英语听书《白鲸记》第221期

 But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in the transition state-neither caterpillar¹ nor butterfly.  但是,你可知道,魁魁格还是一种处于过渡状态的生物...既不是毛虫,也不是蝴蝶。

He was just enough civilized² to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manner. His education was not yet completed.  他的文明程度,充其量也只能以最奇特的方式来卖弄他那化外的礼貌。他的教育还没有完成。

He was an undergraduate.  他还是一个未卒业的学生。

If he had not been a small degree civilized, he very probably would not have troubled himself with boots at all;  如果他不是稍有一点文明,他很可能根本就不必为穿靴子而给自己添麻烦了;

but then, if he had not been still a savage³, he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on.  不过,如果他不是野性犹存,他也许做梦也不会想到,要钻到床底下去穿靴子了。

At last, he emerged with his hat very much dented⁴ and crushed down over his eyes, and began creaking and limping about the room, as if, not being much accustomed to boots,  最后,他爬了出来,帽子弄得瘪瘪皱皱,直压到眼睛,开始叽叽嘎嘎。一瘸一瘸地在房间里踱来踱去,仿佛他一向很穿不惯靴子,

his pair of damp, wrinkled cowhide ones-probably not made to order either-rather pinched and tormented⁵ him at the first go off of a bitter cold morning. 如今穿上这双又潮又皱的牛皮靴子...大概也不是一双定做的靴子,在严寒的早晨,刚一举步,既有点儿夹脚,又有点儿步履维艰。

Seeing, now, that there were no curtains to the window, and that the street being very narrow, the house opposite commanded a plain view into the room,  这时,因为窗子没有窗帘,街道又很窄,对街的房子可以一目了然地望到我们房里,

and observing more and more the indecorous figure that Queequeg made, staving about with little else but his hat and boots on;  我看到魁魁格做出来的这种越来越不合礼节的姿态,冲来撞去的结果还只是戴上帽子,穿上那双靴子;

I begged him as well as I could, to accelerate his toilet somewhat, and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible.  我就尽力请求他赶紧盥洗去,尤其是请他赶快把裤子穿上。

He complied, and then proceeded to wash himself.  他答应了,就去着手盥洗。

At that time in the morning any Christian⁶ would have washed his face; but Queequeg, to my amazement⁷,  在早晨这时候,任何一个文明人都是要洗脸的;但是,叫我一楞的是:

contented⁸ himself with restricting his ablutions to his chest, arms, and hands.  魁魁格却把他的洗礼局限在胸膛,胳膊和一双手便完了事。

He then donned his waistcoat, and taking up a piece of hard soap on the wash-stand centre table, dipped it into water and commenced lathering⁹ his face.  他于是穿上背心,在脸盆架上随手捡起一块粗肥皂,把它浸在水里,开始把肥皂泡涂在脸上。

I was watching to see where he kept his razor, when lo and behold¹⁰, he takes the harpoon¹¹ from the bed corner, slips out the long wooden stock, unsheathes the head,  我正在聚精会神地看他的刮胡刀是藏在哪里时,哎唷,他竟在床角上拉出那支标枪来,把那长木柄一抽,退去了枪鞘,

whets¹² it a little on his boot, and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall, begins a vigorous scraping, or rather harpooning¹³ of his cheeks.  在他的靴子上豁了一下,就阔步走到钉在墙上的那小块镜子跟前,开始猛劲地刮起,或者不如说是戳起他的脸了。

1 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

2 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

3 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

4 dented   

v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等）

参考例句：

• The back of the car was badly dented in the collision. 汽车尾部被撞后严重凹陷。
• I'm afraid I've dented the car. 恐怕我把车子撞瘪了一些。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

8 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

9 lathering   

n.痛打，怒骂v.（指肥皂）形成泡沫( lather的现在分词 )；用皂沫覆盖；狠狠地打

参考例句：

• After this my skin is really illuminous and clean even though there was no lathering. 在这以后即使我不使用泡沬之类的，皮肤也特别光滑干净。 来自互联网
• And yet Carl is standing there lathering his face and not a single detail is altered. 可是卡尔却站在那儿往脸上抹肥皂，全然不动声色。 来自互联网

10 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

11 harpoon   

n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获

参考例句：

• The harpoon drove deep into the body of the whale.渔叉深深地扎进鲸鱼体内。
• The fisherman transfixed the shark with a harpoon.渔夫用鱼叉刺住鲨鱼。

12 whets   

v.（在石头上）磨（刀、斧等）( whet的第三人称单数 )；引起，刺激（食欲、欲望、兴趣等）

参考例句：

• Reading travel brochures whets one's appetite for a holiday. 看了旅游手册就巴不得去度假。 来自互联网
• The decade whets sword, frost blade has never tried. 十年磨一剑，霜刃未曾试。 来自互联网

13 harpooning   

v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的现在分词 )

参考例句：