How at such an apparently unassailable surface, they contrive to gouge out such symmetrical mouthfuls, remains a part of the universal problem of all things. The mark they thus leave on the whale, may best be likened to the hollow made by a carpenter in countersinking for a screw.
在这样一种显然是没谁争夺的海面上，它们为什么偏偏要挖出如此匀称的一大口，却仍然是一个宇宙间具有普遍性的问题的一部分。它们这样在鲸身上留下的印记，可以说，真象木匠为了要装螺丝钉而先打下的孔眼。
Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship's decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other's live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tasselled, the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and though sharks also are the invariable outriders of all slave ships crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down, touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do most socially congregate, and most hilariously feast;
虽然在这么一片乌烟瘴气的恐怖和穷凶极恶的大海战中，可以看到那些鲨鱼在渴切地仰望着船上的甲板，象一群饿狗围着一张摆有切好的血淋淋的肉块的桌子，随时准备吞下抛给它们的每一个死人。虽然那些在甲板饭桌旁的勇敢的屠夫们，正这样操着各种镶边和带有缨络的小刀，在同类相残地切着彼此的鲜肉，这些鲨鱼也正在用它们那镶嵌珠宝似的嘴巴，在饭桌底下吵吵闹闹地撕抢着死人肉，虽然你把整个事情都颠倒过来看一看，它还是几乎毫无不同之处，也就是说，大家彼此干的都是足以令人惊骇的鲨鱼式（鲨鱼在英文中又有欺诈的意义，这里的“鲨鱼式”也就是“欺诈”的意思。）勾当；虽然鲨鱼也是一切横渡大西洋的贩卖奴隶船只的不变的跟班，总是跟在旁边，万一有个包包需要带到什么地方去，或者有个死奴隶需要加以隆重地埋葬，它就可以随时效劳；虽然还可以举出一两个其它类似的例子来，比如有关鲨鱼在赴最有社交礼节的集会和最为闹闹热热的筵席时的固定期限、地方和场合，