With reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described, as well as for the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented, I have here to speak of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line.
关于即将描述的捕鲸场景，以及为了更好地理解其他类似场景，我必须讲述一下神奇而有时可怕的捕鲸索。

The line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp, slightly vapored with tar, not impregnated with it, as in the case of ordinary ropes; —
最初在渔业中使用的绳索是最好的大麻，稍微涂抹了焦油，而不是浸透其中，如普通绳索的情况； —

for while tar, as ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable to the rope-maker, and also renders the rope itself more convenient to the sailor for common ship use; —
因为虽然正常使用焦油会使大麻对于制绳工来说更易弯曲，并且使绳索本身对于水手在一般船舶使用时更方便； —

yet, not only would the ordinary quantity too much stiffen the whale-line for the close coiling to which it must be subjected; —
但事实上正常的量会让捕鲸索过于坚硬，无法进行它应该接受的紧密盘绕； —

but as most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in general by no means adds to the rope’s durability or strength, however much it may give it compactness and gloss.
而且正如大多数水手正在逐渐了解的那样，焦油一般情况下并不会提高绳索的耐用性或强度，无论它增加了多少的致密度和光泽。

Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; —
近年来，马尼拉绳几乎完全取代了大麻成为美国捕鲸业的捕鲸索材料； —

for, though not so durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; —
因为，虽然不如大麻耐用，但它更强大，更柔软和富有弹性； —

and I will add (since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. —
我要补充一点(因为一切事物都有美学)，相比大麻，马尼拉绳更漂亮，更适合船只； —

Hemp is a dusky, dark fellow, a sort of Indian; —
大麻是一个阴暗的、黑色的家伙，一种印第安人； —

but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian to behold.
但马尼拉呈现出金发的美丽贝都因女子的风采。

The whale-line is only two thirds of an inch in thickness. —
捕鲸索仅有三分之二英寸的厚度。 —

At first sight, you would not think it so strong as it really is. —
乍一看，你不会认为这么强。 —

By experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds; —
经过实验，每一条五十一根的绳线都可以承受一百二十磅的重量； —

so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons. —
所以整条绳索可以承受将近三吨的压力。 —

In length, the common sperm whale-line measures something over two hundred fathoms. —
一般的抹香鲸捕捞线长度约为两百多英寻。 —

Towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub, not like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so as to form one round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded “sheaves,” or layers of concentric spiralizations, without any hollow but the “heart,” or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese. —
在船尾，绳子被螺旋卷在桶中，形成一个圆形的密集层叠的“麦穗”或同心螺旋层，没有空心，只有“心脏”或在奶酪轴线上形成的垂直微型管道。 —

As the least tangle or kink in the coiling would, in running out, infallibly take somebody’s arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is used in stowing the line in its tub. —
如果卷绞中稍有纠缠或打结，往外运行时必然会割断某人的手臂、腿或整个身体，因此在储存绳子时必须极度小心。 —

Some harpooneers will consume almost an entire morning in this business, carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub, so as in the act of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists.
有些捕鲸者几乎会花整个上午的时间，将绳子高高地举起，然后通过滑轮向下穿过一个块，以便在卷绞的过程中将其从所有可能的皱纹和扭结中解放出来。

In the English boats two tubs are used instead of one; —
在英国的船只上不使用一个，而是使用两个桶； —

the same line being continuously coiled in both tubs. There is some advantage in this; —
同一根绳子持续地被卷绞在这两个桶里。这样做有一些优势； —

because these twin-tubs being so small they fit more readily into the boat, and do not strain it so much; —
因为这两个双桶相对较小，更容易适应船只，并且不会对它造成太大压力； —

whereas, the American tub, nearly three feet in diameter and of proportionate depth, makes a rather bulky freight for a craft whose planks are but one-half inch in thickness; —
相比之下，美国的桶，直径近三英尺，相应深度，对于底板仅为半英寸厚度的船只来说，会成为一个相当庞大的货物； —

for the bottom of the whale-boat is like critical ice, which will bear up a considerable distributed weight, but not very much of a concentrated one. —
因为鲸船的底部就像承受一定分布重量的脆弱冰，但不能承受太多集中重量。 —

When the painted canvas cover is clapped on the american line-tub, the boat looks as if it were pulling off with a prodigious great wedding-cake to present to the whales.
当美国线桶被套上油漆帆布盖时，船看起来就像拖着一个巨大的结婚蛋糕去赠送给鲸鱼。

Both ends of the line are exposed; the lower end terminating in an eye-splice or loop coming up from the bottom against the side of the tub, and hanging over its edge completely disengaged from everything. —
两端的绳子都是裸露的；底端用一个形成眼结或环的绳子，自桶底沿着边缘上升，完全不与任何东西接触。 —

This arrangement of the lower end is necessary on two accounts. First: —
这种下端布置是出于两个原因，第一： —

In order to facilitate the fastening to it of an additional line from a neighboring boat, in case the stricken whale should sound so deep as to threaten to carry off the entire line originally attached to the harpoon. —
为了方便邻近船只附加一根额外绳子以此固定，以防被击中的鲸鱼下潜太深，有可能带走最初系在鱼叉上的整根绳子。 —

In these instances, the whale of course is shifted like a mug of ale, as it were, from the one boat to the other; —
在这些情况下，鲸鱼当然会像一杯啤酒那样被从一只船移到另一只船； —

though the first boat always hovers at hand to assist its consort. Second: —
尽管第一只船始终在附近支援其伙伴。第二： —

This arrangement is indispensable for common safety’s sake; —
这种布置对于普遍的安全至关重要。 —

for were the lower end of the line in any way attached to the boat, and were the whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking minute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed boat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of the sea; —
如果底端的钓索与船只连接在一起，而鲸鱼突然朝着海中深渊迅速游走，有时候只需几分钟，那么这时，注定要沉入深海的船只也会被无情地拖下去； —

and in that case no town-crier would ever find her again.
在那种情况下，城镇广告员将永远找不到她。

Before lowering the boat for the chase, the upper end of the line is taken aft from the tub, and passing round the loggerhead there, is again carried forward the entire length of the boat, resting crosswise upon the loom or handle of every man’s oar, so that it jogs against his wrist in rowing; —
在开始追捕前，将钓索的顶端从桶中取出后，经由船尾绕过滑轮，再次沿着整个船长向前延伸，横放在每个桨的桨柄上，这样在划桨时会碰到手腕； —

and also passing between the men, as they alternately sit at the opposite gunwales, to the leaded chocks or grooves in the extreme pointed prow of the boat, where a wooden pin or skewer the size of a common quill, prevents it from slipping out. —
同时经过每个人交替坐在相反舷的位置，到达船头前端的铅制槽或槽槽，那里有一根木制的钉或者竹签，防止它滑出来。 —

From the chocks it hangs in a slight festoon over the bows, and is then passed inside the boat again; —
从槽槽处，它在船头上方形成轻微的装饰物，然后再次进入船内； —

and some ten or twenty fathoms (called box-line) being coiled upon the box in the bows, it continues its way to the gunwale still a little further aft, and is then attached to the short-warp– the rope which is immediately connected with the harpoon; —
约十至二十个船长的长度（称为箱状绳）被卷绕在船头的箱子上，接着它一直延伸到船舷稍稍向后，然后连接到短缆绳–那根与鱼叉紧密相连的绳子； —

but previous to that connexion, the short-warp goes through sundry mystifications too tedious to detail.
但在此连接之前，短缆绳也需经过一些复杂的步骤，这些步骤繁琐无法一一细说。

Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. —
因此，鲸鱼索将整艘船缠绕在错综复杂的线圈中，在几乎每一个方向上扭曲和扭转。 —

All the oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; —
所有桨手都卷入了危险的扭结之中； —

so that to the timid eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs. —
所以在陆地的胆小者眼中，他们就像印第安魔术师一样，在他们的四肢上调皮地缠绕着最危险的蛇。 —

Nor can any son of mortal woman, for the first time, seat himself amid those hempen intricacies, and while straining his utmost at the oar, bethink him that at any unknown instant the harpoon may be darted, and all these horrible contortions be put in play like ringed lightnings; —
没有任何凡人的儿子，第一次在那些麻绳的纠缠中坐下，并在划桨时极力奋斗，会意识到鱼叉可能在任何未知的瞬间被投射，所有这些可怕的扭曲会像戒指般闪电般发挥作用； —

he cannot be thus circumstanced without a shudder that makes the very marrow in his bones to quiver in him like a shaken jelly. —
他在这样的情况下会不禁感到颤栗，仿佛骨髓在他体内像被摇晃的果冻一样颤动。 —

Yet habit–strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish? —
然而，习惯–奇妙的东西！习惯能够实现什么？ —

–Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany, than you will hear over the half-inch white cedar of the whaleboat, when thus hung in hangman’s nooses; —
–在捕鲸船半英寸厚的白雪杉木上，挂着绞刑绳，你将听到更加欢快的趣闻、更多的笑话和更明快的回应，就像你在红木餐桌边听到的一样； —

and, like the six burghers of Calais before King Edward, the six men composing the crew pull into the jaws of death, with a halter around every neck, as you may say.
正如加莱市六市民在爱德华国王面前，组成船员的六个人，每人脖子上都套着绞索，挺进死亡的大门，可以这么说。

Perhaps a very little thought will now enable you to account for those repeated whaling disasters–some few of which are casually chronicled–of this man or that man being taken out of the boat by the line, and lost. —
也许稍微思考一下，你就能解释那些关于捕鲸灾难的报道——有些人被绳索拖出船外，然后失踪。 —

For, when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat, is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and wheel, is grazing you. —
因为，当绳索飞快地冲出时，坐在船里就像坐在全速运转的蒸汽机中间，每根飞速运动的梁、轴和轮都在擦过你。 —

It is worse; for you cannot sit motionless in the heart of these perils, because the boat is rocking like a cradle, and you are pitched one way and the other, without the slightest warning; —
更糟糕的是；你无法静静地坐在这些危险中心，因为船摇摆得像个摇篮，你会随意向前后摇动，完全没有任何警告； —

and only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action, can you escape being made a Mazeppa of, and run away with where the all-seeing sun himself could never pierce you out.
只有通过一定的自我调整的浮力以及同时的意愿和行动，你才能避免被当成迷宠，被无法穿透的全视太阳带着跑掉。

Again: as the profound calm which only apparently precedes and prophesies of the storm, is perhaps more awful than the storm itself; —
再说：那种只表面上预示风暴即将来临的深沉宁静，也许比暴风雨本身更可怕； —

for, indeed, the calm is but the wrapper and envelope of the storm; —
因为，事实上，宁静只是风暴的外套和外包； —

and contains it in itself, as the seemingly harmless rifle holds the fatal powder, and the ball, and the explosion; —
它包含了其中，就像看似无害的来复枪上端着致命的火药、子弹和爆炸一样； —

so the graceful repose of the line, as it silently serpentines about the oarsmen before being brought into actual play– this is a thing which carries more of true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous affair. —
因此，绳索优雅的安静，在实际使用之前悄无声息地盘绕在桨手周围——这种情形比这场危险事件的任何其他方面都更可怕。 —

But why say more? All men live enveloped in whale-lines. —
但为什么还要说更多呢？所有人都被捕鲸绳索包围。 —

All are born with halters round their necks; —
所有人生来就戴着绞索在脖子上； —

but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, everpresent perils of life. —
但只有当被死亡的突然、猛烈的转变所困住时，凡人才会意识到生命中那些潜藏的、微妙而无时无刻不在的危险。 —

And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.
如果你是一位哲学家，虽然坐在捕鲸船上，内心的恐惧并不比坐在晚间火炉前，身边放着一根火钩而不是鱼叉的时候更胜一筹。