The ostensible reason why Ahab did not go on board of the whaler we had spoken was this: —
亚哈布没有登上我们所说的捕鲸船的表面原因是： —

the wind and sea betokened storms. But even had this not been the case, he would not after all, perhaps, have boarded her–judging by his subsequent conduct on similar occasions–if so it had been that, by the process of hailing, he had obtained a negative answer to the question he put. —
风浪预示着暴风雨。但即使这不是问题，也许他最终不会登上她–根据他在类似情况下的后续行为判断–如果经过呼喊他得到的是否定的答案。 —

For, as it eventually turned out, he cared not to consort, even for five minutes, with any stranger captain, except he could contribute some of that information he so absorbingly sought. —
因为，最终结果表明，他不想与任何陌生船长交往，除非他能提供他如此渴求的一些信息。 —

But all this might remain inadequately estimated, were not something said here of the peculiar usages of whaling-vessels when meeting each other in foreign seas, and especially on a common cruising-ground.
但如果不谈一谈捕鲸船在外海相遇时的特殊用法，特别是在一个共同的巡航区。

If two strangers crossing the Pine Barrens in New York State, or the equally desolate Salisbury Plain in England; —
如果在纽约州的松林或英格兰的荒凉的索尔兹伯里平原上交叉两名陌生人; —

if casually encountering each other in such inhospitable wilds, these twain, for the life of them, cannot well avoid a mutual salutation; —
在这样不宜居住的荒野中偶然相遇，这两个人生活中很难避免互相致意; —

and stopping for a moment to interchange the news; —
并停下来互换消息; —

and, perhaps, sitting down for a while and resting in concert: —
也许一起坐着休息一会; —

then, how much more natural that upon the illimitable Pine Barrens and Salisbury Plains of the sea, two whaling vessels descrying each other at the ends of the earth–off lone Fanning’s Island, or the far away King’s Mills; —
那么，在大海上无边无际的松树荒地和索尔兹伯里平原上，两艘捕鲸船彼此发现时，地球的尽头–在孤立的法宁岛，或遥远的国王磨坊; —

how much more natural, I say, that under such circumstances these ships should not only interchange hails, but come into still closer, more friendly and sociable contact. —
我说，情况会更加自然，在这样的情况下，这些船不仅会互相呼唤，而且会更密切地、更友好地和更社交地接触。 —

And especially would this seem to be a matter of course, in the case of vessels owned in one seaport, and whose captains, officers, and not a few of the men are personally known to each other; —
特别是在属于同一港口的船只的情况下，其船长、军官以及不少水手是彼此亲自认识的; —

and consequently, have all sorts of dear domestic things to talk about.
因此，他们有各种亲密的家庭事务可以谈论。

For the long absent ship, the outward-bounder, perhaps, has letters on board; —
长时间不见的船，也许是外出的船，已经有了函件; —

at any rate, she will be sure to let her have some papers of a date a year or two later than the last one on her blurred and thumb-worn files. —
无论如何，她肯定会给她一些日期比她模糊和磨损的档案中最后一篇新闻晚一两年的文件。 —

And in return for that courtesy, the outward-bound ship would receive the latest whaling intelligence from the cruising-ground to which she may be destined, a thing of the utmost importance to her. —
并作为回报，外出的船将从她可能目的地的巡航区获得最新的捕鲸情报，这对她至关重要。 —

And in degree, all this will hold true concerning whaling vessels crossing each other’s track on the cruising-ground itself, even though they are equally long absent from home. —
关于鲸捕船穿越对方在巡航地上的轨道，即使它们离家一样长时间，所有这些都是成立的。 —

For one of them may have received a transfer of letters from some third, and now far remote vessel; —
因为其中一艘可能已经收到来自某第三艘遥远船只的信件转交； —

and some of those letters may be for the people of the ship she now meets. —
而那些信件中可能有些是给她现在所遇到船只的船员的。 —

Besides, they would exchange the whaling news, and have an agreeable chat. —
他们还会交换捕鲸的消息，并愉快地聊天。 —

For not only would they meet with all the sympathies of sailors, but likewise with all the peculiar congenialities arising from a common pursuit and mutually shared privations and perils.
因为他们不仅会得到水手们的同情，还会因为共同的追求和共同分享的困苦和危险而产生特殊共鸣。

Nor would difference of country make any very essential difference; —
即便彼此国家不同也不会构成太大区别； —

that is, so long as both parties speak one language, as is the case with Americans and English. —
那就是，只要双方使用同一种语言，就像美国人和英国人一样。 —

Though, to be sure, from the small number of English whalers, such meetings do not very often occur, and when they do occur there. —
当然，由于英国捕鲸船只的数量不多，这样的相遇并不经常发生，而且当发生时， —

is too apt to be a sort of shyness between them; —
他们之间往往会有一种畏缩的感觉； —

for your Englishman is rather reserved, and your Yankee, he does not fancy that sort of thing in anybody but himself. —
因为英国人相对寡言，而美国人只喜欢自己以外的一些事物。 —

Besides, the English whalers sometimes affect a kind of metropolitan superiority over the American whalers; —
此外，英国捕鲸者有时会对美国捕鲸者表现一种大都会的优越感； —

regarding the long, lean Nantucketer, with his nondescript provincialisms, as a sort of sea-peasant. But where this superiority in the English whaleman does really consist, it would be hard to say, seeing that the Yankees in one day, collectively, kill more whales than all the English, collectively, in ten years. —
他们认为那些身材细长的南塔基特人，以及他们那些方言，都是某种海上农夫。但英国捕鲸者的这种优越感究竟出自何处，确实难以说，因为整体而言，美国人在一天内击杀的鲸比英国人在十年内合计击杀的还要多。 —

But this is a harmless little foible in the English whale-hunters, which the Nantucketer does not take much to heart; —
但这只是英国捕鲸者的一个无害小癖好，并没有什么大碍南塔基特人； —

probably, because he knows that he has a few foibles himself.
或许因为他知道他自己也有一些小毛病。

So, then, we see that of all ships separately sailing the sea, the whalers have most reason to be sociable–and they are so. —
因此，我们看到，关于所有单独航行在海上的船只，捕鲸船拥有最充分的理由去交际，而且他们确实如此。 —

Whereas, some merchant ships crossing each other’s wake in the mid-Atlantic, will oftentimes pass on without so much as a single word of recognition, mutually cutting each other on the high seas, like a brace of dandies in Broadway; —
然而，在大西洋中部相遇的一些商船，往往会毫无认可地相互擦肩而过，在高海面上彼此像百老汇上的几个花花公子一样互相割断， —

and all the time indulging, perhaps, in finical criticism upon each other’s rig. —
同时也许还在对彼此的装束进行挑剔的批评。 —

As for Men-of-War, when they chance to meet at sea, they first go through such a string of silly bowings and scrapings, such a ducking of ensigns, that there does not seem to be much right-down hearty good-will and brotherly love about it at all. —
至于军舰，当它们在海上相遇时，首先会进行一连串愚蠢的鞠躬和打招呼，如此频繁以至于似乎并无真正的真诚祝愿和兄弟般的友爱之情。 —

As touching Slave-ships meeting, why, they are in such a prodigious hurry, they run away from each other as soon as possible. —
至于奴隶船相遇，嗯，它们非常匆忙，尽快远离对方。 —

And as for Pirates, when they chance to cross each other’s cross-bones, the first hail is–“How many skulls?” —
至于海盗，当它们碰到对方的交叉骨头时，第一个招呼是——“多少颗头骨？” —

– the same way that whalers hail–“How many barrels?” —
——就像捕鲸船船员招呼对方时候的“多少桶？”一样。 —

And that question once answered, pirates straightway steer apart, for they are infernal villains on both sides, and don’t like to see overmuch of each other’s villanous likenesses.
一旦这个问题得到回答，海盗们立刻分道扬镳，因为他们两边都是地狱般的恶棍，不想看到对方的恶棍面孔。

But look at the godly, honest, unostentatious, hospitable, sociable, free-and-easy whaler! —
但是看看那位敬虔、诚实、谦逊、好客、善于社交、自由随和的捕鲸船吧！ —

What does the whaler do when she meets another whaler in any sort of decent weather? —
当她在任何体面的天气中与另一艘捕鲸船相遇时，会怎么做？ —

She has a “Gam,” a thing so utterly unknown to all other ships that they never heard of the name even; —
她会进行“Gam”，一种对所有其他船只完全陌生的事情，其他船只甚至从未听过这个名字； —

and if by chance they should hear of it, they only grin at it, and repeat gamesome stuff about “spouters” and “blubber-boilers,” and such like pretty exclamations. —
如果偶然听说过的话，他们只会对此傻笑，并且复述关于“喷水者”和“油脂炉”等类似幼稚的口头禅。 —

Why it is that all Merchant-seamen, and also all Pirates and Man-of-War’s men, and Slave-ship sailors, cherish such a scornful feeling towards Whale-ships; —
所以，为什么所有的商船员，还有海盗、军舰船员、奴隶船海员对捕鲸船如此蔑视； —

this is a question it would be hard to answer. —
这是一个很难回答的问题。 —

Because, in the case of pirates, say, I should like to know whether that profession of theirs has any peculiar glory about it. —
因为，以海盗为例，我想知道他们的职业是否有任何特殊的荣耀。 —

It sometimes ends in uncommon elevation, indeed; but only at the gallows. —
它有时确实会以非同寻常的高贵而终结；但只有在绞台上。 —

And besides, when a man is elevated in that odd fashion, he has no proper foundation for his superior altitude. —
何况，当一个人以那种奇怪的方式被提升时，他没有适当的基础来支撑他的高度。 —

Hence, I conclude, that in boasting himself to be high lifted above a whaleman, in that assertion the pirate has no solid basis to stand on.
因此，我断定，在夸夸其谈自己高高在上于一个捕鲸者时，海盗在这种说法上是没有稳固的基础可以依靠的。

But what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson never attained to that erudition; —
但一个Gam是什么呢？你可能要翻遍字典的栏目，也找不到这个词，约翰逊博士从未达到过那种学识； —

Noah Webster’s ark does not hold it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees. —
诺亚·韦伯斯特的方舟里没有这个词。然而，这个富有表现力的词如今已经在一万五千名真正的扬基士兵中持续使用了很多年。 —

Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into the Lexicon. —
当然，这需要一个定义，并应该被纳入词典。 —

With that view, let me learnedly define it.
出于这个目的，让我学者般地定义它。

GAM. NOUN–A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on a cruising-ground; —
GAM。名词–两只(或更多)捕鲸船在巡航地点上一般进行的社交会议； —

when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats’ crews, the two captains remaining, for the time, on board of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.
当他们交换问候后，他们通过小船的船员进行互访，两名船长暂时停留在一艘船上，两个大副停留在另一艘船上。

There is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten here. —
还有关于Gamming必须在这里被不被忽略的另一小细节。 —

All professions have their own little peculiarities of detail; so has the whale fishery. —
所有行业都有自己的细微特点；捕鲸工业也是如此。 —

In a pirate, man-of-war, or slave ship, when the captain is rowed anywhere in his boat, he always sits in the stern sheets on a comfortable, sometimes cushioned seat there, and often steers himself with a pretty little milliner’s tiller decorated with gay cords and ribbons. —
在一艘海盗船、军舰或奴隶船上，当船长被划到任何地方时，他总是坐在船尾的一个舒适的座位上，有时带有垫子，有时用装饰有漂亮的绳带和丝带的小帽商操纵。 —

But the whale-boat has no seat astern, no sofa of that sort whatever, and no tiller at all. —
但捕鲸船的船尾没有座位，根本没有这样的沙发，也没有操舵柄。 —

High times indeed, if whaling captains were wheeled about the water on castors like gouty old aldermen in patent chairs. —
多么美好的时光啊，如果捕鲸船长们像风湿老市议员一样坐在带轮的轮椅上在水上转悠。 —

And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of any such effeminacy; —
至于操舵柄，捕鲸船是绝不容许有这种娇柔做作的东西的； —

and therefore as in gamming a complete boat’s crew must leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and the captain, having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine tree. —
因此，在进行Gamming时，一个完整的船上的船员必须离开船，因此，由于船上的船只驾驶员或标枪手中的一个需要前往，所以在这种情况下，该下级人员是舵手，船长因为没有位置可以坐下，就像一棵立着的松树一样被拖着去拜访。 —

And often you will notice that being conscious of the eyes of the whole visible world resting on him from the sides of the two ships, this standing captain is all alive to the importance of sustaining his dignity by maintaining his legs. —
你经常会注意到，这位站立的船长意识到整个可见世界的目光都集中在他身上，所以他非常重视通过保持双腿来维持他的尊严。 —

Nor is this any very easy matter; for in his rear is the immense projecting steering oar hitting him now and then in the small of his back, the after-oar reciprocating by rapping his knees in front. —
这并不是一件容易的事情；因为在他的背后是巨大的突出的舵浆不时击打他的腰部，后面的船桨反复敲打他的膝盖。 —

He is thus completely wedged before and behind, and can only expand himself sideways by settling down on his stretched legs; —
他因此在前后完全被挤压，只能通过双腿伸展来向两侧伸展； —

but a sudden, violent pitch of the boat will often go far to topple him, because length of foundation is nothing without corresponding breadth. —
但是小船突然剧烈的颠簸往往会让他失去平衡，因为没有相应的宽度，基础的长度是不够的。 —

Merely make a spread angle of two poles, and you cannot stand them up. —
仅仅做出两根桨的展开角度，就无法使它们站立起来。 —

Then, again, it would never do in plain sight of the world’s riveted eyes, it would never do, I say, for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands; —
再者，在全世界紧盯着的目光下，这位张开双腿的船长在站稳时绝对不能让他的双手碰任何东西以获得支撑； —

indeed, as token of his entire, buoyant self-command, he generally carries his hands in his trowsers’ pockets; —
事实上，作为他整体轻松自如的象征，他通常把双手插在裤兜里； —

but perhaps being generally very large, heavy hands, he carries them there for ballast. —
但也许是因为手比较大又沉重的缘故，他把手放在那里是为了增加稳定。 —

Nevertheless there have occurred instances, well authenticated ones too, where the captain has been known for an uncommonly critical moment or two, in a sudden squall say–to seize hold of the nearest oarsman’s hair, and hold on there like grim death.
尽管有一些被充分证实的案例，那里船长在一个异常关键的瞬间或持续一两个瞬间，比如突发狂风–他会抓住最近的划手的头发，像死神一样坚持不放。