I had a good view of that sight so remarkable to a tyro in the far ocean fisheries-- a whaler at sea, and long absent from home 就一个远洋的捕鱼业的新手看来——一个久离家乡的捕鲸人说来，我清清楚楚地看到了如此希奇的情行

　　As if the waves had been fullers, this craft was bleached like the skeleton of a stranded walrus. 波涛仿佛是一些漂布匠，把那条船给漂白得象一只给海浪冲到岸上来的海象骨架。

　　All down her sides, this spectral appearance was traced with long channels of reddened rust, 这艘外形好似鬼怪的船只，四周都刻着一道道长长的锈红色，

　　while all her spars and her rigging were like the thick branches of trees furred over with hoar-frost. 它那些桅桁和索具都象是结了白霜的粗树枝。

　　Only her lower sails were set. 它只扯着低帆。

　　A wild sight it was to see her long-bearded look-outs at those three mast-heads. 看到它那三只桅顶上那些胡子长长的瞭望者，真是教人心烦意乱。

　　They seemed clad in the skins of beasts, so torn and bepatched the raiment that had survived nearly four years of cruising. 他们似乎都穿着兽皮，那么破旧，缀满补丁，看来就象是经历了将近四年的巡游生活。

　　Standing in iron hoops nailed to the mast, they swayed and swung over a fathomless sea; 他们站在镶牢在桅杆上的铁箍里，在无底的海洋上晃来荡去。

　　and though, when the ship slowly glided close under our stern, 这时，虽然那艘船正在我们后边缓慢拢来，

　　we six men in the air came so nigh to each other that we might almost have leaped from the mast-heads of one ship to those of the other; 我们这六个站在空中的人，却彼此贴近得几乎可以从这艘船的桅顶跳到那艘船的桅顶去。

　　yet, those forlorn-looking fishermen, mildly eyeing us as they passed, said not one word to our own look-outs, 可是，那三个愁眉苦脸的捕鲸者，在掠过我们旁边时，只是眼色柔和地瞟着我们，对我们这边几个瞭望人一句话都没有说，

　　while the quarter-deck hail was being heard from below. 我们却听到下面的后甲板上，发出了一阵招呼声。

　　"Ship ahoy! Have ye seen the White Whale?" “船呵，喂！你们可看到白鲸么？”

　　But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid bulwarks, was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth, it somehow fell from his hand into the sea; 可是，当那个倚在灰白色的舷墙上的陌生船长，正要拿他的号筒凑到嘴边的时候，不知怎么一来，它却从他手里掉下来，落到海里去了，

　　and the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make himself heard without it.  这时候，风刮得更急，他虽然费尽了力气，不用号筒说话，可一点也听不到他的话语。

　　Meantime his ship was still increasing the distance between us. 这时，他那艘船跟我们的距离已经越来越远了。