now, that he found himself hard by the very latitude and longitude where his tormenting wound had been inflicted; now that a vessel had been spoken which on the very day preceding had actually encountered Moby Dick; — and now that all his successive meetings with various ships contrastingly concurred to show the demoniac indifference with which the white whale tore his hunters, whether sinning or sinned against; now it was that there lurked a something in the old man's eyes, which it was hardly sufferable for feeble souls to see. As the unsetting polar star, which through the livelong, arctic, six months' night sustains its piercing, steady, central gaze; so Ahab's purpose now fixedly gleamed down upon the constant midnight of the gloomy crew. It domineered above them so, that all their bodings, doubts, misgivings, fears, were fain to hide beneath their souls, and not sprout forth a single spear or leaf.
因为他发现已经迫近那个使他遭受苦痛的创伤的地点；因为前一天所碰到的一艘船，已经说他们的确碰到过莫比－迪克；——更因为他接连不断地碰到了许多船只，都不约而同地证明白鲸在打击它的猎者（不管是否罪有应得）时，象个恶魔似的，置人生死于度外，因此，现在，这个老人的眼睛里，潜藏着一种教意志薄弱的人看了简直受不了的神色。不落的北极星，经历过长长六个月的北极夜空，依然保持着它那锐利的、坚定的、集中的光芒；这会儿，亚哈的意图就是如此，它坚定不移地照在永恒的午夜似的阴郁的水手身上。那股光芒就这样笼罩着他们，弄得他们都心甘情愿地把一切不吉利的念头、疑虑、不安、恐惧都深藏在心底里，丝毫不露形迹。
In this foreshadowing interval, too, all humor, forced or natural, vanished. Stubb no more strove to raise a smile; Starbuck no more strove to check one. Alike, joy and sorrow, hope and fear, seemed ground to finest dust, and powdered, for the time, in the clamped mortar of Ahab's iron soul. Like machines, they dumbly moved about the deck, ever conscious that the old man's despot eye was on them.
在这种乌云压顶的间歇里，所有勉强的或者自然的幽默都消失了。斯塔布不再强作笑脸了；斯达巴克也不再装模作样地骂人了。快活与忧伤，希望与恐惧，都同样暂时在亚哈那颗铁心做成的研钵里克拉克拉研成了粉末。他们都象机器一样，哑口无言地在甲板上走动，始终警觉到这老人的专横的眼睛落在他们身上。