Seat thyself sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high abstracted man alone; —
在土星的卫星之间像苏丹一样坐下，独自高深莫测； —

and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. —
他似乎是个奇迹、宏伟、痛苦的化身。 —

But from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates, both contemporary and hereditary. —
但如果从同一角度看，人类群体大多数时候似乎是一群不必要的重复，无论是当代的还是世代相传的。 —

But most humble though he was, and far from furnishing an example of the high, humane abstraction; —
尽管他非常谦卑，远非体现高尚、仁爱的概念； —

the Pequod’s carpenter was no duplicate; —
白鲸号的木匠并非重复的意向； —

hence, he now comes in person on this stage.
因此，他现在亲自登上这个舞台。

Like all sea-going ship carpenters, and more especially those belonging to whaling vessels, he was, to a certain off-hand, practical extent, alike experienced in numerous trades and callings collateral to his own; —
像所有的海船木匠一样，尤其是那些属于捕鲸船的木匠，他在某种程度上都具备多种与自身职业相关的经验； —

the carpenter’s pursuit being the ancient and outbranching trunk of all those numerous handicrafts which more or less have to do with wood as an auxiliary material. —
木匠的职业是所有那些与木材作为辅助材料有多少关系的多种手工艺的古老而广泛的根源。 —

But, besides the application to him of the generic remark above, this carpenter of the Pequod was singularly efficient in those thousand nameless mechanical emergencies continually recurring in a large ship, upon a three or four years’ voyage, in uncivilized and far-distant seas. —
但除了以上一般性的评论适用于他之外，白鲸号的木匠在这种三四年航行中，在文明程度低下、遥远的海域里，极其擅长那种不断出现的千头万绪的机械应急事宜。 —

For not to speak of his readiness in ordinary duties: —
毫不夸大地说，他对日常职责有着敏捷的应对能力： —

– repairing stove boats, sprung spars, reforming the shape of clumsy-bladed oars, inserting bull’s eyes in the deck, or new tree-nails in the side planks, and other miscellaneous matters more directly pertaining to his special business; —
– 修理煮沸船，修补断裂帆桅，改造笨重桨叶形状，在甲板上插入圆形舱窗，或在船侧板上插入新的树钉，以及其他更直接涉及他特殊业务的各种琐事； —

he was moreover unhesitatingly expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes, both useful and capricious.
他还毫不犹豫地精通各种相互冲突的才能，既有用又反复无常。

The one grand stage where he enacted all his various parts so manifold, was his vice-bench; —
他展现众多角色的唯一重要阶段，是他的机械钳座； —

a long rude ponderous table furnished with several vices, of different sizes, and both of iron and of wood. —
一个长长的粗糙沉重的桌子，上面摆放着几个大小不一、铁制和木制的钳子。 —

At all times except when whales were alongside, this bench was securely lashed athwartships against the rear of the Try-works.
除了鲸鱼靠近时，这个工作台总是牢固地捆缚在燃烧釜的尾部横向放置。

A belaying pin is found too large to be easily inserted into its hole: —
紧绳钉太大，无法轻松插入孔中： —

the carpenter claps it into one of his ever ready vices, and straightway files it smaller. —
木匠将其夹在一只随时准备好的虹吸管中，立即将其凹缩。 —

A lost landbird of strange plumage strays on board, and is made a captive: —
失迷的珍异羽鸟迷路到船上，被捕获： —

out of clean shaved rods of right-whale bone, and cross-beams of sperm whale ivory, the carpenter makes a pagoda-looking cage for it. —
木匠用整理过的正鲸骨和抹香鲸牙制作了一个宝塔形的笼子。 —

An oarsman sprains his wrist: the carpenter concocts a soothing lotion. —
一个桨手扭伤了手腕：木匠制作了一个舒缓的药膏。 —

Stubb longed for vermillion stars to be painted upon the blade of his every oar; —
斯塔布渴望划桨上涂上绯红色的星星； —

screwing each oar in his big vice of wood, the carpenter symmetrically supplies the constellation. —
木匠将每支桨都夹在他的木制虹吸管上，对称地布满了星座。 —

A sailor takes a fancy to wear shark-bone ear-rings: the carpenter drills his ears. —
一名水手喜欢戴鲨鱼骨耳环：木匠给他的耳朵打孔。 —

Another has the toothache: the carpenter out pincers, and clapping one hand upon his bench bids him be seated there; —
另一名水手牙疼：木匠拿出镊子，一手按在他的工作台上，让他在那里坐下； —

but the poor fellow unmanageably winces under the unconcluded operation; —
但可怜的家伙在没有结束的情况下无法控制地扭动； —

whirling round the handle of his wooden vice, the carpenter signs him to clap his jaw in that, if he would have him draw the tooth.
木匠转动木制虹吸管的手柄，示意他将下巴夹在那里，如果他想让他拔牙。

Thus, this carpenter was prepared at all points, and alike indifferent and without respect in all. —
因此，这位木匠准备就绪，同样地冷漠而毫不尊重。 —

Teeth he accounted bits of ivory; heads he deemed but top-blocks; —
他认为牙齿是象牙碎片；他认为头部只是顶部； —

men themselves he lightly held for capstans. —
他将人们轻描淡写地视为绞盘。 —

But while now upon so wide a field thus variously accomplished and with such liveliness of expertness in him, too; —
但是，现在处于如此广阔的领域，实力卓越，兼具敏锐的专业技能； —

all this would seem to argue some uncommon vivacity of intelligence. But not precisely so. —
所有这些似乎都在证明他具有非凡的智慧。但并非如此。 —

For nothing was this man more remarkable, than for a certain impersonal stolidity as it were; —
因为这个人最引人注目的特点，莫过于一种某种无差别的沉静； —

impersonal, I say; for it so shaded off into the surrounding infinite of things, that it seemed one with the general stolidity discernible in the whole visible world; —
无差别，我说；因为它似乎与周围无限的事物融为一体，看起来与整个可见世界中可辨别的永恒沉静一体； —

which while pauselessly active in uncounted modes, still eternally holds its peace, and ignores you, though you dig foundations for cathedrals. —
这一悖论在于，虽然以无数种方式持续不断地活跃着，但却永远保持沉默，并忽视你，即使你为教堂的基石挖地基。 —

Yet was this half-horrible stolidity in him, involving, too, as it appeared, an all-ramifying heartlessness; —
然而，在他身上存在的这种半可怕的冷漠，似乎也让他显得极端无情； —

– yet was it oddly dashed at times, with an old, crutch-like, antediluvian, wheezing humorousness, not unstreaked now and then with a certain grizzled wittiness; —
——然而，有时却古怪地夹杂着一种古老的、用作拐棍状的、远古的、喘息的幽默感，并时常透露出一种斑白的机智； —

such as might have served to pass the time during the midnight watch on the bearded forecastle of Noah’s ark. —
这种幽默也许曾在挪亚方舟的有胡子的甲板上，用来打发午夜值班时间。 —

Was it that this old carpenter had been a life-long wanderer, whose much rolling, to and fro, not only had gathered no moss; —
难道这位老木匠曾是一个终生漂泊的人，他频繁的来来往往，不仅没有长出青苔； —

but what is more, had rubbed off whatever small outward clingings might have originally pertained to him? —
而且更重要的是，那些原本与他相关的微小外在依恋也已磨平？ —

He was a stript abstract; an unfractioned integral; uncompromised as a new-born babe; —
他是一个光秃抽象体；一个未分割的整体；像新生的婴儿一样未被妥协； —

living without premeditated reference to this world or the next. —
他生活中几乎没有提前考虑过这个世界或下一个世界。 —

You might almost say, that this strange uncompromisedness in him involved a sort of unintelligence; —
你几乎可以说，在他身上这种奇怪的未被妥协涉及一种无知； —

for in his numerous trades, he did not seem to work so much by reason or by instinct, or simply because he had been tutored to it, or by any intermixture of all these, even or uneven; —
因为在他众多的工种中，他似乎并非是凭借理智或本能工作，或仅仅是因为他受过训练，或者是这两者的某种混合，均匀或不均匀； —

but merely by a kind of deaf and dumb, spontaneous literal process. He was a pure manipulator; —
而仅仅是通过一种聋哑的、自发的、字面的过程。他是一个纯粹的操纵者； —

his brain, if he had ever had one, must have early oozed along into the muscles of his fingers. —
如果他曾经有过大脑，它必然早就渗透到了他手指的肌肉中。 —

He was like one of those unreasoning but still highly useful, multum in parvo, Sheffield contrivances, assuming the exterior– though a little swelled–of a common pocket knife; —
他就像那些毫无理智但仍然非常有用的、体积小巧、多功能的谢菲尔德发明，外表看起来–虽然有点肿胀–像一把普通的口袋刀； —

but containing, not only blades of various sizes, but also screw-drivers, cork-screws, tweezers, awls, pens, rulers, nail-filers, countersinkers. —
但其中不仅有各种大小的刀片，还有螺丝刀、开瓶器、镊子、尖锥、钢笔、尺子、指甲锉和安装机； —

So, if his superiors wanted to use the carpenter for a screw-driver, all they had to do was to open that part of him, and the screw was fast: —
所以，如果他的上级想要用木匠作为螺丝刀，他们只需打开他的那一部分，螺丝就固定了； —

or if for tweezers, take him up by the legs, and there they were.
或者如果需要用镊子，把他拎起来，镊子就在那里了；

Yet, as previously hinted, this omnitooled, open-and-shut carpenter, was, after all, no mere machine of an automaton. —
然而，如前所暗示，这个多工具、开合自如的木匠，毕竟不是一台纯粹的自动机器； —

If he did not have a common soul in him, he had a subtle something that somehow anomalously did its duty. —
如果他不具有一个普通灵魂，他至少有某种微妙的东西，以某种异常方式履行着职责； —

What that was, whether essence of quicksilver, or a few drops of hartshorn, there is no telling. —
那是什么，是汞的本质，还是几滴氨水，无法说清楚； —

But there it was; and there it had abided for now some sixty years or more. —
但在那里；那里已经存在了现在大约六十年或更久； —

And this it was, this same unaccountable, cunning life-principle in him; —
正是这个，这个无法解释的、狡猾的生命原则在他身上； —

this it was, that kept him a great part of the time soliloquizing; —
正是这个，使他大部分时间在自言自语； —

but only like an unreasoning wheel, which also hummingly soliloquizes; —
但只像一个无理智的轮子，也在嗡嗡地自言自语； —

or rather, his body was a sentry-box and this soliloquizer on guard there, and talking all the time to keep himself awake.
或者说，他的身体是一个哨兵箱，这个喃喃自语者就在那里执勤，并一直说话以保持自己清醒。