For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen of Captain Ahab. The mates regularly relieved each other at the watches, and for aught that could be seen to the contrary, they seemed to be the only commanders of the ship; —
离开南丁格尔后的几天里，艾哈伯船长的身影在船上甲板上方始终没有出现。船长们定时轮换值夜，看起来似乎他们是船上唯一的指挥官； —

only they sometimes issued from the cabin with orders so sudden and peremptory, that after all it was plain they but commanded vicariously. —
只是他们有时会突然而专横地走出舱室，颁发命令，明显是代理的； —

Yes, their supreme lord and dictator was there, though hitherto unseen by any eyes not permitted to penetrate into the now sacred retreat of the cabin.
是的，他们的至高领主和独裁者在那里，尽管迄今为止没有任何眼睛被允许窥视船舱这个现在神圣的地方；

Every time I ascended to the deck from my watches below, I instantly gazed aft to mark if any strange face were visible; —
每当我从下面的值夜中上升到甲板，我立即往后张望，看看是否有任何陌生的面孔可见； —

for my first vague disquietude touching the unknown captain, now in the seclusion of the sea became almost a perturbation. —
因为我对未知船长的第一个模糊不安，如今在海的隐秘中几乎变成了一种心烦意乱； —

This was strangely heightened at times by the ragged Elijah’s diabolical incoherences uninvitedly recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived of. —
有时，这种不安被衣衫褴褛的以利亚的恶魔般的语无伦次不请自来地重现，以一种我以前无法想象的微妙能量。 —

But poorly could I withstand them, much as in other moods I was almost ready to smile at the solemn whimsicalities of that outlandish prophet of the wharves. —
但我很难抵挡，尽管在其他情绪中，我几乎愿意微笑于那个海船码头奇异的先知的庄严怪癖。 —

But whatever it was of apprehensiveness or uneasiness–to call it so– which I felt, yet whenever I came to look about me in the ship, it seemed against all warranty to cherish such emotions. —
但无论是害怕还是不安的情绪，或者称之为这样，但每当我在船上四处看看时，对于怀有这样的情绪似乎是毫无依据的。 —

For though the harpooneers, with the great body of the crew, were a far more barbaric, heathenish, and motley set than any of the tame merchant-ship companies which my previous experiences had made me acquainted with, still I ascribed this–and rightly ascribed it–to the fierce uniqueness of the very nature of that wild Scandinavian vocation in which I had so abandonedly embarked. —
因为鱼叉手与船员中的绝大多数都比我以往的经历所熟悉的温顺商船船员更加野蛮、异教徒和五花八门，但我把这归因于我所慷慨放弃航行的那种狂暴的斯堪的那维亚职业的特殊性质，这是正确的。 —

But it was especially the aspect of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was most forcibly calculated to allay these colorless misgivings, and induce confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage. —
但尤其令人消除这些苍白的疑虑、并在航行的每一个展现中带来信心和快乐的是船上的三位首席船员，即船长们。 —

Three better, more likely sea-officers and men, each in his own different way, could not readily be found, and they were every one of them Americans; —
在每一种方式下找不到更好更值得信赖的海军军官和人，他们是美国人。 —

a Nantucketer, a Vineyarder, a Cape man. —
一个来自南塔基特岛，一个来自葡萄园，一个来自卡普曼。 —

Now, it being Christmas when the ship shot from out her harbor, for a space we had biting Polar weather, though all the time running away from it to the southward; —
现在，船在圣诞节时从港口驶出，我们对极地寒冷天气有一段时间的感受，尽管整个时间我们都在朝南方远离。 —

and by every degree and minute of latitude which we sailed, gradually leaving that merciless winter, and all its intolerable weather behind us. —
每度每分钟的纬度航行，逐渐将那无情的冬季和所有令人无法忍受的天气抛在身后。 —

It was one of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch, so soon as I levelled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. —
这是过渡期中一种比较阴沉但依然灰蒙蒙的早晨，带着顺风航行的船以一种具有报复性的跳跃和忧郁的快速度冲过水面，正当我在前午值班的呼唤下走到甲板上时，一旦我把目光对准船尾，一种令人不安的颤栗感袭来。 —

Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.
现实超越了恐惧；亚哈船长站在他的四分之一甲板上。

There seemed no sign of common bodily illness about him, nor of the recovery from any. —
关于他，似乎没有普通的身体疾病的迹象，也没有恢复的迹象。 —

He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness. —
他看起来像是被从柱上割下来的人，当火焰过度烧毁了所有四肢却没有将它们消灭，也没有从它们坚实的老朽结构上夺走一丝。 —

His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mould, like Cellini’s cast Perseus. —
他高大、广阔的整体形象，看起来像是由坚实的青铜制成，铸造成一个无法改变的模型，就像塞利尼的帕修斯。 —

Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. —
从他的灰色头发中穿过，一直沿着他焦黄的脸和颈部的一侧延伸，直到消失在他的衣服中，你会看到一个纤细的棒状标记，呈苍白的白色。 —

It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded. —
它看起来像是大树笔直的高大树干上有时产生的那种垂直缝隙，当上部的闪电冲下来，并在从上到下扯下皮，直到流入土壤，让树仍然绿色生机盎然，但留下烙印。 —

Whether that mark was born with him, or whether it was the scar left by some desperate wound, no one could certainly say. —
这个标记是跟随他出生的，还是被某种绝望的伤口留下的，没人能确定。 —

By some tacit consent, throughout the voyage little or no allusion was made to it, especially by the mates. —
通过某种心照不宣的默契，在整个航程中几乎没有人提及这件事，尤其是船长。 —

But once Tashtego’s senior, an old Gay-Head Indian among the crew, superstitiously asserted that not till he was full forty years old did Ahab become that way branded, and then it came upon him, not in the fury of any mortal fray, but in an elemental strife at sea. —
但旁观者之一，船员中的一位老盖海德印第安人曾迷信地声称，直到他满四十岁，艾哈布才变成那种样子，而这种标记并非源自任何凡人之间的激烈冲突，而是源自海上的一场元素之争。 —

Yet, this wild hint seemed inferentially negatived, by what a grey Manxman insinuated, an old sepulchral man, who, having never before sailed out of Nantucket, had never ere this laid eye upon wild Ahab. Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment. —
然而，老曼岛人暗示的这种狂野线索似乎被推翻了，这位老陵墓管理人暗示，一个从未离开南塔基特岛出海的陈旧的陵墓管理人此前从未见过狂野的艾哈布。然而，古老的海上传统和过去的迷信使得这位老曼岛人在大众心目中被赋予了超自然的辨别能力。 —

So that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever Captain Ahab should be tranquilly laid out– which might hardly come to pass, so he muttered–then, whoever should do that last office for the dead, would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.
因此，当他说如果艾哈布船长最终得以平静安葬-尽管这可能几乎不可能发生，他嘟囔道-那么，谁应该做他的最后葬礼，就会在他身上发现从头到脚的出生痕迹时，没有一位白人水手严肃地反驳了他。

So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me, and the livid brand which streaked it, that for the first few moments I hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood. —
艾哈布整个可怕的面容对我产生了如此巨大的影响，以及在其面部留下的灰白色痕迹，以至于在最初几分钟里，我几乎没有注意到这种傲慢多情的表情在很大程度上是因为他所站立的蛮横白色的腿。 —

It had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whale’s jaw. —
我此前已经知道这根象牙腿曾经在海上是由抛光的抹香鲸下颚骨制成的。 —

“Aye, he was dismasted off Japan,” said the old Gay-Head Indian once; —
“是的，他在日本海被断桅，”老盖海德印第安人曾经说； —

“but like his dismasted craft, he shipped another mast without coming home for it. —
“但就像他的断桅船一样，他装上了另一根桅杆，却没有回家去换。” —

He has a quiver of ‘em.”
他有一箭筒。”

I was struck with the singular posture he maintained. —
我被他保持的奇特姿势所震惊。 —

Upon each side of the Pequod’s quarter deck, and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds, there was an auger hole, bored about half an inch or so, into the plank. —
在皮科德的船尾甲板的两侧，靠近后桅索，钻有一个约半英寸左右的螺孔，钻入木板。 —

His bone leg steadied in that hole; one arm elevated, and holding by a shroud; —
他的骨腿稳稳地放在那个孔里；一只手臂高举，抓着一根索； —

Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the ship’s ever-pitching prow. —
艾哈布船长直立起来，直视着船头不断起伏的前部。 —

There was an infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedication of that glance. —
那眼神中有着无穷无尽的坚定刚毅，决然不屈的意志，定睛的注视表现出了坚定和无畏。 —

Not a word he spoke; nor did his officers say aught to him; —
他没有说一句话；他的军官们也没有对他说什么； —

though by all their minutest gestures and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if not painful, consciousness of being under a troubled master-eye. —
尽管从他们最微小的动作和表情中可以明显看出，他们清楚地感受到了作为一个困扰着他们的主人的不安甚至是痛苦的意识。 —

And not only that, but moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face; —
而不仅如此，忧郁的艾哈布站在他们面前，脸上带着一种被钉在十字架上的表情； —

in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe.
以某种巨大悲痛的无名王者般高傲的尊严。

Ere long, from his first visit in the air, he withdrew into his cabin. —
不久之后，他从空中第一次露面之后就退到了自己的船舱里。 —

But after that morning, he was every day visible to the crew; —
但从那天早晨开始，他每天都对船员可见； —

either standing in his pivot-hole, or seated upon an ivory stool he had; —
无论是站在自己的转轴孔中，还是坐在他的象牙凳上； —

or heavily walking the deck. As the sky grew less gloomy; —
或是在甲板上沉重地行走。天空变得不那么阴郁之后； —

indeed, began to grow a little genial, he became still less and less a recluse; —
确实，开始变得有些和煦之后，他变得越来越不再孤僻； —

as if, when the ship had sailed from home, nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded. —
就好像当船离开家时，唯一使他感觉孤立的是死寒的冬日荒凉的海。 —

And, by and by, it came to pass, that he was almost continually in the air; —
后来，他几乎总是在露天上； —

but, as yet, for all that he said, or perceptibly did, on the at last sunny deck, he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast. —
但是，即使在最终阳光灿烂的甲板上，他所说或明显做的一切，似乎和另一个桅杆一样不必要。 —

But the Pequod was only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; —
但皮克德号现在只是在航行；不再定期巡航； —

nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite Ahab, now; —
几乎所有捕鲸的准备工作都需要监督，副船长们完全胜任，因此除了他自己之外，现在几乎没有什么东西能够让艾哈布感到工作上的兴奋， —

and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.
因此在那段时间里，层层叠加在他的额头上的云，似乎逐渐被愉快的节日气候的温暖而多愁善感地劝说着驱散。

Nevertheless, ere long, the warm, warbling persuasiveness of the pleasant, holiday weather we came to, seemed gradually to charm him from his mood. —
尽管如此，不久之后，我们迎来的温暖、歌唱的愉快天气的劝说力渐渐把他从阴暗的心境中拯救出来。 —

For, as when the red-cheeked, dancing girls, April and May, trip home to the wintry, misanthropic woods; —
正如红脸蛋、跳舞的女孩四月和五月欢快地回家到寒冷、人心叵测的树林； —

even the barest, ruggedest, most thunder-cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts, to welcome such gladhearted visitants; —
即使是最光秃、最崎岖、最被雷击裂的古老橡树，至少也会发出一些绿芽，以欢迎这样的喜悦访客； —

so Ahab did, in the end, a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air. —
因此，阿哈布最后也稍微回应了那少女般的迷人气息； —

More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile.
他不止一次地流露出微弱的一瞥，而在其他人身上，这种眼神很快就会绽放成微笑。