For not by any calm and indolent spoutings; not by the peaceable gush of that mystic fountain in his head, did the White Whale now reveal his vicinity; but by the far more wondrous phenomenon of breaching. Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, the Sperm Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam, shows his place to the distance of seven miles and more. In those moments, the torn, enraged waves he shakes off, seem his mane; in some cases, this breaching is his act of defiance.
白鲸是这样近在眼前，人们不是看到它那平静而旁若无人的喷水；也不是看到它那发自它头部的神秘喷泉的平和的迸射；而是看到了远更奇妙的跳跃。这条抹香鲸从非常深的海底里用尽全力直冒了起来后，就此把它整个身躯全部显现在清澈的空中，高高地滚起一丘炫目的泡沫，教人看到它已在相距七英里多的地方。这时，它所震撼起来的飞溅的狂涛，似乎就是它的鬃毛。在某些方面说来，这种跳跃就是它的挑衅行为。
There she breaches! there she breaches! was the cry, as in his immeasurable bravadoes the White Whale tossed himself salmon-like to Heaven. So suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea, and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for the moment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity, to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale.
它在跳啦！它在跳啦！又是一阵叫声，这时，这条白鲸以它无限的骁勇，身子象只鲑鱼直冲云霄。在青翠的草原也似的海面上，衬着那个还要青翠的天边，突然看到它喷出来的水雾，顿时有如看到一条闪烁的冰河，闪闪发光，叫人眼睛难耐；接着，那条冰河从那开始时的炫眼的强度逐渐逐渐消退，终于变成山谷中行将到来的阵雨那么迷雾朦胧。
Aye, breach your last to the sun, Moby Dick! cried Ahab, "thy hour and thy harpoon are at hand! — Down! down all of ye, but one man at the fore. The boats! — stand by!"
喂，莫比－迪克，向太阳跳你的终吧！亚哈叫道，"你的时辰和你的标枪已是近在眼前了！——下来！你们统统下来，留一个人在前桅上。小艇！——准备！"
Unmindful of the tedious rope-ladders of the shrouds, the men, like shooting stars, slid to the deck, by the isolated backstays and halyards; while Ahab, less dartingly, but still rapidly was dropped from his perch.
那些水手忘记踩着那些用护桅索做成的劳什子索梯，大家都象流星般从孤零零的后支索和桅索上一溜就溜到甲板上；亚哈虽然不象他们那样冲下来，还是很快就从他的岗位上落下来。