Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless.  你们看,船友们,约拿的船长本来还多少有察觉罪犯的眼力,可是,他的利欲熏心却只暴露出那种眼力是分文不值的。

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.  船友们,在这个世界上,付得出钱的罪犯,是不需要护照就可以通行无阻的;反之,正直的人,如果是个乞丐的话,就到处行不通。

So Jonah's Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse, ere he judge him openly.  因此,约拿的船长准备先掂掂约拿的荷包的分量后,好摸他的底。

He charges him thrice the usual sum; and it's assented to.  他讨了三倍于普通的船价;约拿竟也同意了。

Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive; but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold.  于是,那船长就摸准约拿是个逃亡者;可同时又决定要帮助一个有金钱做后盾的人逃跑。

Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions still molest the Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit.  然而,当约拿堂而皇之掏出他的荷包的时候,这个船长还是满怀疑虑。他把每一块银币都拿来敲过,看看有没有伪币。

Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage.  还好,一个也不假,他嘴里嘟哝着;于是,约拿便给收做乘客了。

Point out my state-room, Sir,says Jonah now, I'm travel-weary; I need sleep.  请领我到我的睡舱去,先生,约拿这时开口了,我走得很累;我需要睡觉。

Thou look'st like it,says the Captain,there's thy room.Jonah enters, and would lock the door, but the lock contains no key.  你样子倒象是很累,船长说,喏,这就是你的房间。约拿走了进去,想锁房门,虽然有锁,却没有钥匙。

Hearing him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain laughs lowly to himself, and mutters something about the doors of convicts' cells being never allowed to be locked within.  船长听到他在里面木头木脑地瞎摸着,不禁暗自好笑,嘴里嘟哝着牢门是绝对不许在里面上锁的。

All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead.  约拿衣服也不脱,就浑身灰尘扑在铺位上,他发现那个小睡舱的顶棚差不多就安在他的脑门上。

The air is close, and Jonah gasps.  空气不流通,约拿气喘呼呼。

Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels' wards. 接着,在那个也沉到船只吃水线下面的狭小的洞穴里,约拿在那个快要闷死的时刻,心血来潮地预感到大鲸将把他关在它腹内的最小的号房里了。