But this critical act is not always unattended with the saddest and most fatal casualties.
不过，这种临急慌忙的动作也并不是始终没有发生过最惨重的祸难的。
Furthermore: you must know that when the second iron is thrown overboard, it thenceforth becomes a dangling, sharp-edged terror, skittishly curvetting about both boat and whale, entangling the lines, or cutting them, and making a prodigious sensation in all directions. Nor, in general, is it possible to secure it again until the whale is fairly captured and a corpse.
而且，必须知道，二枪被抛到海里后，它又变成一种威胁了，它晃来晃去的荡在水里，刀锋那么锐利，在小艇和大鲸的左右轻佻地翻腾着，不是把捕鲸索弄得乱七八糟，就会割断绳索，弄得大家神经十分紧张。同时，一般说来，那支标枪还得等到那条鲸被顺利地捉到手，成为一架死尸后，才收得回来。
Consider, now, how it must be in the case of four boats all engaging one unusually strong, active, and knowing whale; when owing to these qualities in him, as well as to the thousand concurring accidents of such an audacious enterprise, eight or ten loose second irons may be simultaneously dangling about him. For, of course, each boat is supplied with several harpoons to bend on to the line should the first one be ineffectually darted without recovery. All these particulars are faithfully narrated here, as they will not fail to elucidate several most important however intricate passages, in scenes hereafter to be painted.
那么，请想想看，当这四只小艇全都集中精力在对付一条非凡的强壮、活跃和狡猾的大鲸时，那该是怎样一种场面。这时，一方面是大鲸天生的这种特性，一方面是这样一种大胆的行业，随时都会发生无数的事故，此外，它身边又同时有八支到十支二枪在晃荡着。因为每一只小艇自然都配备有几支挂在捕鲸索上的标枪，以备万一在头枪投不准又找不到时，可以随时拿来抵用。我所以要在这里对这种细节加以如实的叙述，是因为这些细节可以解释明白以后将要描述的几个虽然比较曲折。却是极其重要的场面。