then, the harpooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake of the whales, at length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the ship neared them; and the wind now dying away, word was passed to spring to the boats. But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful instinct of the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three keels that were after them,— though as yet a mile in their rear,—than they rallied again, and forming in close ranks and battalions, so that their spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with redoubled velocity.
这时，标枪手们对于那些疾奔的大鲸之迫近船边所感到的忧伤，似乎远远超过这只船之这么胜利地超越于马来人所感到的欢乐。不过，再继续紧跟在鲸群后边追赶一阵后，那些鲸好象终于也把速度降低下来，船也逐渐逼近它们了；现在风已停息，船上也下令要跳下小艇了。但是，这一大群鲸，好象出自抹香鲸的奇妙的本能，一发觉后边有三只小艇在追赶他们——虽然相距还有一英里之遥——它们就又聚拢来，列成紧密的队伍，所以它们的喷水完全象是一片闪光的枪林弹雨，以加倍的速力奋勇向前。
Stripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and after several hours' pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase, when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave animating tokens that they were now at last under the influence of that strange perplexity of inert irresolution, which, when the fishermen perceive it in the whale, they say he is gallied*. The compact martial columns in which they had been hitherto rapidly and steadily swimming, were now broken up in one measureless rout; and like King Porus' elephants in the Indian battle with Alexander, they seemed going mad with consternation. In all directions expanding in vast irregular circles, and aimlessly swimming hither and thither, by their short thick spoutings, they plainly betrayed their distraction of panic.
我们脱下衣服，只剩衬衫衬裤，把小艇一冲就冲到迷蒙的白雾里去，经过了几个钟头的划桨，划得差不多叫人要放弃这个追逐了，这时，鲸群中却普遍呈现一片要停下来的骚乱，生动地显示出，它们现在终于陷入失却自主，进退两难的古怪窘境，这也就是捕鲸人在看到大鲸这种情况时，管它叫"吓怕了"（"吓怕了"——原文为gallied，据人人文库版的注解，此字即等于gal-low，为"吓昏了"。"吓坏了"的意思。这个萨克逊的古字，在莎士比亚的《李尔王》第三幕第二场中曾经出现过："狂怒的天色，吓怕了黑暗中的漫游者。"）的时候。这支紧密结合的勇武的队伍本来游得那么迅速稳定，如今却是七零八落，溃不成军了；它们象是古印度波拉斯王（波拉斯（公元前？—321？）——印度王子，公元前四世纪时为马其顿王亚历山大所征服。）的象队跟亚历山大作战时那样，似乎都吓得要发疯了。到处都是杂乱无章的大圈圈，毫无目的地游来游去，从它们那种短促而浓密的喷水看来，教人清清楚楚地看出它们惊惶失措，走投无路了。