英语听书《白鲸记》 第261期

But, alas! the practices of whalemen soon convincedhim that even Christians could be both miserableand wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father'sheathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor; andseeing what the sailors did there; and then going onto Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wagesin that place also, poor Queequeg gave it up for lost.Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'lldie a pagan.

但是,天呀!这些捕鲸者的行动立刻就教他看出了文明人的卑鄙与邪恶;甚至比他父亲治下的那些异教徒还要来得厉害。他后来到了萨格港,看到了许多水手在那边的行为;接着又到了南塔开特,看到他们怎样在那地方花掉他们的薪水,可怜的魁魁格认为一切完全绝望了。他想,这世界到处都是邪恶的;我还是做一辈子的异教徒吧。

And thus an old idolator at heart, he yet lived among these Christians, wore their clothes, andtried to talk their gibberish. Hence the queer ways about him, though now some time fromhome.

于是,他虽然生活在这些文明人中间,穿着他们的服装,学说他们那种结结巴巴的话,内心里却依然是个偶像崇拜者。因此,虽然他已离开故乡好久,却仍有着那种古怪的生活习惯。

By hints I asked him whether he did not propose going back, and having a coronation; since hemight now consider his father dead and gone, he being very old and feeble at the lastaccounts. He answered no, not yet; and added that he was fearful Christianity, or ratherChristians, had unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty pagan Kingsbefore him. But by and by, he said, he would return,--as soon as he felt himself baptized again.For the nonce, however, he proposed to sail about, and sow his wild oats in all four oceans.They had made a harpooneer of him, and that barbed iron was in lieu of a sceptre now.

因为他在最后说,他父亲年纪很大,身体衰弱,我便以暗示的方法问他,既然他现在可能认为他父亲已经死了,他是否打算回家,去继承他父亲的王位。他回答说不,还没有这个打算;不过他补充说,他深怕文明,或者不如说是文明人的影响,已经使他不配登上那相承三十代的纯净无疵的异教王座了。但是,他又说,他不久还是要回去的,一到他认为自己已经又受了一次洗礼的时候,他就立刻回去。不过,目前他打算到各处航游,到四大洋去放荡一番。他们已经使他成为一个标枪手,现在,这支有着倒钩的武器就是他的王笏的代替物了。