Nor does it unfrequently occur, that Nantucket captains will send a son of such tender age away from them, for a protracted three or four years' voyage in some other ship than their own; so that their first knowledge of a whaleman's career shall be unenervated by any chance display of a father's natural but untimely partiality, or undue apprehensiveness and concern.
这种情形在南塔开特并不是什么希罕的事情，一般船长们总要打发这样幼小的儿子离开家门，送到别人的船上，而不是自己的船上，去连续过个三四年的海上生活；这样，由于做父亲的那种自然的，然而是不合时宜的偏爱，或者是不适当的理解与关怀，一个捕鲸者的生涯就首先认识到任何场合都不应显得软弱无能。
Meantime, now the stranger was still beseeching his poor boon of Ahab; and Ahab still stood like an anvil, receiving every shock, but without the least quivering of his own.
这时，这个陌生船长还在对亚哈哀求苦告；亚哈也还是象一块砧板似地安在那里，承受着人家一记记的敲击，他自己却毫无所动。
I will not go, said the stranger, "till you say aye to me. Do to me as you would have me do to you in the like case. For you too have a boy, Captain Ahab — though but a child, and nestling safely at home now — a child of your old age too — Yes, yes, you relent; I see it — run, run, men, now, and stand by to square in the yards."
除非你对我说好，否则我就不走。陌生船长说。"请你象在这样情况下要我帮助你一样，帮助我一下吧。因为，亚哈船长，你也有个儿子——虽然不过还是个小孩，现在在家里过得平平安安——可也是你的老来子呀——不错，不错，你发慈悲了；我看出来了——赶快，赶快，伙伴们，那么，准备把帆桁调一调吧。"
Avast, cried Ahab — "touch not a rope-yarn"; then in a voice that prolongingly moulded every word — "Captain Gardiner, I will not do it. Even now I lose time, Good-bye, good-bye. God bless ye, man, and may I forgive myself, but I must go.
别动，亚哈叫道，"一根绳索都不许碰；"接着就字锤句炼地慢慢地说——"加迪纳船长，这事情我不干。就这会工夫，已经叫我浪费了时间，再会，再会。愿上帝保佑你，愿我自己原谅自己，我无论如何得启航了。