and by good rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most noble order of St. George. 而且，我们这些南塔开特的标枪手，理所当然地应该列入最高贵的圣乔治团哩。

And therefore, let not the knights of that honorable company 因此，得请属于这个荣誉集团的骑士们

(none of whom, I venture to say, have ever had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer with disdain, （我敢说，他们中间，决没有一个象他们的伟大的守护神那样曾经碰到过大鲸），得请他们别再瞧不起南塔开特人，

since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much better entitled to St. George's decoration than they. 尽管我们穿的是羊毛衫和黑裤子，我们实在比他们更有获得戴圣乔治章的资格。

Whether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long remained dubious: 究竟要不要把海格立斯算做我们的人，在这个问题上，我踌躇良久：

for though according to the Greek mythologies, that antique Crockett and Kit Carson 因为虽然根据希腊神话，那个古代的克罗克特和基特·卡森，

that brawny doer of rejoicing good deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; 那个事业显赫的壮汉，曾经被大鲸吞下后又吐出来；

still, whether that strictly makes a whaleman of him, that might be mooted. 然而严格地说来，他是否算得上个捕鲸人，可还值得商榷。

It nowhere appears that he ever actually harpooned his fish, unless, indeed, from the inside. 到处都证明不出他曾用标枪戳过大鲸，如果有过的话，那一定是在鲸腹内倒戳出来的。

Nevertheless, he may be deemed a sort of involuntary whaleman; at any rate the whale caught him, if he did not the whale. 不过，他也许可以算是个非自愿的捕鲸人；总之，如果他没有捉到大鲸，那么大鲸倒是捉过了他。

I claim him for one of our clan. 我主张应该把他算做我们团体的一员。

But, by the best contradictory authorities, this Grecian story of Hercules and the whale  但是，据意见截然相反的权威家们看来，这种关于海格立斯与大鲸的希腊传说，

is considered to be derived from the still more ancient Hebrew story of Jonah and the whale; 一般都认为是脱胎于更早的关于约拿和大鲸的希伯来传说的；

and vice versa; certainly they are very similar. 反过来说也是这样，这两个传说一定是十分相似的。

If I claim the demigod then, why not the prophet? 这样说来，如果我认为是个半神半人，为什么就不能认为是个先知呢？