Availing himself of the mild, summer-cool weather that now reigned in these latitudes, and in preparation for the peculiarly active pursuits shortly to be anticipated, Perth, the begrimed, blistered old blacksmith, had not removed his portable forge to the hold again, after concluding his contributory work for Ahab’s leg, but still retained it on deck, fast lashed to ringbolts by the foremast; —
在这些纬度，享受着暖和宜人的夏季凉爽天气，为了即将到来的繁忙工作做好准备，那位满身煤灰、起了泡的老铁匠佩思，在完成了为艾哈布的腿所做的贡献性工作后，并没有再次将他的便携锻造炉移回到舱内，而是将其系牢在前桅的环孔上； —

being now almost incessantly invoked by the headsmen, and harpooneers, and bowsmen to do some little job for them; —
现在他几乎总是被滑索手、捕鲸手和舵手不停地召唤，要求他帮忙做一些小活； —

altering, or repairing, or new shaping their various weapons and boat furniture. —
改装、修理或是重新塑造他们各种各样的武器和船具； —

Often he would be surrounded by an eager circle, all waiting to be served; —
他经常被一个渴望得到服务的急切围观者环绕着； —

holding boat-spades, pikeheads, harpoons, and lances, and jealously watching his every sooty movement, as he toiled. —
拿着船用铲子、矛头、鱼叉和长矛，嫉妒地观察着他肮脏的每一个动作，他辛苦地劳作着； —

Nevertheless, this old man’s was a patient hammer wielded by a patient arm. —
然而，这位老人是一个有耐心的锤匠，他用着坚忍的手臂挥舞着他的锤子； —

No murmur, no impatience, no petulance did come from him. Silent, slow, and solemn; —
他没有怨言，没有不耐烦，没有坏脾气。沉默、缓慢、庄严； —

bowing over still further his chronically broken back, he toiled away, as if toil were life itself, and the heavy beating of his hammer the heavy beating of his heart. —
他驼着那已经长期受伤的脊背，继续着他的工作，仿佛劳作就是生活本身，重重的锤击声就是他心脏的跳动； —

And so it was.–Most miserable!
就是这样。– 这是多么悲惨啊！

A peculiar walk in this old man, a certain slight but painful appearing yawing in his gait, had at an early period of the voyage excited the curiosity of the mariners. —
这位老人走路的步伐有些奇特，走起路来总有一种轻微但痛苦的摇晃，在航行早期引起了水手们的好奇； —

And to the importunity of their persisted questionings he had finally given in; —
在他们坚持不懈的询问下，他最终坦白了； —

and so it came to pass that every one now knew the shameful story of his wretched fate.
于是，每个人现在都知道了他那可耻的悲惨命运的故事；

Belated, and not innocently, one bitter winter’s midnight, on the road running between two country towns, the blacksmith half-stupidly felt the deadly numbness stealing over him, and sought refuge in a leaning, dilapidated barn. —
在寒冷的冬夜深处，一位半醉的黑匠在两个乡间城镇之间的道路上，感到致命的麻木袭上身，于是寻求庇护在一间倾斜的破旧谷仓里； —

The issue was, the loss of the extremities of both feet. —
结果是，他失去了双脚的末端； —

Out of this revelation, part by part, at last came out the four acts of the gladness, and the one long, and as yet uncatastrophied fifth act of the grief of his life’s drama.
在这个揭示过程中，最终分别揭示了他一生戏剧的四幕欢乐以及一幕尚未遭受灾难的忧伤。

He was an old man, who, at the age of nearly sixty, had postponedly encountered that thing in sorrow’s technicals called ruin. —
他是一个老人，几乎六十岁时才遭遇了那种被称为“毁灭”的悲伤技巧中的事情。 —

He had been an artisan of famed excellence, and with plenty to do; owned a house and garden; —
他曾是一个著名优秀的工匠，工作很多；拥有一座房子和花园； —

embraced a youthful, daughter-like, loving wife, and three blithe, ruddy children; —
拥抱着一个像女儿般年轻，充满爱心的妻子，和三个快乐的，红润的孩子； —

every Sunday went to a cheerful-looking church, planted in a grove. —
每个星期天都去一座种植在树林里的看起来很愉快的教堂。 —

But one night, under cover of darkness, and further concealed in a most cunning disguisement, a desperate burglar slid into his happy home, and robbed them all of everything. —
但一天晚上，在黑暗中，并且伪装得很巧妙，一个绝望的窃贼溜进了他快乐的家，把他们所有人都抢走了一切。 —

And darker yet to tell, the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into his family’s heart. —
更不幸的是，这个铁匠自己无意中带着这个窃贼进入了他家庭的心房。 —

It was the Bottle Conjuror! Upon the opening of that fatal cork, forth flew the fiend, and shrivelled up his home. —
这正是魔瓶师！在那个致命的瓶塞被打开时，恶魔飞了出来，把他的家干枯了。 —

Now, for prudent, most wise, and economic reasons, the blacksmith’s shop was in the basement of his dwelling, but with a separate entrance to it; —
现在，出于谨慎，非常明智和经济的原因，铁匠的铁匠店建在他的住宅的地下室里，但有一个独立的入口； —

so that always had the young and loving healthy wife listened with no unhappy nervousness, but with vigorous pleasure, to the stout ringing of her young-armed old husband’s hammer; —
所以总是那位年轻、充满爱心的健康妻子听着自己年迈、多愁善感的丈夫年轻有力的锤子声，没有不快乐的紧张，而是充满了愉快，在她的育儿室里； —

whose reverberations, muffled by passing through the floors and walls, came up to her, not unsweetly, in her nursery; —
其回声，穿过地板和墙壁时被消减，带给她一种甜蜜，在她的育儿室里； —

and so, to stout Labor’s iron lullaby, the blacksmith’s infants were rocked to slumber.
于是，对于强壮的劳作的铁制摇篮儿歌，这位铁匠的婴儿们被摇着入睡。

Oh, woe on woe! Oh, Death, why canst thou not sometimes be timely? —
哦，悲哀上加悲哀！哦，死神，为什么你有时不及时一些呢？ —

Hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years; —
如果你在这位老铁匠陷入完全毁灭之前将他带走，那么年轻寡妇将享有一种美妙的悲伤，她的孤儿们在以后的岁月里会有一个真正值得尊敬、传奇的父亲来梦想； —

and all of them a care-killing competency. —
他们中的每一个人都将拥有一个抚养起来不费吹灰之力的财富。 —

But Death plucked down some virtuous elder brother, on whose whistling daily toil solely hung the responsibilities of some other family, and left the worse than useless old man standing, till the hideous rot of life should make him easier to harvest.
但死神却夺走了某个有品德的长兄，其他家庭的压力完全落在了他那嘘响的日常劳作上，留下了这位更比无用老人站在那里，直到生命中可怕的腐朽使他更容易被收割。

Why tell the whole? The blows of the basement hammer every day grew more and more between; —
为什么要告诉整个故事呢？地下的锤子声每天都越来越响亮； —

and each blow every day grew fainter than the last; —
每一击声都比前一天更微弱； —

the wife sat frozen at the window, with tearless eyes, glitteringly gazing into the weeping faces of her children; —
妻子坐在窗边，凝视着泪眼汪汪的孩子们，眼中没有泪水； —

the bellows fell; the forge choked up with cinders; the house was sold; —
风箱倒下了；锻造场被煤渣淹没；房子被卖掉了； —

the mother dived down into the long church-yard grass; her children twice followed her thither; —
母亲拾起满是长草的教堂墓地；孩子们两次跟随她去了那里； —

and the houseless, familyless old man staggered off a vagabond in crape; —
无家可归，无家庭的老人穿戴着哀悼蒙巾，蹒跚而去； —

his every woe unreverenced; his grey head a scorn to flaxen curls!
他的每一分痛苦都不值一提；他的灰发对金发儿童来说只是一种讥讽！

Death seems the only desirable sequel for a career like this; —
死亡似乎是这种人生涯中唯一令人向往的结局； —

but Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; —
但死亡只是进入陌生未知领域的起点； —

it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, the Watery, the Unshored; —
它只是初次与广阔、未曾探索过的地方、荒凉、波涛汹涌、无岸之地打招呼； —

therefore, to the death-longing eyes of such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and wonderful, new-life adventures; —
因此，对于这样的人，他们心中依然有一些反对自杀的悔恨情绪，茫茫大洋张开怀抱，展示着无法想象的、引人入胜的恐怖和奇妙的新生活冒险； —

and from the hearts of infinite Pacifics, the thousand mermaids sing to them–“Come hither, broken-hearted; —
无限的太平洋深处，成千上万的美人鱼向他们唱着：“到这里来吧，心碎的人； —

here is another life without the guilt of intermediate death; —
这里有另一种生命，没有中间死亡的罪恶； —

here are wonders supernatural, without dying for them. Come hither! —
这里有超自然的奇迹，而无需为之而死。到这里来吧！ —

bury thyself in a life which, to your now equally abhorred and abhorring, landed world, is more oblivious than death. —
埋没于一种生活中，对于你现在同样厌恶和憎恨的陆地世界来说，这种生活比死亡更值得忘却。 —

Come hither! put up thy grave-stone, too, within the churchyard, and come hither, till we marry thee!”
快过来！把你的墓碑也放在教堂旁边吧，到这儿来吧，等我们为你举办婚礼！

Hearkening to these voices, East and West, by early sunrise, and by fall of eve, the blacksmith’s soul responded, Aye, I come! —
听从这些声音，从东到西，清晨和傍晚，铁匠的灵魂回应道，是的，我来了！ —

And so Perth went a-whaling.
于是珀斯出海捕鲸。