Had you followed Captain Ahab down into his cabin after the squall that took place on the night succeeding that wild ratification of his purpose with his crew,  那一夜,在水手们狂热地赞成亚哈的意图,接着便刮起了狂风后,如果当时你跟着亚哈船长走进他舱室,

you would have seen him go to a locker in the transom, and bringing out a large wrinkled roll of yellowish sea charts, spread them before him on his screwed-down table.  你就可以看到他走到船尾横木的一只柜边,把一大卷皱皱折折的泛黄的海图拿了出来,摊在他面前那只螺丝旋紧的桌子上。

Then seating himself before it, you would have seen him intently study the various lines and shadings which there met his eye;  于是,你就看到他傍着桌子坐下去,一面全神贯注地研究他所看到的各种航线和明暗图影,

and with slow but steady pencil trace additional courses over spaces that before were blank.  一面又迟缓而从容地用铅笔在以前那些空白的地方再画上一些航线。

At intervals, he would refer to piles of old log-books beside him, wherein were set down the seasons and places in which, on various former voyages of various ships, sperm whales had been captured or seen. 他还时不时地参考他旁边一大叠旧航海日志,那些航海日志中,有从前各种船只,在不同航次,在什么时候,什么地方捕到了或者发现了抹香鲸的记录。

While thus employed, the heavy pewter lamp suspended in chains over his head, continually rocked with the motion of the ship,  他在这样用功的时候,吊在他头顶那盏系着链条的沉重蜡锡灯,不断地随着船身的摇动而晃动,

and for ever threw shifting gleams and shadows of lines upon his wrinkled brow, till it almost seemed that while he himself was marking out lines and courses on the wrinkled charts,  始终把闪闪的微光和簇簇的阴影,投射在他那刻满皱纹的额头上,简直叫人以为,他自己在那幅皱折的海图上划着航线记号的同时,

some invisible pencil was also tracing lines and courses upon the deeply marked chart of his forehead. 也有一枝肉眼看不见的铅笔,在他那深刻着海图似的额角上划着航线。

But it was not this night in particular that, in the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his charts.  不过,亚哈也不是今天晚上才特地孤处在他的舱室里,这样对着海图沉思默想。

Almost every night they were brought out; almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and others were substituted.  他差不多每天晚上都要把这些海图拿出来,差不多每天晚上总有一些铅笔记号给擦掉了,又再划上另一些记号。

For with the charts of all four oceans before him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul. 亚哈要靠这些摊在他面前的天下四海的海图,细心穿过这些大小涡流的迷宫,希望能更可靠地完成他心灵中那个偏热症的念头。