I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence,  我可以直率的断言,具有世界权威的哲学家,无论如何也不能指出在过去六十年来,

which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taken in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling.  有一种比声势浩大的捕鲸业更能影响整个世界的稳健的势力。

One way and another, it has begotten events so remarkable in themselves, and so continuously momentous in their sequential issues, that whaling may well be regarded as that Egyptian mother, who bore offspring themselves pregnant from her womb.  总之,捕鲸业本身已经产生出了许多意义非常重大的事件,而且在它连续的发展中又不断有重大事件出现,使得捕鲸业足以被认为是能够自己怀孕传宗接代的埃及人的母亲。

It would be a hopeless, endless task to catalogue all these things.  要把这种种事情一一罗列出来,那真是一件做不完做不尽的工作。

Let a handful suffice. For many years past the whale-ship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth.  只要提出几桩来也就够了。过去许多年来,捕鲸船已经成为探出地球上最荒僻。

She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cooke or Vancouver had ever sailed.  最不为人所知的地区的先锋队了。它探查出了许多地图上所找不到的。

If American and European men-of-war now peacefully ride in once savage harbors, let them fire salutes to the honor and glory of the whale-ship, which originally showed them the way, and first interpreted between them and the savages.  库克和范库弗的船只从来没有到过的海洋和群岛。如果现在欧美的兵舰能够平平安安地驶到那些曾经是蛮荒的港埠,请他们先对那些原来为他们开路的。

They may celebrate as they will the heroes of Exploring Expeditions, your Cookes, Your Krusensterns;  首先在他们与野人间充当翻译的捕鲸船只鸣炮致敬吧。他们尽可以把你们那些库克,那些克鲁生斯丹恩俄国第一个环游世界的海军大将。

but I say that scores of anonymous Captains have sailed out of Nantucket, that were as great, and greater, than your Cooke and your Krusenstern.  但是,我却认为无数从南塔开特来的佚名的船长们,才是伟大的,而且是比你们的库克和克鲁生斯丹恩更要伟大的英雄。

For in their succorless empty-handedness, they, in the heathenish sharked waters, and by the beaches of unrecorded, javelin islands, battled with virgin wonders and terrors that Cooke with all his marines and muskets would not willingly have willingly dared.  因为,他们曾经赤手空拳。孤立无援地在蛮荒的噬人的海洋中,在地图上所找不到的。满布荆棘的岛屿的河滩边,跟那些为库克和他所有的船舶以及滑膛枪所决不敢面对的原始奇迹与恐怖苦斗过。

All that is made such a flourish of in the old South Sea Voyages, those things were but the life-time commonplaces of our heroic Nantucketers.  凡是在古代的南海航行中显得非常了不起的事情,在我们这些英勇的南塔开特人看来,都完全是平淡无奇的事情。

Often, adventures which Vancouver dedicates three chapters to, these men accounted unworthy of being set down in the ship's common log. Ah, the world! Oh, the world! 范库弗大书特书的一些冒险事情,往往是南塔开特人认为不配登入船只的普通航海日志上的事情。人生啊!人生啊!