Suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my closed eyes; like vices my hands grasped the shrouds; some invisible, gracious agency preserved me; with a shock I came back to life. And lo! close under our lee, not forty fathoms off, a gigantic Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like the capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, of an Ethiopian hue, glistening in the sun's rays like a mirror. But lazily undulating in the trough of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting his vapory jet, the whale looked like a portly burgher smoking his pipe of a warm afternoon. But that pipe, poor whale, was thy last. As if struck by some enchanter's wand, the sleepy ship and every sleeper in it all at once started into wakefulness; and more than a score of voices from all parts of the vessel, simultaneously with the three notes from aloft, shouted forth the accustomed cry, as the great fish slowly and regularly spouted the sparkling brine into the air.
突然间，阵阵的泡沫似乎正在我那双闭起的眼睛底下涌出来，我双手象老虎钳一般紧握住护桅索，好象有股冥冥的神力在保护我，一阵震动，我苏醒过来了。嗳哟！紧靠在我们后边，在不到二百四十英尺的地方，一条巨大的抹香鲸正躺在海里滚来滚去，直象一只翻了身的快速舰壳，它那阔大而黑油油的背脊象一面镜子那样在阳光里闪烁。可是，那只鲸懒洋洋地起伏在浪沟里，不时沉着地喷出它那迷蒙蒙的喷水，它那样子就象个肥胖的市民，在炎热的午后吸烟斗。但是，可怜的鲸呀，那只烟斗，就是你最后的烟斗啦。仿佛给什么魔术家的魔杖击了一记似的，这艘睡意蒙胧的船和船里每一个睡眠者都立刻给吓醒了；当那只巨兽直向空中迟缓而有规律地喷出那闪亮的喷水时，船上四面八方的几十个声音，加上上边三个音调都同时高声喊出那个惯常的呼号。
"Clear away the boats! Luff!" cried Ahab. And obeying his own order, he dashed the helm down before the helmsman could handle the spokes.
“解下小艇！抢风驶去！”亚哈叫道。接着，他也执行自己的命令，在舵手还来不及撑住舵柄的时候，便冲了过去，转起舵柄，使船背风。
The sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and ere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the leeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples as he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed,
水手们这番急速的叫喊声，一定惊动了那条大鲸，因为小艇还没有放下去，它便大模大样地掉着头，游向后边去了，态度那么沉着镇定，一路游去，水波不兴，简直教人认为直到那时都还一点也没有惊动它。