As Queequeg and I are now fairly embarked in this business of whaling; —
当Queequeg和我已经相当投入这项捕鲸事业时; —

and as this business of whaling has somehow come to be regarded among landsmen as a rather unpoetical and disreputable pursuit; —
而这项捕鲸业在陆地居民中已经被视为一种相当不浪漫和有损声誉的追求; —

therefore, I am all anxiety to convince ye, ye landsmen, of the injustice hereby done to us hunters of whales.
因此，我非常渴望说服你们，陆地居民，不要对我们这些捕鲸者进行不公正的评价。

In the first place, it may be deemed almost superfluous to establish the fact, that among people at large, the business of whaling is not accounted on a level with what are called the liberal professions. —
首先，几乎可以被视为多余去证明这一事实，即在大多数人看来，捕鲸事业并不被视为与所谓的自由职业平等。 —

If a stranger were introduced into any miscellaneous metropolitan society, it would but slightly advance the general opinion of his merits, were he presented to the company as a harpooneer, say; —
如果一个陌生人被引入任何杂乱的大都市社会，如果他被介绍给社会成员时以捕鲸者的身份出现，这对他的优点的总体评价影响甚微； —

and if in emulation of the naval officers he should append the initials S.W.F. (Sperm Whale Fishery) to his visiting card, such a procedure would be deemed preeminently presuming and ridiculous.
如果他为了仿效海军军官，将”S.W.F.” (抹香鲸捕捞)的缩写附在他的名片上，这样的做法将被认为是极端放肆和可笑的。

Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honoring us whalemen, is this: —
毋庸置疑，世人拒绝尊重我们捕鲸者的一个主要原因是： —

they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business; —
他们认为，充其量，我们的职业只不过是一种宰杀的生意； —

and that when actively engaged therein, we are surrounded by all manner of defilements. —
而当我们积极地从事其中时，我们周围则充满各种污秽。 —

Butchers we are, that is true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honor. —
我们是屠夫，这是真的。但是，所有被世界始终欣然尊崇的军事指挥官，也是最血腥的屠夫。 —

And as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-ship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. —
至于我们的事业被指控的肮脏， —

But even granting the charge in question to be true; —
即使假定这一指控属实； —

what disordered slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies’ plaudits? —
那么，在一条鲸船上混乱滑腻的甲板与那些许多士兵从那些战场上返回，以至于让众多女士都为其鼓掌的无法形容的腐烂尸体相比，哪一个更胜一筹？ —

And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldier’s profession; —
如果危险的观念如此增强了士兵职业的受欢迎程度； —

let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale’s vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over his head. —
让我向你们保证，许多自由冲上阵地的老兵，当看到抹香鲸巨大的尾巴扇动着在他头上的空气中形成涡流时，会迅速退缩。 —

For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!
人类可怕的恐惧与上帝无尽的恐惧和奇迹相比如何！

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; —
然而，尽管世界嘲笑我们捕鲸者，但却无意中向我们致以最深刻的敬意； —

yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!
是的，是一种无所不在的崇拜！因为全球燃烧的几乎所有蜡烛和灯，都如在我们的荣耀之前燃烧！

But look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of scales; —
但以其他角度看待这个问题；用各种标准来衡量； —

see what we whalemen are, and have been.
看看我们捕鲸人是谁，曾经是谁。

Why did the Dutch in De Witt’s time have admirals of their whaling fleets? —
为什么荷兰在德维特时代有捕鲸舰队的海军上将？ —

Why did Louis XVI of France, at his own personal expense, fit out whaling ships from Dunkirk, and politely invite to that town some score or two of families from our own island of Nantucket? —
为什么法国的路易十六以自己的个人费用从敦刻尔克装备捕鲸船，并亲切地邀请我们来自南塔基特岛的几十个家庭去那个城镇？ —

Why did Britain between the years 1750 and 1788 pay to her whalemen in bounties upwards of 1,000,000 pounds? —
为什么在1750年至1788年间，英国支付给捕鲸者的赏金高达100万英镑？ —

And lastly, how comes it that we whalemen of America now outnumber all the rest of the banded whalemen in the world; —
最后，为什么美国的捕鲸者现在在全球的捕鲸者中人数最多； —

sail a navy of upwards of seven hundred vessels; manned by eighteen thousand men; —
驾驶着七百多艘船只的舰队；由一万八千名水手组成； —

yearly consuming 00824,000,000 of dollars; —
每年消耗824亿美元； —

the ships worth, at the time of sailing, 20,000,000 dollars; —
船只价值在出发时达到2亿美元； —

and every year importing into our harbors a well reaped harvest of 00847,000,000 dollars. —
并且每年向我们的港口进口价值470亿美元丰收。 —

How comes all this, if there be not something puissant in whaling?
如果捕鲸没有强大的影响力，那么所有这一切是怎么发生的呢？

But this is not the half; look again.
但这还不算什么；再看看。

I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling. —
我可以自由地断言，过去六十年来，全球范围内没有一种和平影响能够比捕鲸这项高大而伟大的业务更有力量。 —

One way and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb. —
无论从哪个方面来看，这项业务都引发了如此引人注目的事件，其连续的重要性后果是如此巨大，使得捕鲸很可能被视为那位埃及母亲，她生下的后代自身就怀孕了。 —

It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue all these things. Let a handful suffice. —
要列举所有这些事情是一个无望的、永无止境的任务。让少数几个足够了。 —

For many years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth. —
多年来，捕鲸船一直是探索地球最偏远、最未知部分的先驱。 —

She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cooke or Vancouver had ever sailed. —
她已经探索了没有航海图的海域和群岛，那里从未有库克或温哥华航行过。 —

If American and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted between them and the savages. —
如果美国和欧洲的军舰现在可以平静地停泊在曾经野蛮的港口里，那么他们应该对捕鲸船致敬，并向它鸣炮，因为捕鲸船最初开辟了道路，并首次在他们与野蛮人之间做出了沟通。 —

They may celebrate as they will the heroes of Exploring Expeditions, your Cookes, Your Krusensterns; but I say that scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket, that were as great, and greater, than your Cooke and your Krusenstern. —
他们可能只是歌颂探险远征的英雄，如库克、克鲁森斯泰恩；但我要说，有无数不知名的船长从南塔基特出航，他们和库克、克鲁森斯泰恩一样伟大，甚至更伟大。 —

For in their succorless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cooke with all his marines and muskets would not willingly have willingly dared. —
因为在那些毫无援助的空手结局中，他们在野蛮的鲨鱼水域和记录上没有的标枪岛屿的海滩附近，与库克和他的海军士兵一同都不愿意轻易冒险的处女奇迹和恐怖进行了搏斗。 —

All that is made such a flourish of in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the life-time commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers. —
在古老南海航行中如此夸张的事物，对我们英勇的南塔基特人来说只是生活中的琐事。 —

Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set down in the ship’s common log. —
温哥华要花三章啊大事发表的冒险对这些人来说不值得被记录在船舶的日志中。 —

Ah, the world! Oh, the world!
啊，这个世界！哦，这个世界！

Until the whale fishery rounded Cape Horn, no commerce but colonial, scarcely any intercourse but colonial, was carried on between Europe and the long line of the opulent Spanish provinces on the Pacific coast. —
在鲸鱼渔业环绕好望角之前，欧洲与太平洋沿岸富裕西班牙省份之间几乎没有除殖民地贸易，也没有除殖民地的往来。 —

It was the whalemen who first broke through the jealous policy of the Spanish crown, touching those colonies; —
第一个打破西班牙王室偏执政策的是捕鲸者； —

and, if space permitted, it might be distinctly shown how from those whalemen at last eventuated the liberation of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia from the yoke of Old Spain, and the establishment of the eternal democracy in those parts.
而且，如果空间允许的话，可以清楚地表明，最终从那些捕鲸者那里追溯出了秘鲁、智利和玻利维亚从旧西班牙的枷锁下解放，并在那些地方建立了永恒的民主。

That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia, was given to the enlightened world by the whaleman. —
那片遥远的美洲，澳大利亚，是捕鲸者给予开明世界的。 —

After its first blunder-born discovery by a Dutchman, all other ships, long shunned those shores as pestiferously barbarous; —
在一位荷兰人第一次不小心发现该地区后，所有其他船只长期回避那些被视为野蛮的海岸线； —

but the whale-ship touched there. The whale-ship is the true mother of that now mighty colony. —
但是捕鲸船却在那里停靠。捕鲸船才是那个如今庞大殖民地的真正母亲。 —

Moreover, in the infancy of the first Australian settlement, the emigrants were several times saved from starvation by the benevolent biscuit of the whale-ship luckily dropping an anchor in their waters. —
此外，在第一个澳大利亚定居点刚刚成立的时候，几次因为捕鲸船幸运地在他们水域里下锚，才使移民们得以免于饥饿。 —

The uncounted isles of all Polynesia confess the same truth, and do commercial homage to the whale-ship, that cleared the way for the missionary and the merchant, and in many cases carried the primitive missionaries to their first destinations. —
所有波利尼西亚无数的岛屿都承认同样的真相，并向捕鲸船表示商业的敬意，这就为传教士和商人铺平了道路，并在许多情况下将最初的传教士运送到他们的目的地。 —

If that double-bolted land, Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom the credit will be due; —
如果那个上面锁得非常严实的国家，日本，要变得好客，那功劳只能归于捕鲸船； —

for already she is on the threshold.
因为它已经在门槛之上。

But if, in the face of all this, you still declare that whaling has no aesthetically noble associations connected with it, then am I ready to shiver fifty lances with you there, and unhorse you with a split helmet every time.
但是，如果你仍坚持认为捕鲸没有与之美学高贵联系的话，那我愿意在这里和你各握五十枪，每次都击败你，让你的头盔碎裂。

The whale has no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler, you will say.
鲸鱼没有名声显赫的作者，捕鲸也没有著名的记录者，你会说。

The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler? —
鲸鱼没有名声显赫的作者，捕鲸也没有著名的记录者？ —

Who wrote the first account of our Leviathan? Who but mighty Job? —
谁写下了我们巨兽的第一份记述？岂非伟大的约伯？ —

And who composed the first narrative of a whaling-voyage? —
而第一篇捕鲸航行的叙述是谁创作的呢？ —

Who, but no less a prince than Alfred the Great, who, with his own royal pen, took down the words from Other, the Norwegian whale-hunter of those times! —
除了伟大的阿尔弗雷德大帝，谁会拿起自己的皇家笔记录当时挪威捕鲸者欧瑟的言辞！ —

And who pronounced our glowing eulogy in Parliament? —
谁在国会里称赞我们如此热情？ —

Who, but Edmund Burke!
难道不是艾德蒙·伯克！

True enough, but then whalemen themselves are poor devils; they have no good blood in their veins.
的确如此，但捕鲸者们本身都是可怜的家伙；他们的血液里没有高贵的血统。

No good blood in their veins? They have something better than royal blood there. —
没有高贵的血统？他们的血液中存在着比皇家血统更宝贵的东西。 —

The grandmother of Benjamin Franklin was Mary Morrel; —
本杰明·富兰克林的祖母是玛丽·莫雷尔； —

afterwards, by marriage, Mary Folger, one of the old settlers of Nantucket, and the ancestress to a long line of Folgers and harpooneers–all kith and kin to noble Benjamin– this day darting the barbed iron from one side of the world to the other.
后来，由于婚姻，成为了南塔基特的老定居者之一玛丽·福尔杰，富兰克林家族和捕鲸者的共祖母——今日将铁箭头从世界一端射向另一端。

Good again; but then all confess that somehow whaling is not respectable.
确实不错；但大家都承认捕鲸方式不够体面。

Whaling not respectable? Whaling is imperial! —
捕鲸不够体面？捕鲸是帝国的象征！ —

By old English statutory law, the whale is declared “a royal fish.”
英国古法律规定，鲸鱼被宣布为“皇家鱼”。

Oh, that’s only nominal! The whale himself has never figured in any grand imposing way.
噢，那只是名义上的！鲸鱼本身从未以任何盛大令人印象深刻的方式出现过。

The whale never figured in any grand imposing way? —
鲸鱼从未以任何宏伟雄姿的方式显现过？ —

In one of the mighty triumphs given to a Roman general upon his entering the world’s capital, the bones of a whale, brought all the way from the Syrian coast, were the most conspicuous object in the cymballed procession.*
在罗马将军进入世界首都时，从叙利亚海岸带来的鲸鱼骨骼在整个庆典游行中是最引人注目的物体。

*See subsequent chapters for something more on this head.
关于这一点，后续章节会有更多的内容。

Grant it, since you cite it; but say what you will, there is no real dignity in whaling.
承认吧，尽管你引用了它；但不管你说什么，捕鲸并没有真正的尊严。

No dignity in whaling? The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. —
捕鲸没有尊严？我们所从事的工作的尊严，连上天都在见证。 —

Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more! —
仙女座是南方的一个星座！仅此而已！ —

Drive down your hat in presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg! No more! —
当着沙皇的面踩紧你的帽子，向Queequeg脱帽致敬！仅此而已！ —

I know a man that, in his lifetime has taken three hundred and fifty whales. —
我认识一个终其一生捕获了三百五十只鲸鱼的人。 —

I account that man more honorable than that great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns.
我认为那个人比某位自称曾攻克过同样数量的城墙的伟大将军更值得尊敬。

And, as for me, if, by any possibility, there be any as yet undiscovered prime thing in me; —
至于我，如果可能的话，如果我身上存在尚未被发现的优秀品质； —

if I shall ever deserve any real repute in that small but high hushed world which I might not be unreasonably ambitious of; —
如果我日后配得上在某个小小但崇高而安静的世界里获得一定声誉； —

if hereafter I shall do anything that, upon the whole, a man might rather have done than to have left undone; —
如果我将来做了某件事，综合考虑，一个人宁愿去做也不愿意不去做； —

if, at my death, my executors, or more properly my creditors, find any precious MSS. in my desk, then here I prospectively ascribe all the honor and the glory to whaling; —
如果在我死后，我的执行人，更准确地说是我的债权人，在我的桌子里找到了珍贵的手稿，那么我在这里预先归功于捕鲸的荣誉和辉煌； —

for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
因为一个捕鲸船是我的耶鲁大学，也是我的哈佛大学。