Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. —
从克罗泽特群岛向东北方向航行，我们遇到了广袤的brit草甸，这种微小的黄色物质是座头鲸的主要食物。 —

For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed to be sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
漫无边际的brit草甸在我们周围起伏，让我们仿佛在穿越无边无际的成熟金黄麦田中航行。

On the second day, numbers of Right Whales were seen, who, secure from the attack of a Sperm-Whaler like the Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly swam through the brit, which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that wondrous Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner separated from the water that escaped at the lips.
第二天，我们看到了许多座头鲸，它们安全地游过了brit，免受Pequod等抓头鲸的攻击，它们张开嘴巴慢慢游过，嘴里的那种奇妙的百叶窗状东西粘在嘴边的纤维上，这样就将从嘴唇流出的水分与海水分开了。

As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; —
就像清晨的割草者，一起缓慢地穿过沼泽草地的湿长草; —

even so these monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; —
这些怪物慢慢游动，发出奇特的切割声音; —

and leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.*
在金黄色的海面上留下了无尽的蓝色痕迹。

*That part of the sea known among whalemen as the “Brazil Banks” does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.
作为鲸鱼捕猎者所熟知的区域“巴西浅滩”之所以得名，与纽芬兰浅滩不同，不是因为那里有浅滩和水深，而是因为在那个纬度飘动的大量brit造成的这种独特的草甸状外观，座头鲸经常在那里受到追捕。

But it was only the sound they made as they parted the brit which at all reminded one of mowers. —
然而，唯有他们穿过brit时发出的声音才让人联想到割草者。 —

Seen from the mast-heads, especially when they paused and were stationary for a while, their vast black forms looked more like lifeless masses of rock than anything else. —
从桅杆上看去，特别是当它们停下来静止一会儿时，它们庞大的黑色形体更像是无生命的岩石群。 —

And as in the great hunting countries of India, the stranger at a distance will sometimes pass on the plains recumbent elephants without knowing them to be such, taking them for bare, blackened elevations of the soil; —
正如在印度的大狩猎地区，远处的陌生人有时会在平原上经过伏卧的大象而不知道它们是大象，把它们当作裸露的、被黑色染色的土壤高地; —

even so, often, with him, who for the first time beholds this species of the leviathans of the sea. —
这种海洋中的大型动物经常让人感到如此。 —

And even when recognized at last, their immense magnitude renders it very hard really to believe that such bulky masses of overgrowth can possibly be instinct, in all parts, with the same sort of life that lives in a dog or a horse.
即使最终被认出，它们庞大的尺寸使人很难真正相信这样庞大的过度生长部分可能在所有部位都富有与狗或马相同的生命。

Indeed. in other respects, you can hardly regard any creatures of the deep with the same feelings that you do those of the shore. —
其实，在其他方面，你几乎无法像对待陆地上的生物那样看待海洋中的生物。 —

For though some old naturalists have maintained that all creatures of the land are of their kind in the sea; —
尽管一些古老的博物学家坚称陆地上的所有生物都存在于海中; —

and though taking a broad general view of the thing, this may very well be; —
考虑事情的总体情况，这很可能是正确的; —

yet coming to specialties, where, for example, does the ocean furnish any fish that in disposition answers to the sagacious kindness of the dog? —
然而，谈到特产，比如大海是否提供了与狗那种睿智善良的特性相匹配的鱼？ —

The accursed shark alone can in any generic respect be said to bear comparative analogy to him.
只有可悲的鲨鱼可以在任何一般意义上与他相比。

But though, to landsmen in general, the native inhabitants of the seas have ever been regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling; —
但尽管一般的陆地人对海洋的本地居民常常带着不可言喻的不友好和排斥情绪； —

though we know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita, so that Columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to discover his one superficial western one; —
尽管我们知道海洋是一个永恒的未知之地，哥伦布曾在无数未知的世界上航行，仅仅为了发现他的一个西方表面世界； —

though, by vast odds, the most terrific of all mortal disasters have immemorially and indiscriminately befallen tens and hundreds of thousands of those who have gone upon the waters; —
尽管迄今为止，最可怕的死亡灾难已经数以万计地降临到那些下海的人身上； —

though but a moment’s consideration will teach that, however baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; —
尽管稍加思考就会明白，无论人类如何自吹自擂他的科学和技能，以及在一个令人称赞的未来，这些科学和技能会如何增长； —

yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; —
但是永远永远，一直到世界末日，海洋都会侮辱和谋害他，并粉碎他所能制造的最豪华、最坚固的军舰； —

nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.
尽管人类通过这些印象的不断重复，已经失去了对海洋充满可怕的感觉，这种感觉原本是属于海洋的。

The first boat we read of, floated on an ocean, that with Portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow. —
我们所读的第一只船，漂浮在一个海洋上，这个海随着葡萄牙人的复仇，淹没了整个世界，几乎没有一个寡妇留下。 —

That same ocean rolls now; that same ocean destroyed the wrecked ships of last year. —
那条海依然在滚动；还有去年遇难船只的残骸。 —

Yea, foolish mortals, Noah’s flood is not yet subsided; —
是的，愚昧的凡人，挪亚的洪水还没有退去； —

two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.
整个美好的世界的三分之二仍被其覆盖。

Wherein differ the sea and the land, that a miracle upon one is not a miracle upon the other? —
海洋和陆地有何不同，以至于对一个进行的奇迹在另一个上却不是奇迹？ —

Preternatural terrors rested upon the Hebrews, when under the feet of Korah and his company the live ground opened and swallowed them up for ever; —
在希伯来人脚下柯拉和他的同伴被活地吞并而永远消失时，预自然的恐惧降临在他们之上； —

yet not a modern sun ever sets, but in precisely the same manner the live sea swallows up ships and crews.
然而，没有一轮现代太阳是在同样方式下落的，就是说海洋也吞没了船只和船员。

But not only is the sea such a foe to man who is an alien to it, but it is also a fiend to its own off-spring; —
但海不仅是对于那些与之相异的人类的敌人，而且也是对待自己后代的恶魔； —

worse than the Persian host who murdered his own guests; —
比起谋杀自己的客人的波斯军队还要糟糕； —

sparing not the creatures which itself hath spawned. —
它不留情地对待自己所孵化的生物； —

Like a savage tigress that tossing in the jungle overlays her own cubs, so the sea dashes even the mightiest whales against the rocks, and leaves them there side by side with the split wrecks of ships. —
就像一只在丛林中狂躁跳跃的野生母虎把自己的幼崽压倒一样，海洋甚至把最强大的鲸鱼也摔在礁石上，与沉没的船舶残骸并列在一起； —

No mercy, no power but its own controls it. —
没有怜悯，控制它的只有自身的力量； —

Panting and snorting like a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, the masterless ocean overruns the globe.
像一匹失主的战马般喘息喷薄，无人驾驭的海洋横扫全球；

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. —
想想海洋的微妙之处；它最可怕的生物是如何在水下滑行，大多数情况下不可察觉，并且潜伏在最美丽的天蓝色之下； —

Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. —
再想想它最残忍物种某些魔鬼般璀璨迷人的光辉和美丽，比如一些鲨鱼品种的精美外形； —

Consider once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; —
再考虑一下海洋的普遍食人行为； —

all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
所有生物相互猎食，自世界诞生以来永远开展着战争；

Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; —
想想这一切；然后转向这片绿色、温和、温顺的大地； —

consider them both, the sea and the land; —
考虑它们两者，海洋和陆地； —

and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? —
难道你不会在自己的内心中找到一种奇异的相似之处吗？ —

For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. —
因为就像这个令人恐惧的海洋环绕着郁郁葱葱的土地一样，人类灵魂中存在着一个孤岛塔希提，充满和平与喜悦，但又被半知的生活的种种恐怖所包围； —

God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!
上帝保佑你！不要从那个小岛上离开，你将永远无法返回！