Yes, that was the thought coming up in me; but it would be the first time I ever did pray. It's queer; very queer; and he's queer too; aye, take him fore and aft, he's about the queerest old man Stubb ever sailed with. How he flashed at me!--his eyes like powder-pans! is he mad! Anyway there's something's on his mind, as sure as there must be something on a deck when it cracks. He aint in his bed now, either, more than three hours out of the twenty-four; and he don't sleep then. Didn't that Dough-Boy, the steward, tell me that of a morning he always finds the old man's hammock clothes all rumpled and tumbled, and the sheets down at the foot, and the coverlid almost tied into knots, and the pillow a sort of frightful hot, as though a baked brick had been on it? A hot old man! I guess he's got what some folks ashore call a conscience; it's a kind of Tic-Dolly-row they say-- worse nor a toothache. Well, well; I don't know what it is, but the Lord keep me from catching it. He's full of riddles; I wonder what he goes into the after hold for, every night, as Dough-Boy tells me he suspects; what's that for, I should like to know? Who's made appointments with him in the hold? Ain't that queer, now? But there's no telling, it's the old game-- Here goes for a snooze. Damn me, it's worth a fellow's while to be born into the world, if only to fall right asleep. And now that I think of it, that's about the first thing babies do, and that's a sort of queer, too.
不错,这倒是我刚想到的办法;不过,这将是我生平第一遭的祷告。这真古怪;真正古怪;他也古怪;噫,算来算去,他该算是斯塔布生平一起出航的最古怪的老头儿。他对我发了多大的脾气啊!那双眼睛活脱是两只火药桶!他疯了吗?总之,他一定是有什么心事,正如甲板上一有响动就必定有什么事情一样。他现在一天二十四小时,躺在床上只有三个钟头,就是躺在床上也不睡觉。那个名叫汤团的茶房有一天早晨不就告诉我说,他始终看到这老头儿吊铺上的被褥老是弄得乱七八糟,被单缩到床脚跟,床单简直打成许多个结头,枕头可以说是热得怕人,仿佛搁过一块火砖么?这个激烈的老头儿!我猜想他一定是患了岸上人所说的什么心病了,据说那是一种颜面痉挛症...比牙痛还要难受。唔,唔;我不知道那究竟是什么毛病,但愿上帝别让我染上这毛病。他浑身是谜;我不知道他每天晚上都要到后舱去干什么,那个汤团也对我说,他很怀疑。那究竟是怎么一回事呀?我倒要弄个明白,究竟是谁跟他在后舱里有约会呀?这不古怪吗,那么?但是,这很难说,又是老把戏...就在这里打个盹吧。该死的,人投胎到世间来,即使一生下来就马上睡觉,也是划算的。现在我倒想起睡觉这事情来了,这是小娃娃生下来的第一桩事情,这又是古怪的事。