The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more!
鲸座是天上的一个星座,捕鲸者是何等的威风也便可想而知了。
Drive down your hat in presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more!
如果你对沙皇脱帽的话,那么我相信你也会对魁魁格脱帽的!
I know a man that, in his lifetime, has taken three hundred and fifty whales.
噢,天知道,人们除了捕鲸还有什么可以称为威风的事呢?
I account that man more honourable than that great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.
一个一生中捕到过三百五十条鲸鱼的捕鲸者,远比占领过同样多的城池的将军威风!
And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me;
我个人就更不用说了。如果我的生命中还有什么闪光之处的话;
if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of;
如果我在这个纷纷攘攘的世界上还配有一点我并不追求的名望的话;
if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone;
如果我还为人类做了一点有益的事情的话;
if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS.
或者说我的继承人—也许叫债权人更合适
in my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honour and the glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
在我的抽屉里还能找到一部什么手稿的话,那么所有的这一切都应归功于捕鲸业! 捕鲸船就是我的哈佛大学! 捕鲸船就是我的耶鲁大学!