It was of a dark, purplish, yellow color, here and there stuck over with large blackish looking squares.  原来是又黑.又紫.又黄的一张脸,这里那里都贴着一大块.一大块黑黑的方块块。

Yes, it's just as I thought, he's a terrible bedfellow; he's been in a fight, got dreadfully cut, and here he is, just from the surgeon.  不错,不出我所料,他是个吓人的睡伴;他跟人家打过架,脸给划得这样可怕,刚从外科医生那里来的。

But at that moment he chanced to turn his face so towards the light, that I plainly saw they could not be sticking-plasters at all, those black squares on his cheeks.  但是,就在这时,他偶然把脸转过来,迎着烛光,我这才看清楚他脸上那些黑块块,

They were stains of some sort or other. At first I knew not what to make of this; but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me.  根本不是贴的膏药,是涂上的颜色之类。起先,我真弄不懂这是怎么一回事;但是,不一会,我就想到一点儿线索了。

I remembered a story of a white man-a whaleman too-who, falling among the cannibals, had been tattooed by them.  我记起一个白人的故事...也是个捕鲸者...他曾经落在吃人生番的手里,被他们刺了一身花纹。

I concluded that this harpooneer, in the course of his distant voyages, must have met with a similar adventure.  我断定这个标枪手,在他多次远涉重洋的航程中,一定也碰到过类似的遭遇。

And what is it, thought I, after all! It's only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.  那么,说到底,这算得什么呢,我想!这只是他的外表;随便什么肤色都会有老实人的。