The previous chapter gave account of an immense body or herd of Sperm Whales, and there was also then given the probable cause inducing those vast aggregations.
前一章讲述了一群庞大的抹香鲸，同时也提到了导致这些庞大聚集的可能原因。

Now, though such great bodies are at times encountered, yet, as must have been seen, even at the present day, small detached bands are occasionally observed, embracing from twenty to fifty individuals each. —
现在，虽然有时会遇到这样的大群，但正如当今所见，偶尔也会看到一些小的分离群体，每个群体包含二十到五十只个体。 —

Such bands are known as schools. They generally are of two sorts; —
这些群体称为“学校”。它们通常有两种类型； —

those composed almost entirely of females, and those mustering none but young vigorous males, or bulls as they are familiarly designated.
一种几乎完全由雌性组成，另一种则只结合年轻有活力的雄性，或者如他们熟悉地被称为的公牛。

In cavalier attendance upon the school of females, you invariably see a male of full grown magnitude, but not old; —
在雌性群体陪同的骑士中，你总能看到一只个头巨大的雄性，但并不老； —

who, upon any alarm, evinces his gallantry by falling in the rear and covering the flight of his ladies. —
他在受到任何威胁时，通过留在后方并掩护他的女士们，表现出他的豪气。 —

In truth, this gentleman is a luxurious Ottoman, swimming about over the watery world, surroundingly accompanied by all the solaces and endearments of the harem. —
事实上，这位绅士就像一个奢华的奥斯曼，在水世界中游弋，周围伴随着后宫的各种慰藉和亲昵。 —

The contrast between this Ottoman and his concubines is striking; —
这位奥斯曼和他的妻妾之间的对比非常鲜明； —

because, while he is always of the largest leviathanic proportions, the ladies, even at full growth, are not more than one-third of the bulk of an average-sized male. —
因为，虽然他总是体积最大，女士们，即使长到最大，也不过是平均大小雄性的三分之一。 —

They are comparatively delicate, indeed; —
他们相对娇嫩，的确； —

I dare say, not to exceed half a dozen yards round the waist. —
我敢说，绕腰可能不过六码。 —

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, that upon the whole they are hereditarily entitled to en bon point.
然而，不可否认，从整体看，他们是有权利继承优点的。

It is very curious to watch this harem and its lord in their indolent ramblings. —
观察这个后宫和它的主人在懒散的游荡中是非常奇妙的。 —

Like fashionables, they are for ever on the move in leisurely search of variety. —
就像时尚的人士，他们总是在悠闲地寻找变化。 —

You meet them on the Line in time for the full flower of the Equatorial feeding season, having just returned, perhaps, from spending the summer in the Northern seas, and so cheating summer of all unpleasant weariness and warmth. —
你会在赤道上遇到它们，正好赶上赤道的饲料季节的盛花期，也许刚从北部海域度过夏季回来，从而欺骗了夏季所有令人不愉快的疲乏和炎热。 —

By the time they have lounged up and down the promenade of the Equator awhile, they start for the Oriental waters in anticipation of the cool season there, and so evade the other excessive temperature of the year.
当他们在赤道的长廊上游荡一段时间后，他们开始前往东方水域，期待那里的凉爽季节，从而避开一年中的其他过高温度。

When serenely advancing on one of these journeys, if any strange suspicious sights are seen, my lord whale keeps a wary eye on his interesting family. —
当在其中一次旅程上平静前行时，如果看到任何奇怪可疑的景象，我的大鲸鱼会警惕地注视着他有趣的家人。 —

Should any unwarrantably pert young Leviathan coming that way, presume to draw confidentially close to one of the ladies, with what prodigious fury the Bashaw assails him, and chases him away! —
如果有任何莽撞的年轻利维坦不请自来，假定亲近其中一位女士，巴沙会以何等惊人的愤怒袭击他，把他赶走！ —

High times, indeed, if unprincipled young rakes like him are to be permitted to invade the sanctity of domestic bliss; —
好景不长，如果像他这样没有原则的年轻纨绔被允许侵犯家庭幸福的神圣之地； —

though do what the Bashaw will, he cannot keep the most notorious Lothario out of his bed; —
尽管巴沙会尽一切努力，也无法将最臭名昭著的花心郎挡在自己床榻之外； —

for alas! all fish bed in common. As ashore, the ladies often cause the most terrible duels among their rival admirers; —
因为哎！所有的鱼都是共同栖息的。在陆地上，女士们常常在追求者之间引起最可怕的决斗； —

just so with the whales, who sometimes come to deadly battle, and all for love. —
鲸鱼也一样，有时会为了爱而展开致命的战斗。 —

They fence with their long lower jaws, sometimes locking them together, and so striving for the supremacy like elks that warringly interweave their antlers. —
他们用长长的下颌相互擦刃，有时锁在一起，为获得统治权而搏斗，就像驼鹿交织角一样争斗。 —

Not a few are captured having the deep scars of these encounters,– furrowed heads, broken teeth, scolloped fins; —
许多鲸鱼在这些交锋中被捕获，身上留下深深的伤痕– 有皱褶的头部，折断的牙齿，波浪状的鳍； —

and in some instances, wrenched and dislocated mouths.
有时，嘴巴脱臼，扭伤。

But supposing the invader of domestic bliss to betake himself away at the first rush of the harem’s lord, then is it very diverting to watch that lord. —
但假设侵犯家庭幸福的人在后妃之主冲过去时逃之夭夭，那么看着那位主人是非常有趣的。 —

Gently he insinuates his vast bulk among them again and revels there awhile, still in tantalizing vicinity to young Lothario, like pious Solomon devoutly worshipping among his thousand concubines. —
他温柔地再次把自己巨大的身躯悄悄地混进她们中间，然后在那里狂欢片刻，仍然在年轻花心郎附近引人遐想，就像虔诚的所罗门在他的千名妾妇中虔诚地敬拜一样。 —

Granting other whales to be in sight, the fisherman will seldom give chase to one of these Grand Turks; —
如果其他鲸鱼出现在视野中，渔民很少会去追捕这些“大沙皇”之一； —

for these Grand Turks are too lavish of their strength, and hence their unctuousness is small. —
因为这些“大沙皇”浪费实力太多，因此它们的脂肪很少。 —

As for the sons and the daughters they beget, why, those sons and daughters must take care of themselves; —
至于他们所生的儿女，呃，那些儿女必须自己照顾自己； —

at least, with only the maternal help. For like certain other omnivorous roving lovers that might be named, my Lord Whale has no taste for the nursery, however much for the bower; —
至少，只有母亲的帮助。就像其他某些显而易见的游走的恋人一样，我的鲸鱼大人对育儿并不感兴趣，尽管对花园颇有兴趣； —

and so, being a great traveller, he leaves his anonymous babies all over the world; —
所以，作为一个伟大的旅行者，他在世界各地留下了他的无名幼崽； —

every baby an exotic. In good time, nevertheless, as the ardor of youth declines; —
每个宝宝都是异国情调的。然而，随着青年时代的热情消退， —

as years and dumps increase; as reflection lends her solemn pauses; —
随着岁月流逝和废料增多；随着反思带来她庄严的暂停； —

in short, as a general lassitude overtakes the sated Turk; —
总之，当一种普遍的疲态压倒了饱足的土耳其人时； —

then a love of ease and virtue supplants the love for maidens; —
然后一种对安逸和美德的喜爱取代了对少女的爱慕； —

our Ottoman enters upon the impotent, repentant, admonitory stage of life, forswears, disbands the harem, and grown to an exemplary, sulky old soul, goes about all alone among the meridians and parallels saying his prayers, and warning each young Leviathan from his amorous errors.
我们的奥斯曼进入生命的无能力，后悔和劝告阶段，放弃，解散后宫，变成一个值得效仿的，闷闷不乐的老人，独自走在子午线之间，默默祈祷，并警告每一只年轻的大鲸免于情爱的错误。

Now, as the harem of whales is called by the fishermen a school, so is the lord and master of that school technically known as the schoolmaster. —
现在，就像渔民们称鲸鱼的后宫为学校一样，那个学校的当家人和主人在技术上被称为学校长。 —

It is therefore not in strict character, however admirably satirical, that after going to school himself, he should then go abroad inculcating not what he learned there, but the folly of it. —
因此，在严格的性格方面，虽然极端讽刺，学校长上过学后，却去宣扬的不是他在那里学到的东西，而是那些愚蠢之处。 —

His title, schoolmaster, would very naturally seem derived from the name bestowed upon the harem itself, but some have surmised that the man who first thus entitled this sort of Ottoman whale, must have read the memoirs of Vidocq, and informed himself what sort of a country-schoolmaster that famous Frenchman was in his younger days, and what was the nature of those occult lessons he inculcated into some of his pupils.
他的头衔，学校长，很自然地似乎来自于对后宫本身所给予的名称，但有人猜测，最初将这种奥斯曼鲸物以学校长命名的人，一定曾经阅读过维多克的回忆录，并了解过这位著名法国人在年轻时是什么样的乡村学校长，以及他向一些学生传授了什么样的隐秘教训。

The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm Whales. —
学校长鲸在晚年所青睐的隐居和孤独，也适用于所有年老的抹香鲸。 —

Almost universally, a lone whale– as a solitary Leviathan is called–proves an ancient one. —
几乎普遍地，孤独的鲸鱼–就像孤独的大鲸一样称呼–往往是古老的。 —

Like venerable moss-bearded Daniel Boone, he will have no one near him but Nature herself; —
像受尊崇、长满青苔胡须的丹尼尔·布恩一样，他身边只有大自然； —

and her he takes to wife in the wilderness of waters, and the best of wives she is, though she keeps so many moody secrets.
他把她娶为妻，在水域的荒野，她是最好的妻子，尽管她保留着许多阴郁的秘密。

The schools composing none but young and vigorous males, previously mentioned, offer a strong contrast to the harem schools. —
组成学校的那些年轻而强壮的雄鲸，如前所提，与后宫学校形成了鲜明的对比。 —

For while those female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious of all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter; —
因为那些雌性鲸鱼有着胆小的特点，而年轻的雄性或四十桶公牛，如他们所说的，是所有大鲸中最富有战斗力的，也是惯常最危险的； —

excepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met, and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.
除了那些奇妙的长着灰色头发，灰须的鲸，有时遇到，他们会像受惩罚的痛风折磨的鬼魂一样与你搏斗。

The Forty-barrel-bull schools are larger than the harem schools. —
四十桶公牛学校比后宫学校更大。 —

Like a mob of young collegians, they are full of fight, fun, and wickedness, tumbling round the world at such a reckless, rollicking rate, that no prudent underwriter would insure them any more than he would a riotous lad at Yale or Harvard. —
就像一群年轻的大学生，它们充满了战斗力、乐趣和邪恶，以如此鲁莽且狂野的速度在世界上翻滚，以至于没有明智的保险代理人会像保险耶鲁大学或哈佛大学的狂暴小伙子一样给它们投保。 —

They soon relinquish this turbulence though, and when about three-fourths grown, break up, and separately go about in quest of settlements, that is, harems.
然而它们很快就放弃了这种骚乱，大约长到四分之三的大小后就散开，各自寻找安家的地方，也就是后宫。

Another point of difference between the male and female schools is still more characteristic of the sexes. —
雄性和雌性学校之间的另一个不同点更具有性别特征。 —

Say you strike a Forty-barrel-bull–poor devil! all his comrades quit him. —
假设你击中了一头四十桶的公鲸——可怜的家伙！他的所有同伴就会离他而去。 —

But strike a member of the harem school, and her companions swim around her with every token of concern, sometimes lingering so near her and so long, as themselves to fall a prey.
但如果你击中了一个后宫学校的成员，她的同伴们就会游到她身边，表现出各种关心的迹象，有时甚至会在她身边逗留那么近、那么久，以至于它们自己也会沦为猎物。