第九十七章 灯

　　Had you descended from the Pequod's try-works to the Pequod's forecastle, where the off duty watch were sleeping, for one single moment you would have almost thought you were standing in some illuminated shrine of canonized kings and counsellors. There they lay in their triangular oaken vaults, each mariner a chiselled muteness; a score of lamps flashing upon his hooded eyes.

　　如果你打"裴廓德号"的炼油间下来，走到船头楼去，在那里，看到一些不当班的人正在睡觉，你顿时简直会以为是置身在一个光辉闪耀、超凡入圣的王卿的圣殿里。他们都躺在自己的三角形的橡木窠里，每个水手都是一尊静默的钢像；二十来盏灯照在他们那闭起的眼睛上。

　　In merchantmen, oil for the sailor is more scarce than the milk of queens. To dress in the dark, and eat in the dark, and stumble in darkness to his pallet, this is his usual lot. But the whaleman, as he seeks the food of light, so he lives in light. He makes his berth an Aladdin's lamp, and lays him down in it; so that in the pitchiest night the ship's black hull still houses an illumination.

　　在商船里，对于水手说来，灯油是比王后的奶汁还要希罕。在黑暗中穿衣，在黑暗中吃东西，在黑暗中跌跌撞撞地摸上他的小床，这就是他的通常的命运。可是，捕鲸人，因为他们找的是点灯的东西，所以，他生活在亮光中。他把自己的床铺搞得象只阿拉丁的神灯（阿拉丁——《天方夜谭》中神灯的主人公。）后，就在灯光里躺下来。所以，即使在最漆黑的夜晚，捕鲸船的墨黑的船身仍是到处灯火辉煌。

　　See with what entire freedom the whaleman takes his handful of lamps—often but old bottles and vials, though—to the copper cooler at the tryworks, and replenishes them there, as mugs of ale at a vat. He burns, too, the purest of oil, in its unmanufactured, and, therefore, unvitiated state; a fluid unknown to solar, lunar, or astral contrivances ashore. It is sweet as early grass butter in April. He goes and hunts for his oil, so as to be sure of its freshness and genuineness, even as the traveller on the prairie hunts up his own supper of game.

　　你看，那些捕鲸人可多么随便地拿着一大把灯盏——不过，往往拿的都是些破旧的大小瓶子——走到炼油间里那只冷却器的铜锅边，象把一大杯一大杯麦酒灌进大桶似的，在那里加油。他们点的也都是未经加工的、最纯粹的、因而也是一尘不染的原油；这种液体是岸上的太阳、太阴和星辰所自叹不如的巧妙发明品。它有如早春的草浆一样芬芳。捕鲸人本来就是猎取鲸油的，当然要求其新鲜与纯真，如同大草原上的旅客，猎取野味做自己的晚餐一样。