Forsaken | |
adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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38 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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39 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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40 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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41 emblem | |
n.象征,标志;徽章 | |
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42 nourishment | |
n.食物,营养品;营养情况 | |
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43 wedded | |
adj.正式结婚的;渴望…的,执著于…的v.嫁,娶,(与…)结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44 cape | |
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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45 dent | |
n.凹痕,凹坑;初步进展 | |
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46 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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47 demon | |
n.魔鬼,恶魔 | |
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48 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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49 oar | |
n.桨,橹,划手;v.划行 | |
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50 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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51 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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52 paternal | |
adj.父亲的,像父亲的,父系的,父方的 | |
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53 hilariously | |
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54 vivaciously | |
adv.快活地;活泼地;愉快地 | |
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55 averted | |
防止,避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 ); 转移 | |
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56 blighted | |
adj.枯萎的,摧毁的 | |
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57 longings | |
渴望,盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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58 revolve | |
vi.(使)旋转;循环出现 | |
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59 fang | |
n.尖牙,犬牙 | |
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60 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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61 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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62 scythes | |
n.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的名词复数 )v.(长柄)大镰刀( scythe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63 blanched | |
v.使变白( blanch的过去式 );使(植物)不见阳光而变白;酸洗(金属)使有光泽;用沸水烫(杏仁等)以便去皮 | |
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64 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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65 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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