Concerning the officers of the whale-craft, this seems as good a place as any to set down a little domestic peculiarity on ship-board, arising from the existence of the harpooneer class of officers, a class unknown of course in any other marine than the whale-fleet.
关于鲸船的官员，这似乎是一个很好的地方来记载一些船舶上的家庭特殊性，这一特殊性源自存在于捕鲸船的harpooneer官员阶层，这个阶层在除了捕鲸船以外的其他海军中是没有的。

The large importance attached to the harpooneer’s vocation is evinced by the fact, that originally in the old Dutch Fishery, two centuries and more ago, the command of a whale-ship was not wholly lodged in the person now called the captain, but was divided between him and an officer called the Specksynder. —
harpooneer这个职业的重要性之大可由事实所证明，在两个多世纪前最初的荷兰捕鱼业中，一个捕鲸船的指挥并不完全属于现在所称船长的人，而是在他和一个被称为Specksynder的官员之间分摇其权。 —

Literally this word means Fat-Cutter; usage, however, in time made it equivalent to Chief Harpooneer. —
字面上这个词意味着Fat-Cutter;然而，随着时间的流逝，它的用法变得等同于首席Harpooneer。 —

In those days, the captain’s authority was restricted to the navigation and general management of the vessel; —
在那些日子里，船长的权威仅限于船舶的航行和一般管理； —

while over the whale-hunting department and all its concerns, the Specksynder or Chief Harpooneer reigned supreme. —
而捕鲸部门及其所有事务，则由Specksynder或首席Harpooneer独揽大权。 —

In the British Greenland Fishery, under the corrupted title of Specksioneer, this old Dutch official is still retained, but his former dignity is sadly abridged. —
在英国的格陵兰捕鱼业中，在Specksynder这个被扭曲的头衔下，这位古老的荷兰官员依然被保留着，但是他以前的尊严已经大为减少。 —

At present he ranks simply as senior Harpooneer; —
目前他仅仅被归类为高级Harpooneer； —

and as such, is but one of the captain’s more inferior subalterns. —
因此，他只是船长更低级的副手之一。 —

Nevertheless, as upon the good conduct of the harpooneers the success of a whaling voyage largely depends, and since in the American Fishery he is not only an important officer in the boat, but under certain circumstances (night watches on a whaling ground) the command of the ship’s deck is also his; —
然而，捕鲸航行的成功在很大程度上取决于harpooneer的表现；而且在美国的捕鲸业中，他不仅是船上一个重要官员，在某些情况下（在捕鲸场上值夜班）还掌舵船舷的指挥权； —

therefore the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that he should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior; —
因此，海上的伟大政治原则要求，他名义上应当与水手们分开生活，以某种方式被区分为他们的专业上级； —

though always, by them, familiarly regarded as their social equal.
尽管总是被他们熟悉地视为他们的社会同等。

Now, the grand distinction drawn between officer and man at sea, is this–the first lives aft, the last forward. —
船上官员与普通水手间的主要区别是–前者住在船尾，后者住在船头。 —

Hence, in whale-ships and merchantmen alike, the mates have their quarters with the captain; —
因此，在鲸船和商船上一样，大副们与船长住在一起； —

and so, too, in most of the American whalers the harpooneers are lodged in the after part of the ship. —
同样，在大多数美国捕鲸船上，harpooneers被安置在船船的船尾部分。 —

That is to say, they take their meals in the captain’s cabin, and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it.
也就是说，他们在船舱中吃饭，在与之间有间接联系的地方睡觉。

Though the long period of a Southern whaling voyage (by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man), the peculiar perils of it, and the community of interest prevailing among a company, all of whom, high or low, depend for their profits, not upon fixed wages, but upon their common luck, together with their common vigilance, intrepidity, and hard work; —
尽管南部捕鲸航行时间漫长（远远比人类现在或曾经做过的所有航行中最长的一次），以及它所特有的危险，以及在整个团队中普遍存在的共同利益，无论高低，所有人都依赖于共同的运气，以及他们的共同警惕、勇敢和辛勤工作； —

though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally; —
尽管这些事情在某些情况下的确比一般商船更容易导致纪律方面的松懈； —

yet, never mind how much like an old Mesopotamian family these whalemen may, in some primitive instances, live together; —
但是，无论这些鲸人在某些原始情况下生活得像古代美索不达米亚家庭一样， —

for all that, the punctilious externals, at least, of the quarter-deck are seldom materially relaxed, and in no instance done away. —
尽管如此，至少甲板上的一丝不苟在很少的情况下被实质上放松，甚至没有被取消。 —

Indeed, many are the Nantucket ships in which you will see the skipper parading his quarter-deck with an elated grandeur not surpassed in any military navy; —
事实上，在许多南塔基特的船上，你会看到船长在甲板上昂扬的壮丽气派，不亚于任何一支军队海军， —

nay, extorting almost as much outward homage as if he wore the imperial purple, and not the shabbiest of pilot-cloth.
甚至，几乎可以说比穿着帝国紫袍的皇帝还得到同样程度的尊崇，而他却穿着最破旧的引航布。

And though of all men the moody captain of the Pequod was the least given to that sort of shallowest assumption; —
尽管佩格奥号的脾气暴躁的船长是最不会沉溺于那种最肤浅的假设的人； —

and though the only homage he ever exacted, was implicit, instantaneous obedience; —
尽管他唯一要求的是绝对、即刻的服从； —

though he required no man to remove the shoes from his feet ere stepping upon the quarter-deck; —
尽管他从不要求任何人在踏上甲板之前脱下鞋子； —

and though there were times when, owing to peculiar circumstances connected with events hereafter to be detailed, he addressed them in unusual terms, whether of condescension or in terrorem, or otherwise; —
尽管由于后来即将详细叙述的与特殊事件相关的特定情况，有时他用不同寻常的措辞对待他们，无论是屈尊俯就还是恐吓等； —

yet even Captain Ahab was by no means unobservant of the paramount forms and usages of the sea.
然而，即便亚哈船长绝非无视海上至高形式和惯例的人。

Nor, perhaps, will it fail to be eventually perceived, that behind those forms and usages, as it were, he sometimes masked himself; —
也许最终会被逐渐察觉，那些形式和习惯的背后，他有时会披上一层面纱； —

incidentally making use of them for other and more private ends than they were legitimately intended to subserve. —
间接地利用它们，达到比它们正当目的更私人的目的。 —

That certain sultanism of his brain, which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested; —
如果不通过这些形式，他脑海中某种苏丹主义本来在很大程度上会保持隐藏； —

through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship. —
通过那些形式，同样的苏丹主义在他身上变为无法抗拒的独裁。 —

For be a man’s intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base. —
无论一个男人的智慧优越性如何，如果没有某种外部艺术和阵地的帮助，很难在其他人身上获得实际、可利用的优势，这些艺术和阵地本身总是或多或少地卑贱和低劣。 —

This it is, that for ever keeps God’s true princes of the Empire from the world’s hustings; —
这就是永远使上帝真正的帝国王子远离世俗的忙碌； —

and leaves the highest honors that this air can give, to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass. —
并将这片空气所能给予的最高荣誉，留给那些因为相对于选定的神秘少数天选之人而无穷无尽地劣势，而不是因为他们在对抗平凡众生中的无可置疑的优势而闻名的人。 —

Such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them, that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency. —
当极端的政治迷信将这些小事物包裹起来时，其中蕴含着巨大的价值，以至于在某些皇室例子里，即使是愚癡与低能也给予了他们权能。 —

But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; —
但是当，如沙皇尼古拉的情况一样，地理帝国的王冠环绕着一颗皇家头脑时； —

then, the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization. —
那么，平民的奴仆们会在这巨大的集权之前屈服。 —

Nor, will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now alluded to.
不过，那些试图在作品中描绘人类的不可屈服性质的悲剧剧作家，永远不会忘记在他的艺术中，这个点是多么重要。

But Ahab, my Captain, still moves before me in all his Nantucket grimness and shagginess; —
但是，我的船长艾哈布，仍然以他那整个南塔基特的严酷和毛发混杂的形象出现在我的眼前； —

and in this episode touching Emperors and Kings, I must not conceal that I have only to do with a poor old whale-hunter like him; —
在这个关于皇帝和国王的片段中，我必须坦露，我只是与像他一样的一个可怜的老捕鲸人有关； —

and, therefore, all outward majestical trappings and housings are denied me. Oh, Ahab! —
因此，所有外在的庄严装饰都被拒绝了。噢，艾哈布！ —

what shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air!
你身上的伟大之处，必定需要从天上摘取，深入深渊中寻找，并在无体的空气中表现！