On Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, 你在下了塔山（塔山——在伦敦的伦敦塔西北面。）向着伦敦码头走去的时候，

　　you may have seen a crippled beggar (or kedger, as the sailors say) holding a painted board before him, representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg.  你也许会看到一个残废的乞丐（照水手们的称法，也叫“小锚”），他胸前挂着一块画板，画着他失掉了腿的悲惨的情景。

　　There are three whales and three boats;  那上面有三条鲸和三只小艇，

　　and one of the boats (presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity) is being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale.  其中一只小艇（想来那个原来双腿完好的人就在这只小艇上失掉了腿），正被一条打头的鲸在咬在嚼。

　　Any time these ten years, they tell me, has that man held up that picture, and exhibited that stump to an incredulous world. 据说，这十年来，这个人都时刻挂着那幅图画，把那残肢公诸这个不轻信的人间。

　　But the time of his justification has now come. 但是，现在已到了辨明他的情况的时候了。

　　His three whales are as good whales as were ever published in Wapping, at any rate; 总之，他那幅画上的三条鲸实际上就是一直在瓦平（瓦平——伦敦的区名，在泰晤士河北岸。）公开着的那些鲸（鲸——这里系作者暗喻那些作恶横行的家伙。）；

　　and his stump as unquestionable a stump as any you will find in the western clearings.  而他的残肢就跟你可以无可置疑地在西部的开垦地上找到的树桩（树桩——"Stump"在英文中可解释为残肢，也可解释为树桩，这一句有双关意义，同时暗喻资产阶级在西部砍伐树林，开疆辟土遗留下来的树桩。）一样。

　　But, though for ever mounted on that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman make; 不过，可怜这个捕鲸人虽然始终站在那只树桩上，却从来没有做过竞选演说（从前英美政客在竞选或在其它场合上发表“政论”时，都站在树桩上，这里是双关意义的讽喻，也就是说，有权发表“政论”的人民不能开口，拼命要上“台”去统治人民的政客，却大发谬论。），

　　but, with downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation. 而是搭拉着眼睛，忧伤地站在那里，凝视着他自己的断腿。

　　Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag Harbor,  在整个太平洋上，在南塔开特，新贝得福和萨格港（萨格港——纽约州的一个商港，在加丁纳湾。），

　　you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, 也随时可以碰到许多刻划大鲸和捕鲸的逼真的写生画，这些都是捕鱼人自己刻在抹香鲸的牙齿上，

　　or ladies' busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone,  或者刻在以露脊鲸骨做出来的女人的勒腰带上，

　　and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.  同时也可以看到象捕鲸人称为解闷手工品的其它许多东西，这是捕鲸者利用他们在海上的空闲时间，以粗骨头精雕细刻出来的各种精巧的小玩意儿。