It is noon; and Dough-Boy, the steward, thrusting his pale loaf-of-bread face from the cabin-scuttle, announces dinner to his lord and master who, sitting in the lee quarter-boat, has just been taking an observation of the sun; —
现在已经是中午；马船管家多伊—博伊把那张苍白的面团般的脸从舱口探出，向他的主人宣布午餐已经准备好了，而他的主人则坐在船艏的下风岸船舷上，刚刚观测完太阳位置； —

and is now mutely reckoning the latitude on the smooth, medallion-shaped tablet, reserved for that daily purpose on the upper part of his ivory leg. —
现在在那光滑的，像勋章般的圆形牛骨板上无声地计算自己所处的纬度，这块牛骨板专门用来进行日常计算； —

From his complete inattention to the tidings, you would think that moody Ahab had not heard his menial. —
从那位情绪低沉的艾哈布完全没有理会这个消息中，你会觉得他根本没听见他的仆人。 —

But presently, catching hold of the mizen shrouds, he swings himself to the deck, and in an even, unexhilarated voice, saying, “Dinner, Mr. Starbuck,” disappears into the cabin.
但当他抓住大桅索向船甲板下甲板走去时，他通过平稳而沉闷的声音说道：“午餐，斯塔伯克先生”之后就消失在舱内。

When the last echo of his sultan’s step has died away, and Starbuck, the first Emir, has every reason to suppose that he is seated, then Starbuck rouses from his quietude, takes a few turns along the planks, and, after a grave peep into the binnacle, says, with some touch of pleasantness, “Dinner, Mr. Stubb,” and descends the scuttle. —
当他的沉重的脚步最后的回声消失后，第一艾米尔斯塔伯克有充分的理由认为他已经就座后，就从沉默中清醒过来，在甲板上走来走去几圈，之后严肃地看了看指南针盒子后，带着一丝愉悦的口气说：“午餐，斯塔布先生”，然后下到下甲板。 —

The second Emir lounges about the rigging awhile, and then slightly shaking the main brace, to see whether it will be all right with that important rope, he likewise takes up the old burden, and with a rapid “Dinner, Mr. Flask,” follows after his predecessors.
第二艾米尔在操纵索具上闲逛了一会，然后稍微晃动着主帆索，看看这根重要的绳子是否没问题后，他也承担起了他的老任务，并快速地说：“午餐，弗拉斯科先生”，然后跟在前人后面离开。

But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; —
但第三艾米尔，此刻看到自己独自一人站在四分仪上，似乎感到从某种奇怪的约束中解脱出来； —

for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand Turk’s head; —
为了在各个方向眨眼示意，踢掉鞋子，他开始了一支强烈而无声的角舞，直接在大土耳其的头顶; —

and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, by bringing up the rear with music. —
然后，通过一个灵巧的手法，把帽子扔到米森顶端当作架子，他一直往下摇晃，至少在从甲板上可见部分时，通过携带音乐带来的狂欢，改变了其他所有的队伍，形成了队伍的后尾。 —

But ere stepping into the cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, and, then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab’s presence, in the character of Abjectus, or the Slave.
但在走进下面的船舱门之前，他停顿了一下，换了一个全新的面孔，然后，独立、欢快的小弗拉斯克以奴隶Abjectus的身份进入了国王亚哈的面前。

It is not the least among the strange things bred by the intense artificialness of sea-usages, that while in the open air of the deck some officers will, upon provocation, bear themselves boldly and defyingly enough towards their commander; —
在甲板上，在对指挥官的挑衅下，一些军官能够勇敢和挑衅地对待他，并不是海上习俗中最奇怪的现象之一。 —

yet, ten to one, let those very officers the next moment go down to their customary dinner in that same commander’s cabin, and straightway their inoffensive, not to say deprecatory and humble air towards him, as he sits at the head of the table; —
然而，十有八九，让这些军官下一刻去指挥官的船舱里吃他们惯常的晚餐，他们会立刻表现出对他的无害，乃至恭顺和谦卑的态度，尤其是当他就坐在桌子的一端时，这种差异是奇妙的，有时甚至很滑稽。为什么会有这种不同？一个问题？也许不是。 —

this is marvellous, sometimes most comical. Wherefore this difference? A problem? Perhaps not. —
曾经是巴比伦国王伯沙撒; —

To have been Belshazzar, King of Babylon; —
去当了伯沙撒，而且并不傲慢，而是礼貌，其中一定有一点尘世的伟大。 —

and to have been Belshazzar, not haughtily but courteously, therein certainly must have been some touch of mundane grandeur. —
但是，那位以合适的皇家和有智慧的精神主持着他自己邀请的客人的私人晚宴的人，那个人在此时占有无可争辩的个人影响力和统治权力; —

But he who in the rightly regal and intelligent spirit presides over his own private dinner-table of invited guests, that man’s unchallenged power and dominion of individual influence for the time; —
对伯沙撒来说也是这样，因为伯沙撒并不是最伟大的。 —

that man’s royalty of state transcends Belshazzar’s, for Belshazzar was not the greatest. —
谁只是与朋友一起吃过一次晚餐，就尝到了做凯撒的滋味。 —

Who has but once dined his friends, has tasted what it is to be Caesar. —
这是一种社会沙皇统治的魔力，谁也挡不住。 —

It is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding. —
现在，如果你考虑到一位船长的官方至高无上，那么，你将会推断出刚才提到的海上生活的那种特殊性的原因。 —

Now, if to this consideration you super-add the official supremacy of a ship-master, then, by inference, you will derive the cause of that peculiarity of sea-life just mentioned.
亚哈在他的象牙镶边桌子上像一头白色珊瑚沙滩上的哑然、长鬃海狮一样主持着，周围围绕着他那个好战但仍然尊敬的幼仔们。

Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his war-like but still deferential cubs. —
每个军官都按顺序等待被服务。他们在亚哈面前就像小孩子一样； —

In his own proper turn, each officer waited to be served. They were as little children before Ahab; —
在不来梅，Ahab presided like a mute, maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his war-like but still deferential cubs. —

and yet, in Ahab, there seemed not to lurk the smallest social arrogance. —
然而，在艾哈伯身上，似乎没有一点点社交的傲慢。 —

With one mind, their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man’s knife, as he carved the chief dish before him. —
他们众人心意相通，专心地盯着老人正在切割的主菜。 —

I do not suppose that for the world they would have profaned that moment with the slightest observation, even upon so neutral a topic as the weather. —
我想，就算是为了整个世界，他们也不会在那一刻说出一丁点，哪怕是关于天气这样中立的话题。 —

No! And when reaching out his knife and fork, between which the slice of beef was locked, Ahab thereby motioned Starbuck’s plate towards him, the mate received his meat as though receiving alms; —
不! 当艾哈伯伸出刀叉，夹着牛肉在两者之间时，他示意斯塔伯克的盘子朝着他推，船长接过肉时就像接受施舍一样； —

and cut it tenderly; and a little started if, perchance, the knife grazed against the plate; —
他温柔地切开，倘若刀子不慎擦到盘子上，他就会稍稍惊讶； —

and chewed it noiselessly; and swallowed it, not without circumspection. —
细嚼慢咽，而且小心翼翼地咽下。 —

For, like the Coronation banquet at Frankfort, where the German Emperor profoundly dines with the seven Imperial Electors, so these cabin meals were somehow solemn meals, eaten in awful silence; —
因为，就像法兰克福的加冕宴会一样，德国皇帝与七位选举人郑重其事地一起用餐，所以这些小舱的饭食也不知何故变得庄严肃穆，静静地舔着汤匙。 —

and yet at table old Ahab forbade not conversation; only he himself was dumb. —
然而在餐桌上，艾哈伯并不禁止交谈；只是他自己却一言不发。 —

What a relief it was to choking Stubb, when a rat made a sudden racket in the hold below. —
当有只老鼠在下面的货舱里突然发出喧闹声时，对在呛到的斯塔伯克来说是多么的解气。 —

And poor little Flask, he was the youngest son, and little boy of this weary family party. —
而可怜的小弗拉斯克，他是这个疲惫家庭聚会中最年幼的儿子，也是个小男孩。 —

His were the shin-bones of the saline beef; his would have been the drumsticks. —
盐味牛肉的坐骨属于他；鸡腿也本该是他的。 —

For Flask to have presumed to help himself, this must have seemed to him tantamount to larceny in the first degree. —
对于弗拉斯克要自己取用，这在他看来必然相当于重罪中的盗窃。 —

Had he helped himself at that table, doubtless, never more would he have been able to hold his head up in this honest world; —
如果他在那张餐桌上自掘其憾，无疑地，他再也不会抬起头来面对这个诚实的世界； —

nevertheless, strange to say, Ahab never forbade him. —
然而，奇怪的是，艾哈伯从未加以禁止。 —

And had Flask helped himself, the chances were Ahab had never so much as noticed it. —
如果弗拉斯克自己取用，艾哈伯甚至都有可能从未注意到。 —

Least of all, did Flask presume to help himself to butter. —
最不济也决不会有弗拉斯克自行用黄油。 —

Whether he thought the owners of the ship denied it to him, on account of its clotting his clear, sunny complexion; —
也许他以为船主拒绝给他，因为黄油会影响他晒得金黄明亮的肤色； —

or whether he deemed that, on so long a voyage in such marketless waters, butter was at a premium, and therefore was not for him, a subaltern; —
或者他认为，在如此漫长的航程中，在如此没有市场的海域里，黄油是稀缺商品，因此不是为他这个下级军官准备的； —

however it was, Flask, alas! was a butterless man!
不管怎样，不幸的是，弗拉斯克身无黄油！

Another thing. Flask was the last person down at the dinner, and Flask is the first man up. —
另外一件事。弗拉斯克总是晚到餐厅，但是第一个起床。 —

Consider! For hereby Flask’s dinner was badly jammed in point of time. —
想象一下！这就导致了弗拉斯克的晚餐时间很尴尬。 —

Starbuck and Stubb both had the start of him; —
史塔布克和斯塔伯克都比他先到； —

and yet they also have the privilege of lounging in the rear. —
但他们也有在后方慵懒的特权。 —

If Stubb even, who is but a peg higher than Flask, happens to have but a small appetite, and soon shows symptoms of concluding his repast, then Flask must bestir himself, he will not get more than three mouthfuls that day; —
即使只是比弗拉斯克高一级的史塔布即使食欲不大，很快就吃完了，那么弗拉斯克就得行动起来，他那天可能只吃三口； —

for it is against holy usage for Stubb to precede Flask to the deck. —
因为史塔布不能在弗拉斯克之前到甲板上去，这是不符合礼节的。 —

Therefore it was that Flask once admitted in private, that ever since he had arisen to the dignity of an officer, from that moment he had never known what it was to be otherwise than hungry, more or less. —
因此有一次弗拉斯克私下承认，从他晋升为军官那一刻起，他再也不记得自己饱食过。 —

For what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him. —
他吃的东西并不能让他消除饥饿，而是让饥饿永远存在于他心中。 —

Peace and satisfaction, thought Flask, have for ever departed from my stomach. I am an officer; —
和满足感想成，弗拉斯克想，永远远离了我的胃。我是一名军官； —

but, how I wish I could fist a bit of old-fashioned beef in the fore-castle, as I used to when I was before the mast. —
但我多么希望能在船舱前顶座吃点传统的牛肉，就像我还在桅杆前时一样。 —

There’s the fruits of promotion now; there’s the vanity of glory: there’s the insanity of life! —
这就是晋升的果实；这就是荣耀的虚荣；这就是生命的疯狂！ —

Besides, if it were so that any mere sailor of the Pequod had a grudge against Flask in Flask’s official capacity, all that sailor had to do, in order to obtain ample vengeance, was to go aft at dinnertime, and get a peep at Flask through the cabin sky-light, sitting silly and dumfoundered before awful Ahab.
此外，如果确实有任何一位“小船长”的水手对弗拉斯克在弗拉斯克的官方职务上有怨恨，那么这些水手所需做的一切，为了得到充分的复仇，只需要在晚餐时间走到船艙天窗后面，偷窥弗拉斯克，看着他在令人敬畏的艾哈布面前坐得蠢萌和茫然。

Now, Ahab and his three mates formed what may be called the first table in the Pequod’s cabin. —
现在，艾哈布和他的三个伙伴组成了“小船长”的船舱中可以称为第一桌的人。 —

After their departure, taking place in inverted order to their arrival, the canvas cloth was cleared, or rather was restored to some hurried order by the pallid steward. —
在他们离开后，以逆序进行，帆布被清理，或者准确来说，是由苍白色的服务员匆忙地恢复到某种秩序。 —

And then the three harpooneers were bidden to the feast, they being its residuary legatees. —
然后三位捕鲸者被邀请参加宴会，因为他们是剩下的继承人。 —

They made a sort of temporary servants’ hall of the high and mighty cabin.
他们把伟大而威严的船舱变成了一个临时的仆人大厅。

In strange contrast to the hardly tolerable constraint and nameless invisible domineerings of the captain’s table, was the entire care-free license and ease, the almost frantic democracy of those inferior fellows the harpooneers. —
与船长桌上几乎无法忍受的约束和难以名状的无形支配相比，捕鲸者们整个人都自由自由和放松，几乎是狂热的民主。 —

While their masters, the mates, seemed afraid of the sound of the hinges of their own jaws, the harpooneers chewed their food with such a relish that there was a report to it. —
当他们的主人，即船员，似乎都害怕自己的下颚的声音时，捕鲸者们品尝食物时带给人一种很有趣的感觉。 —

They dined like lords; they filled their bellies like Indian ships all day loading with spices. —
他们像贵族一样用餐；他们就像整天装满香料的印度船一样填满他们的肚子。 —

Such portentous appetites had Queequeg and Tashtego, that to fill out the vacancies made by the previous repast, often the pale Dough-Boy was fain to bring on a great baron of salt-junk, seemingly quarried out of the solid ox. —
奎奎格和塔西哥有着这种令人惊讶的胃口，以至于为了填补上一餐产生的空缺，苍白的面团男经常被迫送上一大块咸肉，看起来像是从固体牛身上开采出来的。 —

And if he were not lively about it, if he did not go with a nimble hop-skip-and-jump, then Tashtego had an ungentlemanly way of accelerating him by darting a fork at his back, harpoon-wise. —
如果他行动迟缓，如果他不跳跃快速地去干活，那么塔西哥有一种不文雅的方法来加快他的速度，就是像用鱼叉一样向他背部投掷一把叉。 —

And once Daggoo, seized with a sudden humor, assisted Dough-Boy’s memory by snatching him up bodily, and thrusting his head into a great empty wooden trencher, while Tashtego, knife in hand, began laying out the circle preliminary to scalping him. —
有一次，达古突然起了兴趣，抓起面团男整个人，把他的头扎进一个巨大的空木碗里，当时塔西哥手持刀，开始布置围绕他的圆圈，作为割他头皮的准备工作。 —

He was naturally a very nervous, shuddering sort of little fellow, this bread-faced steward; —
他自然是个非常神经质、颤抖的小家伙，这位面团脸的服务员； —

the progeny of a bankrupt baker and a hospital nurse. —
一个破产的面包师傅和一名医院护士的后代。 —

And what with the standing spectacle of the black terrific Ahab, and the periodical tumultuous visitations of these three savages, Dough-Boy’s whole life was one continual lip-quiver. —
由于黑暗和可怕的艾哈布的持续表演，以及这三个野蛮人定期骚动的造访，面团男的整个生活都在持续的颤抖。 —

Commonly, after seeing the harpooneers furnished with all things they demanded, he would escape from their clutches into his little pantry adjoining, and fearfully peep out at them through the blinds of its door, till all was over.
通常，在看到捕鲸者们得到他们要求的所有东西后，他会从他的小角落里逃开，通过其隔壁的百叶门害怕地偷窥着他们，直到一切都结束。

It was a sight to see Queequeg seated over against Tashtego, opposing his filed teeth to the Indian’s; —
看到奎科格坐在对面，对准印第安人的尖牙，真是一道景象; —

crosswise to them, Daggoo seated on the floor, for a bench would have brought his hearse-plumed head to the low carlines; —
达古斜坐在他们对面，因为坐在长凳上会让他那被黑色羽毛装饰的头部碰到低矮的横梁; —

at every motion of his colossal limbs, making the low cabin framework to shake, as when an African elephant goes passenger in a ship. —
他巨大的四肢每次动一下，都会让小小的船舱框架摇动，就像非洲大象在船上行进一样。 —

But for all this, the great negro was wonderfully abstemious, not to say dainty. —
但尽管如此，这位高大的黑人非常节制，甚至可以说是挑剔。 —

It seemed hardly possible that by such comparatively small mouthfuls he could keep up the vitality diffused through so broad, baronial, and superb a person. —
他每次吃得这么少，似乎很难相信他能够保持得以赋予这么宽大、高贵的身体的活力。 —

But, doubtless, this noble savage fed strong and drank deep of the abounding element of air; —
但毫无疑问，这位高贵的野蛮人进食强健，深饮那充满空气的丰富元素； —

and through his dilated nostrils snuffed in the sublime life of the worlds. —
他透过张大的鼻孔吸入世界充满生机的生命。 —

Not by beef or by bread, are giants made or nourished. —
巨人的生长和滋养并非靠牛肉或面包。 —

But Queequeg, he had a mortal, barbaric smack of the lip in eating– an ugly sound enough–so much so, that the trembling Dough-Boy almost looked to see whether any marks of teeth lurked in his own lean arms. —
不过奎科格吃东西时有一种有死亡气息的啜食声—非常难听—以至于发抖的炊事员几乎要看看自己瘦削的手臂上是否藏有牙印。 —

And when he would hear Tashtego singing out for him to produce himself, that his bones might be picked, the simple-witted Steward all but shattered the crockery hanging round him in the pantry, by his sudden fits of the palsy. —
当他听到塔什蒂格呼唤他露面，说要把他的骨头剔出来时，头脑简单的管家差点把悬挂在他身边餐具间的器皿震碎，因为他突然病态地颤抖了。 —

Nor did the whetstone which the harpooneers carried in their pockets, for their lances and other weapons; —
鱼叉手们口袋里携带的磨刀石，并不是用来给他们的鱼叉和其他武器磨刀用的； —

and with which whetstones, at dinner, they would ostentatiously sharpen their knives; —
他们在吃晚餐时会拿出这样的磨刀石，张扬地磨他们的刀； —

that grating sound did not at all tend to tranquillize poor Dough-Boy. How could he forget that in his Island days, Queequeg, for one, must certainly have been guilty of some murderous, convivial indiscretion. —
这声音并没有让可怜的炊事员感到安静。他怎么会忘记，在他在岛上的日子里，奎科格肯定曾犯下某种可怖的、与欢乐有关的过错。 —

Alas! Dough-Boy! hard fares the white waiter who waits upon cannibals. —
唉！炊事员！等候食人族的白人侍者是多么艰难啊。 —

Not a napkin should he carry on his arm, but a buckler. —
他臂上不应该携带餐巾，而是一面挡箭牌。 —

In good time, though, to his great delight, the three salt-sea warriors would rise and depart; —
但好事总会及时降临，这三位大海盐水战士会起身离开，这让他欣喜若狂； —

to his credulous, fable-mongering ears, all their martial bones jingling in them at every step, like Moorish scimetars in scabbards.
对于他那轻信、好传言的耳朵来说，他们每走一步，身上所有的武装骨骼都会发出叮叮作响的声音，就像摩尔人腰间的弯刀在鞘中一样。

But, though these barbarians dined in the cabin, and nominally lived there; —
虽然这些蛮族在船舱内用餐，名义上也住在那里； —

still, being anything but sedentary in their habits, they were scarcely ever in it except at mealtimes, and just before sleeping-time, when they passed through it to their own peculiar quarters.
但由于他们的习性绝非安静，除了用餐时间和睡觉前会在船舱内短暂停留外，几乎从不待在那里，而是直奔他们自己特定的区域。

In this one matter, Ahab seemed no exception to most American whale captains, who, as a set, rather incline to the opinion that by rights the ship’s cabin belongs to them; —
在这一点上，阿哈伯似乎并不例外，跟大多数美国鲸鱼船长一样，他们更倾向于认为船舱理所应当属于他们； —

and that it is by courtesy alone that anybody else is, at any time, permitted there. —
对于别人在任何时候被允许进入船舱，仅仅是出于礼貌。 —

So that, in real truth, the mates and harpooneers of the Pequod might more properly be said to have lived out of the cabin than in it. —
因此，在实际上，皮克奥德号上的大副和捕鲸者们更应该被说成是住在船舱外而非里面。 —

For when they did enter it, it was something as a streetdoor enters a house; —
因为当他们进入时，犹如一扇街门进入一幢房； —

turning inwards for a moment, only to be turned out the next; —
进来瞬间回转，紧接着就被赶了出去； —

and, as a permanent thing, residing in the open air. Nor did they lose much hereby; —
作为一种永久的事物，居住在户外。因此，他们并没有因此失去太多； —

in the cabin was no companionship; socially, Ahab was inaccessible. —
船舱内并无交谊；在社交方面，阿哈伯是不可接近的。 —

Though nominally included in the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it. —
尽管名义上被包括在基督教世界普查之中，他仍然是一个外来者。 —

He lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. —
他像密苏里州定居区里最后一只凶猛棕熊那样活在这个世界里。 —

And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; —
就像春夏离去后，那位森林野人瓦尔冈，把自己埋在树洞里，在那里度过冬天，含吮着自己的爪子； —

so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab’s soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!
所以，在他风声鹤唳、嚎叫的晚年里，阿哈伯的灵魂，封闭在他身体的空洞树干中，在那里以愁闷的爪子为食！