And thus have these naked Nantucketers, these sea hermits, issuing from their ant-hill in the sea,

因此这些南塔开特人,这些大的海隐士，在大海中无往不胜,

overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders;

他们世代征战，

parcelling out among them the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland.

大西洋、太平洋和印度洋到处都成了他们征服水下巨兽的战场。

Let America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada;

噢，随便你美国把墨西哥画入德克萨斯州、把古巴送给加拿大、

let the English overswarm all India, and hang out their blazing banner from the sun;

把印度吞入英国吧，

two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's.

在这个星球上，有三分之二是南塔开特人的。

For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires; other seamen having but a right of way through it.

广阔的海洋都属于南塔开特人！别国的水手只不过拥有海上通行权；

Merchant ships are but extension bridges; armed ones but floating forts; even pirates and privateers,

商船是桥梁的延伸；兵舰是浮动的炮台；

though following the sea as highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships,

甚至海盗也只是劫掠海面上的船只，绝无本事攻占海底世界。

other fragments of the land like themselves, without seeking to draw their living from the bottomless deep itself.

其他碎片的土地像自己,不寻求从无底深吸引他们的生活本身。

The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships;

只有南塔开特人是住在海上，海洋是他们的农场，

to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. THERE is his home;

他们反复耕作与收获，他们以海为家，

THERE lies his business, which a Noah's flood would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China.

他们的生活与事业都在海里。尽管它淹没数以百万计的大陆，诺亚的洪水不会打扰。

He lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie; he hides among the waves, he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the Alps.

他们就住在大海里,就像草原动物之于草原,他藏身于海浪之中,就像猎人攀爬阿尔卑斯山一样驾驭波浪。