Now this ambergris is a very curious substance, and so important as an article of commerce, that in 1791 a certain Nantucket-born Captain Coffin was examined at the bar of the English House of Commons on that subject. —
现在琥珀韵香就是一种非常奇特的物质，作为一种商品非常重要，以至于1791年，一位出生在南塔基特的柯芬船长在英国下议院的证词中被询问过这个问题。 —

For at that time, and indeed until a comparatively late day, the precise origin of ambergris remained, like amber itself, a problem to the learned. —
因为当时，甚至直到相对较近的一天，琥珀韵香的确切起源仍然像琥珀本身一样，是学者们的难题。 —

Though the word ambergris is but the French compound for grey amber, yet the two substances are quite distinct. —
尽管琥珀韵香这个词只是法语中表灰琥珀的复合词，但这两种物质是完全不同的。 —

For amber, though at times found on the sea-coast, is also dug up in some far inland soils, whereas ambergris is never found except upon the sea. —
因为琥珀虽然有时被发现在海岸上，也会被挖掘在一些远离海岸的土壤中，然而琥珀韵香除了海上从来没有发现过。 —

Besides, amber is a hard, transparent, brittle, odorless substance, used for mouth-pieces to pipes, for beads and ornaments; —
此外，琥珀是一种坚硬、透明、脆的、无味的物质，用于烟斗的嘴嘴、珠宝和装饰品； —

but ambergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum. —
但琥珀韵香是软、蜡状和香气浓郁、香料浓郁，被广泛用于香水、香炉、珍贵蜡烛、头发粉和发蜡。 —

The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter’s in Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.
土耳其人用它烹饪，并且也带到麦加，用于烹饪的目的，就像乳香被运往罗马圣彼得大教堂一样。一些酒商会在红葡萄酒中滴入几粒，以调味。

Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! —
谁会想到，如此高贵的女士和绅士们竟然用一种发现在一头生病的鲸鱼无名部位的精华来款待自己！ —

Yet so it is. By some, ambergris is supposed to be the cause, and by others the effect, of the dyspepsia in the whale. —
然而事实就是这样。有人认为琥珀韵香是鲸鱼消化不良的原因，而有人认为是结果。 —

How to cure such a dyspepsia it were hard to say, unless by administering three or four boat loads of Brandreth’s pills, and then running out of harm’s way, as laborers do in blasting rocks.
如何治疗这种消化不良很难说，除非口服三四船的布兰德雷斯丸，然后赶紧躲开，就像工人在爆破岩石时那样。

I have forgotten to say that there were found in this ambergris, certain hard, round, bony plates, which at first Stubb thought might be sailors’ trousers buttons; —
我忘了说，这些琥珀韵香中还发现了一些坚硬的、圆形的、多骨的板片，起初斯塔布以为可能是水手的裤子纽扣； —

but it afterwards turned out that they were nothing, more than pieces of small squid bones embalmed in that manner.
但后来证明它们仅仅是一些小鱿鱼骨头以那种方式保存下来的。

Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be found in the heart of such decay; is this nothing? —
现在这种最香的琥珀韵香的不腐败性如此明显地存在于这样的腐朽之中；难道这不是什么吗？ —

Bethink thee of that saying of St. Paul in Corinthians, about corruption and incorruption; —
想想保罗在哥林多书中的那句话，关于腐败和不朽； —

how that we are sown in dishonor, but raised in glory. —
我们是在羞耻中种下的，但在荣耀中复活。 —

And likewise call to mind that saying of Paracelsus about what it is that maketh the best musk. —
同样要记住帕拉塞尔苏斯关于是什么使最好的麝香的说法。 —

Also forget not the strange fact that of all things of ill-savor, Cologne-water, in its rudimental manufacturing stages, is the worst.
也不要忘记关于所有恶臭物中，科隆香水在其制造的初期阶段是最糟糕的奇怪事实。

I should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal, but cannot, owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against whalemen, and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds, might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of the Frenchman’s two whales. —
我想要用上述呼吁结束这一章，但由于我对鲸鱼捕捞者经常受到的指责的焦虑，无法这样做。某些已经带有偏见的思想可能会认为通过法国人的两只鲸鱼的言论间接实现了这一指控。 —

Elsewhere in this volume the slanderous aspersion has been disproved, that the vocation of whaling is throughout a slatternly, untidy business. —
在本卷中其他地方已经证明了一种中伤，即捕鲸工作始终是一项邋遢、凌乱的事业。 —

But there is another thing to rebut. They hint that all whales always smell bad. —
但还有一件事要驳斥。他们暗示所有的鲸鱼都总是散发难闻的气味。 —

Now how did this odious stigma originate?
现在这种可恶的污名是如何产生的呢？

I opine, that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the Greenland whaling ships in London, more than two centuries ago. —
我认为，这很明显可以追溯到两个多世纪前格陵兰捕鲸船首次抵达伦敦的情况。 —

Because those whalemen did not then, and do not now, try out their oil at sea as the Southern ships have always done; —
因为那些捕鲸船员当时没有，至今也没有像南方船只那样在海上将油提炼出来； —

but cutting up the fresh blubber in small bits, thrust it through the bung holes of large casks, and carry it home in that manner; —
而是将新鲜的鲸脂切成小块，从大桶的塞孔里把它塞进去，然后这样带回家； —

the shortness of the season in those Icy Seas, and the sudden and violent storms to which they are exposed, forbidding any other course. —
因为在那些冰冻海域，短暂的季节和暴风雪禁止进行其他方式。 —

The consequence is, that upon breaking into the hold, and unloading one of these whale cemeteries, in the Greenland dock, a savor is given forth somewhat similar to that arising from excavating an old city graveyard, for the foundations of a Lying-in Hospital.
结果是，在挖开货舱并卸下其中一个这样的鲸鱼坟墓时，格陵兰码头会散发出一种逼近于挖掘古城墓地或产房医院基础时发出的气味。

I partly surmise also, that this wicked charge against whalers may be likewise imputed to the existence on the coast of Greenland, in former times, of a Dutch village called Schmerenburgh or Smeerenberg, which latter name is the one used by the learned Fogo Von Slack, in his great work on Smells, a text-book on that subject. —
我部分猜想，对捕鲸者的这种不端指控，也可能源自在格陵兰海岸上过去曾存在一个名为施梅伦堡或史梅伦堡的荷兰村庄。学者福戈·冯·斯拉克在其关于臭味的大作中使用了后者的名字，这是关于臭味的教科书。 —

As its name imports (smeer, fat; berg, to put up), this village was founded in order to afford a place for the blubber of the Dutch whale fleet to be tried out, without being taken home to Holland for that purpose. —
正如它的名字所暗示的那样（smeer，脂肪；berg，放置），这个村庄是为了提供一个地方，以让荷兰的捕鲸船队的鲸脂在那里被提炼出来，而不必被带回荷兰进行这种情况。 —

It was a collection of furnaces, fat-kettles, and oil sheds; —
那里有一组炉子、油锅和油间； —

and when the works were in full operation certainly gave forth no very pleasant savor. —
当工作全速进行时，的确散发出了一种非常令人不愉快的气味。 —

But all this is quite different from a South Sea Sperm Whaler; —
但是这与南海抽脂捕鲸船完全不同； —

which in a voyage of four years perhaps, after completely filling her hold with oil, does not, perhaps, consume fifty days in the business of boiling out; —
在一次航程中可能需要四年的时间，完全装满货舱的油，也许不到五十天时间就可以把油熬制出来； —

and in the state that it is casked, the oil is nearly scentless. —
并且在装桶的状态下，这种油几乎没有气味。 —

The truth is, that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by no means creatures of ill odor; —
事实上，作为一个物种，无论是活着还是死了，鲸鱼都不是有恶臭的生物； —

nor can whalemen be recognised, as the people of the middle ages affected to detect a Jew in the company, by the nose. —
捕鲸者也不能像中世纪的人们自称可以通过闻气味来察觉到犹太人在人群中一样来识别他们。 —

Nor indeed can the whale possibly be otherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high health; —
鲸鱼不可能不芬芳，总的来说，他们通常保持很好的健康； —

taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it is true, seldom in the open air. —
他们有充足的锻炼；总是在户外；尽管是在一个在室内的环境里。 —

I say, that the motion of a Sperm Whale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. —
我说，一只抽脂鲸在水面上甩动鲸鳍时，会散发出一种香水般的气味，就像一位涂有麝香的女士在温暖的客厅里摩擦她的裙子一样。 —

What then shall I liken the Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? —
那么，考虑到它的巨大体型，我应该把抽脂鲸比作什么香味？ —

Must it not be to that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great?
难道不应该像那只著名的象，长着宝石牙，散发着没药味道，被带出印度城镇为亚历山大大帝致敬的象吗？