because most mariners cherish a very superstitious feeling about seals, arising not only from their peculiar tones when in distress, 因为水手大多对海豹怀有一种十分迷信的想法，这种想法的由来，不仅是因为海豹在苦难时所发出来的那种特别的声调，

but also from the human look of their round heads and semi-intelligent faces, seen peeringly uprising from the water alongside. 且也因为它有人的相貌，圆圆的头颅，和一张半聪明的脸，在船侧的海里隐然出现的缘故。

In the sea, under certain circumstances, seals have more than once been mistaken for men. 在海上，有的时候，海豹总不止一次地被错认为人。

But the bodings of the crew were destined to receive a most plausible confirmation in the fate of one of their number that morning. 不过，水手们所感到的预兆，注定要在那天早晨，在他们中间一个人的命运上，得到最有力的证实。

At sun-rise this man went from his hammock to his mast-head at the fore; 太阳出来的时候，这个人从他的吊铺起来，爬上船头的桅顶；

and whether it was that he was not yet half waked from his sleep (for sailors sometimes go aloft in a transition state), 究竟是他还没有睡醒（因为水手们有时总是将醒未醒就爬上去），

whether it was thus with the man, there is now no telling; 还是这个人生来就是如此，可说不上来；

but, be that as it may, he had not been long at his perch, when a cry was heard — a cry and a rushing — and looking up, they saw a falling phantom in the air; 总之，他在那上面停不多久，就教人听到一阵叫声——一阵叫喊声和噼哩啪啦声——大家往上一望，看到空中有个跌下来的幽影；

and looking down, a little tossed heap of white bubbles in the blue of the sea. 再往下面一看，大海里已冒起一小堆翻来翻去的白色泡沫了。

The life-buoy — a long slender cask — was dropped from the stern, where it always hung obedient to a cunning spring; 那只救生圈——一只细长的木桶——打船梢放了下去，救生圈一直被用根灵活的缆索乖乖地挂在船梢。

but no hand rose to seize it, and the sun having long beat upon this cask it had shrunken, 可是，救生圈放下去后，却没有人冒出来抓住它，而那只桶因为长期让太阳晒得干缩了，

so that it slowly filled, and the parched wood also filled at its every pore; 所以，它慢慢地满足了水，干枯的木板就完全涨透了。

and the studded iron-bound cask followed the sailor to the bottom, as if to yield him his pillow, though in sooth but a hard one. 可是，那只镶着铁箍的木桶，却跟那个水手沉到海底去了，仿佛给他送下了一只枕头，虽然实际上是只硬梆梆的枕头。