Some days elapsed, and ice and icebergs all astern, the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring, which at sea, almost perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic. —
过了几天，冰雹与冰山都已经退到船尾，佩克德号现在在明亮的基多之春中滚动前行，这种海上气候几乎永久地掌握在热带八月的门槛上。 —

The warmly cool, clear, ringing perfumed, overflowing, redundant days, were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet, heaped up– flaked up, with rose-water snow. —
温暖而清爽，明亮而芬芳，充盈而奢华的日子，就像波斯薄荷冰沙装满的水晶高脚杯，堆满了– 覆盖着，用玫瑰香水雪。 —

The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets, nursing at home in lonely pride, the memory of their absent conquering Earls, the golden helmeted suns! —
点缀繁星的庄严之夜仿佛是身着珠宝天鹅绒的高傲女士，孤傲地在家中滋养着，对缅怀中的征服者伯爵，甲胄闪闪的太阳记忆。 —

For sleeping man, ‘twas hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights. —
对于熟睡的人来说，在这样迷人的白天和诱人的夜晚之间难以选择。 —

But all the witcheries of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new spells and potencies to the outward world. —
但是这种永不减退的天气的所有魅力并不仅仅赋予了外部世界新的法术和力量。 —

Inward they turned upon the soul, especially when the still mild hours of eve came on; —
内心的这些魔力反而转向了灵魂，尤其是当宁静的黄昏时刻来临时; —

then, memory shot her crystals as the clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights. —
那时，记忆就会如同清晰的冰晶般形成在无声的黄昏中。 —

And all these subtle agencies, more and more they wrought on Ahab’s texture.
所有这些微妙的影响，越来越多地影响着亚哈布的心境。

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death. —
年迈者总是清醒的；仿佛，与生活联系越久，人与看起来像死亡的事物联系就越少。 —

Among sea-commanders, the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the night-cloaked deck. —
在海上指挥官中，年迈的老头往往会离开舱房去甲板上走走。 —

It was so with Ahab; only that now, of late, he seemed so much to live in the open air, that truly speaking, his visits were more to the cabin, than from the cabin to the planks. —
亚哈布就是这样；只不过最近，他似乎在户外生活得更多，实际上说，他的访问更多是到舱房，而不是从舱房到甲板。 —

“It feels like going down into one’s tomb,”–he would mutter to himself–“for an old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle, to go to my grave-dug berth.”
“这就感觉像是下到自己的坟墓里去，”–他会自言自语–“对于像我这样的老船长来说，下到这狭窄的舱梯口，走向我那被掘开的卧铺，感觉就像走向坟墓。”

So, almost every twenty-four hours, when the watches of the night were set, and the band on deck sentinelled the slumbers of the band below; —
所以，几乎每隔二十四个小时，夜间的值更会交接，船上的乐队会看守着下面船员的睡眠； —

and when if a rope was to be hauled upon the forecastle, the sailors flung it not rudely down, as by day, but with some cautiousness dropt it to its place for fear of disturbing their slumbering shipmates; —
当需要在甲板上拉绳索时，水手们不像白天那样粗鲁地将其甩下，而是小心翼翼地放置好，以免惊醒正在睡觉的同伴； —

when this sort of steady quietude would begin to prevail, habitually, the silent steersman would watch the cabin-scuttle; —
当这种稳定的宁静开始盛行时，无声的舵手会注视着舱梯口。 —

and ere long the old man would emerge, gripping at the iron banister, to help his crippled way. —
这时老人马上就会出现，握住铁扶手，帮助自己残疾的步伐。 —

Some considering touch of humanity was in him; —
他身上有一丝人性的考虑; —

for at times like these, he usually abstained from patrolling the quarter-deck; —
因为在这样的时候，他通常会避免在甲板上巡逻; —

because to his wearied mates, seeking repose within six inches of his ivory heel, such would have been the reverberating crack and din of that bony step, that their dreams would have been of the crunching teeth of sharks. —
否则他那骨节敲击的声音会让靠在他象牙鞋跟六英寸处休息的疲惫船员们梦见鲨鱼咬碎他们的牙齿。 —

But once, the mood was on him too deep for common regardings; —
但有一次，他的情绪深不可测; —

and as with heavy, lumber-like pace he was measuring the ship from taffrail to mainmast, Stubb, the old second mate, came up from below, and with a certain unassured, deprecating humorousness, hinted that if Captain Ahab was pleased to walk the planks, then, no one could say nay; —
正好与此同时，老二驾驶斯塔布从下面爬了上来，带着一种不确定的、谦卑的幽默，暗示着如果船长艾哈布愿意走上这块甲板，那么没有人能反对; —

but there might be some way of muffling the noise; —
但也许有一种方式可以消除噪音; —

hinting something indistinctly and hesitatingly about a globe of tow, and the insertion into it, of the ivory heel. —
模糊地暗示着关于用一团麻花球，把象牙鞋跟插进去的事。 —

Ah! Stubb, thou didst not know Ahab then.
啊！斯塔布，你那时候并不了解艾哈布。

“Am I a cannon-ball, Stubb,” said Ahab, “that thou wouldst wad me that fashion? But go thy ways; —
“我是一颗炮弹吗，斯塔布，”艾哈布说，”你会那样把我填塞起来吗？但你去吧; —

I had forgot. Below to thy nightly grave; —
我忘记了。下去，到你夜晚的坟墓; —

where such as ye sleep between shrouds, to use ye to the filling one at last. —
在那样的你们之间长眠，最后也要填满一个。 —

–Down, dog, and kennel!”
–下去，狗，回狗窝！”

Starting at the unforeseen concluding exclamation of the so suddenly scornful old man, Stubb was speechless a moment; —
突然被老人如此轻蔑的意外结尾惊呆了，斯塔布沉默了一会儿; —

then said excitedly, “I am not used to be spoken to that way, sir; —
然后激动地说：”我不习惯被那样说话，先生; —

I do but less than half like it, sir.”
我喜欢，但是不到一半喜欢，先生。

“Avast! gritted Ahab between his set teeth, and violently moving away, as if to avoid some passionate temptation.
“啊哈！”阿哈布咬紧牙关，猛地转身远离，仿佛在躲避某种激烈的诱惑。

“No, sir; not yet,” said Stubb, emboldened, “I will not tamely be called a dog, sir.”
“不，先生；还没有，”斯塔布大胆地说道，”我不会温顺地被称为狗，先生。

“Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I’ll clear the world of thee!”
“那么被称为十次驴子、骡子、驴子，滚开，否则我会将你扫除清净！”

As he said this, Ahab advanced upon him with such overbearing terrors in his aspect, that Stubb involuntarily retreated.
就在此时，阿哈布朝他走去，面色露出压倒性的恐吓之色，斯塔布不由自主地后退了一步。

“I was never served so before without giving a hard blow for it,” muttered Stubb, as he found himself descending the cabin-scuttle. —
“我以前从未这样服侍过，而不给他一拳打过。”斯塔布嘟囔道，当他发现自己正下降到船舱的舱口。 —

“It’s very queer. Stop, Stubb; somehow, now, I don’t well know whether to go back and strike him, or–what’s that? —
“这太奇怪了。停一下，斯塔布；不知怎么的，我不确定是要回去打他，还是…那是什么？ —

– down here on my knees and pray for him? Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; —
“跪下来祈祷为他？是的，这个念头在我心中浮现； —

but it would be the first time I ever did pray. It’s queer; very queer; and he’s queer too; —
但那将是我第一次祈祷。很奇怪；非常奇怪；他也很奇怪； —

aye, take him fore and aft, he’s about the queerest old man Stubb ever sailed with. —
是的；前后看看，他是斯塔布航行的时候见过的最古怪的老人。 —

How he flashed at me!–his eyes like powder-pans! is he mad! —
他怒视着我！他的眼睛像火药桶！他疯了吗？ —

Anyway there’s something’s on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks. He aint in his bed now, either, more than three hours out of the twenty-four; —
不管怎样，他的心中有事是确定的，就像甲板裂开时一定会有东西在上面。他白天也不到二十四小时的时间里有三个小时在床上， —

and he don’t sleep then. Didn’t that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell me that of a morning he always finds the old man’s hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the sheets down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots, and the pillow a sort of frightful hot, as though a baked brick had been on it? —
他那个船员道具，看到早晨总是发现老人的吊床衣服皱巴巴的，被子在脚下，盖毯几乎打了个结，枕头像是放了个烤砖一样热。 —

A hot old man! I guess he’s got what some folks ashore call a conscience; —
一个炙热的老人！我猜他有些岸上人说的所谓的良心； —

it’s a kind of Tic-Dolly-row they say– worse nor a toothache. Well, well; —
这是一种疼痛，他们说是死胡同。嗯，嗯； —

I don’t know what it is, but the Lord keep me from catching it. He’s full of riddles; —
我不知道那是什么，但愿主保佑我不要感染。他充满谜团; —

I wonder what he goes into the after hold for, every night, as Dough-Boy tells me he suspects; —
我想知道他每晚为什么要去下层舱室，因为面团男告诉我他有怀疑; —

what’s that for, I should like to know? Who’s made appointments with him in the hold? —
那是为了什么，我想知道？谁在舱室里和他有会面？ —

Ain’t that queer, now? But there’s no telling, it’s the old game– Here goes for a snooze. —
现在那不奇怪吗？但没人能说得准，这就是那种老把戏–那么现在就去小憩吧。 —

Damn me, it’s worth a fellow’s while to be born into the world, if only to fall right asleep. —
该死的，投生到这个世界里真是值得，只要能立刻入睡。 —

And now that I think of it, that’s about the first thing babies do, and that’s a sort of queer, too. Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ‘em. —
而且我一想起来，新生儿大概是最先入睡的，这也有点奇怪。该死的，但是一切的事情都很奇怪，想想看。 —

But that’s against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh commandment; —
但是这与我的原则相悖。不要思考，是我的第十条戒律； —

and sleep when you can, is my twelfth–So here goes again. But how’s that? didn’t he call me a dog? —
趁可以休息就休息，是我的第十二条–所以再次入睡。但这是怎么回事？难道他叫我狗？ —

blazes! he called me ten times a donkey, and piled a lot of jackasses on top of that! —
该死！他把我叫了十遍笨蛋，并在其上堆了一堆驴子！ —

He might as well have kicked me, and done with it. —
他说不定还踢了我，就完事了。 —

Maybe he did kick me, and I didn’t observe it, I was so taken all aback with his brow, somehow. —
也许他踢了我，而我没注意到，我被他的眉毛搞得一愣神了。 —

It flashed like a bleached bone. What the devil’s the matter with me? —
它闪闪发亮就像晒白的骨头一样。我到底怎么了？ —

I don’t stand right on my legs. Coming afoul of that old man has a sort of turned me wrong side out. By the Lord, I must have been dreaming, though–How? —
我站着的姿势不对，碰到那位老人把我整得乱了套。天啊，我肯定是在做梦，不然怎么？ —

how? how?– but the only way’s to stash it; so here goes to hammock again; —
怎么？怎么？–但唯一能做的是把它留到明天再看；那么再去摇晃吊床； —

and in the morning, I’ll see how this plaguey juggling thinks over by daylight.”
到了早上，我会看看这该死的搅乱的想法在白天会怎么样的。