That to attempt it, would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity. On this head, there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted.
他们认为:凡想一试的人,将必然会立刻丧命。在这方面,还有一些值得注意的文献足资查考。
Nevertheless, some there were, who even in the face of these things were ready to give chase to Moby Dick;
话虽如此,却有一些人会甚至不顾这种事实,随时要去追击莫比－迪克;
and a still greater number who, chancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely, without the specific details of any certain calamity, and without superstitious accompaniments were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if offered.
但更大多数的人,尽管他们不过是隐约模糊地偶然听到有关它的情况,并不知道任何肯定的灾难详情,也不知道有什么附加的迷信传说,可是,如果一旦要他去参加斗争,可就难保他不逃之夭夭了。
One of the wild suggestions referred to, as at last coming to be linked with the White Whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined, was the unearthly conceit that Moby Dick was ubiquitous;
这里必须一提的,就是相信迷信的人,最后竟把一种无稽的联想拿来跟白鲸联在一起,他们忽发奇想地认为:莫比－迪克是无处不在的;
that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instant of time.
认为它实际上会在同一个时间出现于另一个地方。
Nor, credulous as such minds must have been, was this conceit altogether without some faint show of superstitious probability.
既然有了这种轻信的人,那就不能把这种奇想一概看成为毫无一点迷信的可能了。
For as the secrets of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged, even to the most erudite research;
因为海洋的秘密直到现在还未被揭露出来,甚至连最全面的调查也谈不到,
so the hidden ways of the Sperm Whale when beneath the surface remain, in great part, unaccountable to his pursuers;
所以抹香鲸在海底里的隐身法,在它的追逐者看来,大多还是莫名其妙的;
and from time to time have originated the most curious and contradictory speculations regarding them, especially concerning the mystic modes whereby, after sounding to a great depth, he transports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant points.
而且还常常对它那种隐身法作出许多最奇特而矛盾的推测,尤其是弄不懂它那神秘的形态,为什么一经深潜到海底里后,就会那么迅捷非凡地游到最辽远的地方去。