A staid, steadfast man, whose life for the most partwas a telling pantomime of action, and not a tamechapter of sounds.

他是个坚定不移的人,他的生活大多是一种充满行动的有声有色的哑剧,而不是一种单调的字面记载。

Yet, for all his hardy sobriety and fortitude, therewere certain qualities in him which at timesaffected, and in some cases seemed well nigh tooverbalance all the rest.

虽然他有吃苦耐劳的谨严态度和坚忍不拔的精神,可是在他身上也有一些特质,不时影响,而且在某些场合上,似乎还会超过其它一切的特质。

Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, thewild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition;

他是个耿直非凡的水手,又有一种根深蒂固的虔诚的心,因此,他那种海上的狂暴而孤寂的生活非常容易使他趋向迷信;

but to that sort of superstition, which in some organizations seems rather to spring, somehow,from intelligence than from ignorance.

至于那种迷信,就它的构成说来,却似乎多少有点出之于智慧,而不是出之于愚昧。

Outward portents and inward presentiments were his.

他就是一个外表非凡而内心敏感的人。

And if at times these things bent the welded iron of his soul, much more did his far-awaydomestic memories of his young Cape wife and child,

如果这些东西会时时使他那焊铁似的心肠屈服的话,主要是由于他想到了他那远在家乡的年轻的妻子和小孩,

tend to bend him still more from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him stillfurther to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men,

使他越发消失了他那粗犷的本性,使他更趋向于那种潜存的势力,这种势力,就心地忠实的人说来,

restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilousvicissitudes of the fishery.

就鼓不起那种勇猛的冒险精神,因为人人都经常可以看到捕鱼业的更富危险的变迁情况。

I will have no man in my boat, said Starbuck, who is not afraid of a whale.

在我的小艇上,不怕大鲸的人是没有的。斯达巴克说。

By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that whicharises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril,

他这句话,似乎不只是说:能对所面临的危险加以正确估计的,才称得上所谓切实可靠的勇敢,而且还含有这样的意思:

but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

跟一个大无畏的人做船伴,比跟一个懦夫做船伴还更危险。