As we glided nearer, the stranger showed French colors from his peak; and by the eddying cloud of vulture sea-fowl that circled, and hovered, and swooped around him, it was plain that the whale alongside must be what the fishermen call a blasted whale, that is, a whale that has died unmolested on the sea, and so floated an unappropriated corpse. It may well be conceived, what an unsavory odor such a mass must exhale; worse than an Assyrian city in the plague, when the living are incompetent to bury the departed. So intolerable indeed is it regarded by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it. Yet are there those who will still do it; notwithstanding the fact that the oil obtained from such subjects is of a very inferior quality, and by no means of the nature of attar-of-rose.
一等我们慢慢驶得更近时，就看到那艘陌生船的斜桁尖顶上挂有一面法国旗，同时从一群流云似的兀鹰直绕着它打旋、翱翔、猛扑的现象看来，船边拖着的那条鲸显然一定就是捕鲸人管它叫瘟鲸的东西，就是说，是一条未遭任何伤害而自己死在海里的鲸，所以那尸体也漂浮得跟一般死鲸不一样。可想而知，这么一条庞然大物一定会发出多么难闻的臭味，比遭瘟疫的亚述城还要难闻（因为当时城里的活人都无法把死者埋葬）。这样难受的气味，难怪有些人以为，随你怎样劝，连贪心汉都也不愿意跟它停泊在一起。然而，居然还有人愿意这样做；甚至不顾从这种鲸身上得来的油，质地十分差，毫无玫瑰油气的香味。
Coming still nearer with the expiring breeze, we saw that the Frenchman had a second whale alongside; and this second whale seemed even more of a nosegay than the first. In truth, it turned out to be one of those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion; leaving their defunct bodies almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil. Nevertheless, in the proper place we shall see that no knowing fisherman will ever turn up his nose at such a whale as this, however much he may shun blasted whales in general.
随着一阵有气无力的微风，我们又驶得更近些了，我们看到那艘法国船边还有第二条鲸，而这第二条鲸的味道，似乎比第一条还更不堪入鼻。实际上，这两条成问题的鲸中，原来有一条似乎是患了一种非常厉害的胃弱症，或者消化不良症而枯死的。因此，那两个死尸简直已经毫无油气、显得干瘪瘪了。然而，说正经话，任何一个老练的捕鲸人，不管他看见一般瘟鲸，会怎么唯恐避之不及，可是，对这样一条鲸，却决不会稍加鄙视。