Chapter 14. Nantucket.

第14章 南塔开特

Nothing more happened on the passage worthy the mentioning; so, after a fine run, we safely arrived in Nantucket.

一路无话，我们安抵南塔开特。

Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it.

你可以找一张地图，在上面找一找，看看南塔开特在哪儿。

See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse.

寻访世界的一个真实的角落在哪里;离开岸边,比埃迪斯通灯塔更为孤独。

Look at it—a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background.

看看这个，只有沙子，所有的海滩都是这样的景象。

There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper.

是的，它远离大陆，只是大海中的一个小山丘，一片沙滩而已。

Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don't grow naturally;

有人开玩笑说，南塔开特人要想种点杂草也得种在沙滩上，因为这里寸草不生；

that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask;

还有人说他们从加拿大运来了野草；为了堵住一个漏油的桶，

that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome;

必须远涉重洋才能买回那堵洞用的木塞；

that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time;

这儿的人都在门前种上几棵蘑菇，为的是夏天乘凉；

that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie;

还说这里有一叶草即可称绿洲，三叶草就可以叫草原了；

that they wear quicksand shoes, something like Laplander snow-shoes;

他们穿着流沙的鞋子,像拉普兰人的雪地鞋一样;

that they are so shut up, belted about, every way inclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean,

所以他们都是闭着嘴,系上腰带,围住全身,这完全是岛的海洋,

that to their very chairs and tables small clams will sometimes be found adhering, as to the backs of sea turtles.

说这里人家的椅子上、桌子上经常可以看到粘上去的小贝壳，就像海边的乌龟身上粘着的贝壳似的。

But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.

所有这些不无善意的调侃，都是在极言南塔开特的弹丸之大和寸草不生。