And as for small difficulties and worryings, prospects of sudden disaster, peril of life and limb; all these, and death itself, seem to him only sly, good-natured hits, and jolly punches in the side bestowed by the unseen and unaccountable old joker.That odd sort of wayward mood I am speaking of, comes over a man only in some time of extreme tribulation; it comes in the very midst of his earnestness, so that what just before might have seemed to him a thing most momentous, now seems but a part of the general joke. There is nothing like the perils of whaling to breed this free and easy sort of genial, desperado philosophy; and with it I now regarded this whole voyage of the Pequod, and the great White Whale its object.
至于一切的小困难，小麻烦，前途会突然发生不幸，有丧命失肢的危险，所有这一切，以及死亡本身，在他看来，似乎都不过是那个看不见又不可理解的老恶作剧家所赐予的顽皮而温厚的打击，腰眼挨到有趣的一拳而已。不过，我所说的这种奇特的刚愎心情，只是发生在一个人有时碰到极度苦难，又正是在他最热切的时候，所以也许他以前认为最重大的事，如今看来，就不过是大恶作剧的一部分而已。再没有象捕鲸业所遭到的种种危险更易于滋长这种自由的、爽快的、无赖的人生观了；我这里对于以大白鲸为目标的这艘“裴廓德号”的整个航程，就是这般看法。

"Queequeg," said I, when they had dragged me, the last man, to the deck, and I was still shaking myself in my jacket to fling off the water; "Queequeg, my fine friend, does this sort of thing often happen?" Without much emotion, though soaked through just like me, he gave me to understand that such things did often happen.
“魁魁格，”当他们最后把我打从海里拖上甲板，我还在晃掉上衣的水滴的时候，我说：“魁魁格，我的好朋友，这样的事情是经常发生的么？”他虽然跟我一样浑身湿透，却很无动于衷地对我说，这种事情的确是经常发生的。

"Mr. Stubb," said I, turning to that worthy, who, buttoned up in his oil-jacket, was now calmly smoking his pipe in the rain; "Mr. Stubb, I think I have heard you say that of all whalemen you ever met, our chief mate, Mr. Starbuck, is by far the most careful and prudent. I suppose then, that going plump on a flying whale with your sail set in a foggy squall is the height of a whaleman's discretion?"
“斯塔布先生，”我又转过头去对这个俊杰说，他刚扣好他那件油布上衣的钮扣，正在雨里恬然地吸着烟斗：“斯塔布先生，我记得我曾听你说起，在你所碰到过的所有捕鲸人中，我们的大副，斯达巴克先生是个最最仔细谨慎的人。那么我想问，在雾蒙蒙的狂风里，扯起篷帆去袭击一条飞奔的鲸，这算是捕鲸人的极慎重的行为么？”