英语听书《白鲸记》第902期

 Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head. 这艘头重脚轻的大船就象个装着满脑袋亚里士多德学说的枵腹的学者。

Well was it that the Typhoons did not visit them then. 还好，当时台风没来光顾他们。

Now, at this time it was that my poor pagan companion, 且说就在这时，我那个可怜的异教伙伴，

and fast bosom-friend, Queequeg, was seized with a fever, which brought him nigh to his endless end. 我的最知心的朋友，魁魁格却正害着热病，眼看快要结束他那无限的生命了。

Be it said, that in this vocation¹ of whaling, sinecures² are unknown; dignity and danger go hand in hand; 必须说明一下，在捕鲸这行业中，从来没有什么闲差使，显职跟危险是分不开的；

till you get to be Captain, the higher you rise the harder you toil³. 就是做到了船长的地位，也是爬得越高，越是辛苦。

So with poor Queequeg, who, as harpooneer, must not only face all the rage of the living whale, 可怜的魁魁格也是这样，他作为一个标枪手，不但必须勇敢承当活鲸的一切狂暴，

but—as we have elsewhere seen—mount his dead back in a rolling sea; and finally descend⁴ into the gloom of the hold, 而且——一如我们已在另些地方看到的——还得在海浪滔滔的大海里，跨上那致人死命的鲸背；最后又得钻进阴暗的船舱里，

and bitterly sweating all day in that subterraneous confinement⁵, resolutely⁶ manhandle the clumsiest casks and see to their stowage. 汗流浃背地镇天呆在那地下密室里，坚毅不拔地处理那些最笨重的油桶，把它们储藏得妥妥帖帖。

To be short, among whalemen, the harpooneers are the holders⁷, so called. 总之，在捕鲸业中，标枪手就是所谓的管仓人。

Poor Queequeg! when the ship was about half disembowelled, you should have stooped over the hatchway, and peered down upon him there; 可怜的魁魁格！在这艘船已经出空了一大半时，你真该伏在舱口，往下朝他一望；

where, stripped to his woollen drawers, the tattooed⁸ savage⁹ was crawling about amid that dampness and slime, 在那里，这个刺花的野人赤裸着上身，穿着条羊毛裤，正在那湿漉漉而腻嗒嗒的地方爬来爬去，

like a green spotted¹⁰ lizard¹¹ at the bottom of a well. 活象井底里一只绿点子的蜥蜴。

And a well, or an ice-house, it somehow proved to him, poor pagan; 那地方，不知怎地，好象就是这个可怜的异教徒的一口井，或者是一间冰屋；

where, strange to say, for all the heat of his sweatings, he caught a terrible chill which lapsed¹² into a fever; 说也奇怪，尽管他在那里热得浑身是汗，却突然受了一阵可怕的寒气，发起寒热来了；

and at last, after some days' suffering, laid him in his hammock, close to the very sill of the door of death. 经过几天的折磨后，他终于躺在吊铺上，靠近死神的门槛了。

1 vocation   

n.职业，行业

参考例句：

• She struggled for years to find her true vocation.她多年来苦苦寻找真正适合自己的职业。
• She felt it was her vocation to minister to the sick.她觉得照料病人是她的天职。

2 sinecures   

n.工作清闲但报酬优厚的职位，挂名的好差事( sinecure的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He had lined up four sinecures that I knew of. 据我所知，他起码有四个挂名头衔。 来自辞典例句

3 toil   

vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事

参考例句：

• The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
• Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。

4 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

5 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

6 resolutely   

adj.坚决地，果断地

参考例句：

• He resolutely adhered to what he had said at the meeting. 他坚持他在会上所说的话。
• He grumbles at his lot instead of resolutely facing his difficulties. 他不是果敢地去面对困难，而是抱怨自己运气不佳。

7 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

8 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

10 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

11 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

12 lapsed   

adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失

参考例句：

• He had lapsed into unconsciousness. 他陷入了昏迷状态。
• He soon lapsed into his previous bad habits. 他很快陷入以前的恶习中去。 来自《简明英汉词典》