Call me Ishmael. Some years ago–never mind how long precisely– having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. —
给我起名叫以实玛利好了。几年前–别管具体多长时间– 我钱包里几乎没有钱，岸上也没有什么特别吸引我的东西，于是我想到出去航行一下，看看这个水世界。 —

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. —
这是我一种消除愁闷和调整身体循环的方法。 —

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; —
每当我发现自己口角变得严厉； —

whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; —
每当我的灵魂里充满了潮湿阴冷的十一月； —

whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; —
每当我发现自己在棺材仓库前不由自主地停下脚步，并且是每次葬礼都在我后面； —

and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off–then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. —
特别是当我的忧郁吞噬我时，需要极强的道德准则才能阻止我故意走上街头，有条不紊地打掉别人的帽子–那时，我觉得是时候尽快上船了。 —

This is my substitute for pistol and ball. —
这就是我用来代替手枪和子弹的方法。 —

With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. —
卡托悲壮地跃马剑上；而我却静静地走向了海洋。 —

There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
这并不奇怪。如果他们知道的话，几乎所有人都在某个时候对大海怀有我差不多的感觉。

There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs–commerce surrounds it with her surf. —
现在你看到的就是曼哈顿这座岛城，被码头环绕着，就像印度的珊瑚礁一样–商业用她的波涛围绕她。 —

Right and left, the streets take you waterward. —
左右两边，街道带领你向水边走去。 —

Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. —
它的最南端是炮台，那里的高台被海浪冲刷着，被几小时前还看不见陆地的微风所凉爽。 —

Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
看看那里的水景观众们。

Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. —
在一个梦幻的安息日下午绕着城市走一圈吧。 —

Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see? —
从科勒尔角到科恩特斯码头，然后，经由怀特霍尔，向北。你看到什么？ —

–Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. —
–就像无声的哨兵一样，他们默默守望着城镇四周，数以千计的凡人被固定在海洋的沉思中。 —

Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; —
有些倚靠在桩上，有些坐在码头头部； —

some looking over the bulwarks glasses! of ships from China; —
有些凝视着从中国来的船只的舷窗； —

some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. —
有些高高地站在索具上，仿佛努力想要得到一个更好的朝海眺望。 —

But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster– tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. —
但他们都是陆地人；平日里他们被困在木板和石膏里–被绑在柜台上，钉在长凳上，紧握在办公桌前。 —

How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here?
那么，这是怎么回事？绿色的田园已经消失了吗？他们在这里干什么？

But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. —
然而看，又来了更多的人群，笔直地朝着水走去，似乎准备跳水。 —

Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; —
奇怪！他们除了陆地的最边缘，什么都不会满足； —

loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. —
在那边仓库的阴凉处闲逛已经不够了。 —

No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. —
不，他们必须尽可能地靠近水，而又不能掉进去。 —

And there they stand–miles of them–leagues. —
于是他们站在那里–有好几英里长的人群–好几海里。 —

Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues,– north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. —
他们都是内陆人，他们来自小巷和胡同，街道和大道– 北、东、南、西。然而他们都在这里相聚。 —

Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?
告诉我，是不是所有那些船的指南针的磁性吸引了他们去那里？

Once more. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. —
再说。假如你在乡村；在一片湖地高地。 —

Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. —
走几乎任何一条小路，十有八九会带你走下山谷，并把你留在那里，靠近溪流中的一个池塘旁。 —

There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries–stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. —
里面有魔力。让那些最心不在焉的人陷入深深的沉思中——让那个人站起来，让他的脚开始行动，如果那个地区有水，他肯定会领你去找到水。 —

Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. —
如果你曾在美国大沙漠中口渴无比，请尝试这个实验，如果你的队伍碰巧有一位形而上学教授。 —

Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.
是的，众所周知，沉思和水是永远结合在一起的。

But here is an artist. He desires to paint you the dreamiest, shadiest, quietest, most enchanting bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. What is the chief element he employs? —
但这里有一个艺术家。他想为你描绘出萨科河谷中最梦幻、最阴暗、最宁静、最迷人的一小片浪漫景色。他使用的主要元素是什么？ —

There stand his trees, each with a hollow trunk, as if a hermit and a crucifix were within; —
那里有他的树木，每棵都有一个空心的树干，仿佛一位隐士和一座十字架就在里面； —

and here sleeps his meadow, and there sleep his cattle; —
这里是他的草地，那里是他的牛群在沉睡； —

and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke. —
那边的小屋里升起一缕慵懒的烟。 —

Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way, reaching to overlapping spurs of mountains bathed in their hill-side blue. —
深入遥远的林地蜿蜒着一条凌驾于山脚山腰蓝色的重叠山脉的迷宫般小路。 —

But though the picture lies thus tranced, and though this pine-tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd’s head, yet all were vain, unless the shepherd’s eye were fixed upon the magic stream before him. —
但是尽管画面就这样沉醉着，尽管这棵松树像落叶一样在这个牧羊人头上飘散着叹息，如果牧羊人的眼睛没有盯住他面前的魔法小溪，那一切都是徒劳的。 —

Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among Tiger-lilies–what is the one charm wanting? —
六月时去大草原遍地的虎百合中涉水而行数十英里——缺少的是什么一种魅力？ —

– Water there is not a drop of water there! —
—那里不是一滴水！ —

Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it? —
如果尼亚加拉瀑布只是一片沙瀑布，你会为了看它而跋涉一千英里吗？ —

Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach? —
田纳西州的可怜诗人突然收到两把银子，为何犹豫是要买一件自己非常需要的外套，还是用钱去步行去罗克维海滩？ —

Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea? —
为什么几乎每个有坚强健康灵魂的健壮男孩在某个时候都疯狂地想要出海？ —

Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? —
第一次作为乘客航行时，为何当你被告知你和你的船现在已经看不到陆地时，你自己会感受到如此神秘的震动？ —

Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? —
为什么古老的波斯人视海为神圣？ —

Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? —
为什么希腊人给海洋一个独立的神明,被称为宙斯的兄弟？ —

Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. —
当然，这一切都不是没有意义的。那个关于纳西索斯的故事更加深刻，他因为无法抓住他在水池中见到的折磨人的温和形象，于是跳进水里淹死。 —

But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. —
但同样的形象，我们在所有河流和海洋中都能看到。 —

It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; —
这是生命中无法理解的幻影的形象； —

and this is the key to it all.
这是一切的关键。

Now, when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin to grow hazy about the eyes, and begin to be over conscious of my lungs, I do not mean to have it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger. —
所以，当我说我习惯于每当我的眼睛开始模糊，开始过度关注我的肺部时就去海上时，我并不是说我会像乘客那样去海上. —

For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse, and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. —
因为要作为乘客，就必须要有一个钱包，而如果里面没有东西的话，钱包就只不过是一块布而已。 —

Besides, passengers get sea-sick– grow quarrelsome–don’t sleep of nights–do not enjoy themselves much, as a general thing; —
而且，乘客会晕船-变得好斗-晚上睡不着觉-通常来说并不会过得很愉快； —

–no, I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook. I abandon the glory and distinction of such offices to those who like them. —
我从不去当乘客；即使我是个有经验的船员，我也从不去当海军中将、船长或厨师。我把这些职务的光荣和荣耀留给那些喜欢的人。 —

For my part, I abominate all honorable respectable toils, trials, and tribulations of every kind whatsoever. —
至于我，我憎恶一切光荣可尊的劳动、考验和磨难。 —

It is quite as much as I can do to take care of myself, without taking care of ships, barques, brigs, schooners, and what not. —
照顾好我自己已经是足够艰难的了，不需要再去照顾船只、平底船、大帆船、单桅船或其他任何东西。 —

And as for going as cook,–though I confess there is considerable glory in that, a cook being a sort of officer on ship-board–yet, somehow, I never fancied broiling fowls; —
至于当厨师，虽然我承认那是有相当的光荣的，作为船上的一种职务-但不知怎的，我从来没有喜欢烤鸡； —

–though once broiled, judiciously buttered, and judgmatically salted and peppered, there is no one who will speak more respectfully, not to say reverentially, of a broiled fowl than I will. —
虽然一旦烤好，涂上黄油，撒上盐和胡椒，没有人比我更恭敬, 甚至可以说维持敬畏的态度对待烤过的鸡。 —

It is out of the idolatrous dotings of the old Egyptians upon broiled ibis and roasted river horse, that you see the mummies of those creatures in their huge bakehouses the pyramids.
正是出于古埃及人对烤朱鸟和烤河马的痴迷，你才会看到那些生物的木乃伊在它们的巨大烘烤房-金字塔中。

No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast, plumb down into the fore-castle, aloft there to the royal mast-head. —
不，当我出海时，我只是一个简单的水手，就在桅杆底部，一直到皇家桅杆的顶端。 —

True, they rather order me about some, and make me jump from spar to spar, like a grasshopper in a May meadow. —
确实，他们有点命令我，让我像五月草地上的蚱蜢一样从桅杆跳到桅杆。 —

And at first, this sort of thing is unpleasant enough. —
起初，这种事情是相当令人不快的。 —

It touches one’s sense of honor, particularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the Van Rensselaers, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes. —
这触及到人的荣誉感，特别是如果你来自于本地的老家族，比如范伦瑟勒家族、兰道夫家族或哈地卡纳佐家族。 —

And more than all, if just previous to putting your hand into the tar-pot, you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster, making the tallest boys stand in awe of you. —
更重要的是，如果在把手伸进涂沥罐之前，你一直是个乡村学校的校长，让最高的男孩们对你肃然起敬。 —

The transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor, and requires a strong decoction of Seneca and the Stoics to enable you to grin and bear it. —
我向你保证，从一个学校校长转变成一个水手是一个犀利的转变，这需要大量的西尼加和斯多咧柯的药剂才能让你咧牙苦笑。 —

But even this wears off in time.
但随着时间的推移，这种感觉会消退。

What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? —
哪有什么大不了的，如果一位满嘴脏话的老水手吩咐我去拿把扫帚清扫甲板？ —

What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament? —
这种侮辱又算得了什么，我是说，放在《新约》的天平上算得了什么？ —

Do you think the archangel Gabriel thinks anything the less of me, because I promptly and respectfully obey that old hunks in that particular instance? —
你觉得大天使加百利会因为我在那种特别情况下及时而恭敬地服从那位老水手而对我产生任何贬低吗？ —

Who ain’t a slave? Tell me that. Well, then, however the old sea-captains may order me about–however they may thump and punch me about, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is all right; —
谁不是个奴隶？告诉我吧。好吧，不管老船长们怎么命令我，不管他们怎么拳打脚踢我，我安慰自己知道一切都是对的； —

that everybody else is one way or other served in much the same way– either in a physical or metaphysical point of view, that is; —
所有人或物以某种方式都在某种程度上受到相同待遇– 无论是在生理上还是在形而上的角度，也就是说； —

and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder-blades, and be content.
所以普遍的拳打踢就这样传开，每个人都应该互相揉揉肩膀，满足于此。

Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of. —
再者，我总是作为一个水手去航海，因为他们着重于为我的辛苦付酬，而乘客则从来不付我听说过的一分钱。 —

On the contrary, passengers themselves must pay. —
相反，乘客们必须付费。 —

And there is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid. —
世界上付钱和被付钱之间有着天壤之别。 —

The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. —
付钱的行为或许是两个偷苹果的小偷对我们施加的最令人不安的折磨。 —

But being paid,– what will compare with it? —
但是被付钱，什么能与之媲美呢？ —

The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. —
一个人收到金钱时的和蔼态度实在是奇妙，考虑到我们如此深信金钱是一切世俗的祸根，并且绝不能让有钱人进入天堂。 —

Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!
啊！我们是多么愉快地将自己置身于毁灭之中！

Finally, I always go to sea as a sailor, because of the wholesome exercise and pure air of the fore-castle deck. —
最后，我总是以水手的身份出海，因为甲板上的健康锻炼和清新空气。 —

For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at second hand from the sailors on the forecastle. —
因为在这个世界上，逆风比顺风要多得多（也就是说，如果你从不违背毕达哥拉斯的格言），所以大部分时候，舰队指挥官在后甲板从水手们口中获得空气。 —

He thinks he breathes it first; but not so. —
他认为自己是第一个呼吸到的，但并非如此。 —

In much the same way do the commonalty lead their leaders in many other things, at the same time that the leaders little suspect it. —
古训还体现在许多其他方面，平民在许多事情上引导领袖，同时，领袖们很少怀疑这一点。 —

But wherefore it was that after having repeatedly smelt the sea as a merchant sailor, I should now take it into my head to go on a whaling voyage; —
但是在作为一个商船水手多次闻过海味之后，我为何决定参加捕鲸航行； —

this the invisible police officer of the Fates, who has the constant surveillance of me, and secretly dogs me, and influences me in some unaccountable way– he can better answer than any one else. —
这个潜藏的命运警察，他一直密切监视着我，偷偷跟踪我，并以某种难以理解的方式影响我——他比其他任何人更能回答这个问题。 —

And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. —
无疑，我参加这次捕鲸航行是由长时间以前制定的上帝的伟大计划的一部分。 —

It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. —
它只是作为更广泛表演之间的一种简短的插曲和独奏。 —

I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:
我想这部分账单应该大致像这样：

“Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States. —
“美利坚合众国总统大选激烈争夺。” —

“WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL.” “BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN.”
“一个ISHMAEL的捕鲸航行。”“阿富汗的血腥战斗。”

Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces– though I cannot tell why this was exactly; —
虽然我无法告诉为什么那些舞台经理，命运女神们将我安排参与这次卑微的捕鲸航行，而其他人被安排参与宏伟的悲剧，高雅喜剧中短暂轻松的角色，以及喜剧中欢乐的角色——虽然我无法确切地说为什么是这样的； —

yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.
但现在回想起所有的情况，我想我可以稍微看出一点潜藏在这些情况中的动机和原因，它们巧妙地呈现在我面前，让我在各种伪装下开始扮演我所扮演的角色，此外还欺骗我产生这个念头，以为这是一个出自我自由意志和明智判断的选择。

Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. —
其中最主要的动机就是伟大的鲸鱼本身。 —

Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. —
这种不祥而神秘的怪兽引发了我的好奇心。 —

Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; —
然后是他在翻滚他的庞大身躯的荒凉遥远的海洋； —

the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; —
鲸鱼所面临的无法描述的、无法命名的危险； —

these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me to my wish. —
这些连同一千个巴塔哥尼亚景象和声响一起展示的奇迹，帮助我实现了我的愿望。 —

With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; —
对于其他人，也许这些事情不会成为诱因； —

but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. —
但对我来说，我被永恒的远方之物所困扰。 —

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. —
我喜欢航行禁忌之海，登上野蛮之岸。 —

Not ignoring what is good, I am quick to perceive a horror, and could still be social with it–would they let me–since it is but well to be on friendly terms with all the inmates of the place one lodges in.
不忽视善良之事，我迅速察觉到恐惧，尽管与之共处也未尝不可——如果他们让我待在那里——因为与所寄宿之处的所有居民保持友好关系是明智之举。

By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; —
因为这些原因，捕鲸航行是受欢迎的； —

the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.
奇异世界的巨大闸门张开，在支配我目的的狂想中，鲸鱼的无尽队伍两两漂浮进入我的内心深处，其中最主要的是一个雄伟的、飘忽如雪山般的露面幽灵。