A mountain separating two lakes.
一座山將兩座湖泊分開。
A room papered floor to ceiling with bridal satins.
一間房間,從屋頂到地板 掛著新娘禮服。
The lid of an immense snuffbox.
一個巨大的鼻煙盒蓋。
These seemingly unrelated images take us on a tour of a sperm whale’s head in Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick." On the surface, the book is the story of Captain Ahab’s hunt for revenge against Moby Dick, the white whale who bit off his leg. But though the book features pirates, typhoons, high-speed chases, and giant squid, you shouldn’t expect a conventional seafaring adventure. Instead, it’s a multilayered exploration of not only the intimate details of life aboard a whaling ship, but also subjects from across human and natural history, by turns playful and tragic, humorous, and urgent.
這些看似無關的圖像, 帶我們到赫曼·梅爾維爾所著 《白鯨記》中的抹香鯨頭部裡一遊。 表面上,這本書在講的故事 是亞哈船長為了尋仇 而要獵殺莫比敵, 因為這隻白鯨咬斷了他的腿。 雖然這本書的主打特色 包括海盜、颱風、 高速追逐,以及巨型烏賊, 但別因此就預期會看到 傳統的航海冒險。 反之,這本書具有多層次的探討, 不僅討論捕鯨船上的個人生活細節, 還有從人類到自然史的各種主題, 時而好玩,時而不幸, 時而幽默,時而急迫。
The narrator guiding us through these explorations is a common sailor called Ishmael. Ishmael starts out telling his own story as he prepares to escape the “damp and drizzly November in [his] soul” by going to sea. But after he befriends the Pacific Islander Queequeg and joins Ahab’s crew aboard the Pequod, Ishmael becomes more of an omniscient guide for the reader than a traditional character. While Ahab obsesses over revenge and first mate Starbuck tries to reason with him, Ishmael takes us on his own quest for meaning throughout “the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs.” In his telling, life’s biggest questions loom large, even in the smallest details.
引導我們進行這些探討的講述者, 是一位平凡的水手伊什梅爾。 伊什梅爾一開始 是在訴說他自己的故事, 他準備要透過出海,來逃離 自己「靈魂所置身的 陰雨潮溼十一月天」。 但伊什梅爾在和太平洋島 居民魁魁格交朋友 並加入亞哈的船員,登上皮廓號之後, 伊什梅爾從傳統角色 變成更像是讀者的全知嚮導。 當亞哈被復仇沖昏了頭, 大副星巴克試圖要跟他理論時, 伊什梅爾帶我們踏上他自己的旅程, 在「整個宇宙,也包含 其外圍地區」中尋找意義。 在他的敘述中, 即使是在最小的細節裡, 人生最大的問題都佔有重要的位置。
Like his narrator, Melville was a restless and curious spirit, who gained an unorthodox education working as a sailor on a series of grueling voyages around the world in his youth. He published "Moby Dick" in 1851, when the United States’ whaling industry was at its height. Nantucket, where the Pequod sets sail, was the epicenter of this lucrative and bloody global industry which decimated the world’s whale populations.
梅爾維爾和他故事中的講述者一樣, 個性充滿好奇且靜不下來, 他接受的非正統教育, 來自他年輕時擔任水手, 歷經了一連串到世界各地的勞累航程。 他在 1851 年出版了《白鯨記》, 當時美國的捕鯨產業達到高峰。 皮廓號啟航之地南塔克特, 這是個有利可圖的殺戮產業的中心, 這個產業讓全世界的 鯨魚數目大大減少。
Unusually for his time, Melville doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of this industry, even taking the whale’s perspective at one point, when he speculates on how terrifying the huge shadows of the ships must be to the creature swimming below. The author’s first-hand familiarity with whaling is evident over and over again in Ishmael’s vivid descriptions. In one chapter, the skin of a whale’s penis becomes protective clothing for a crewman. Chapters with titles as unpromising as “Cistern and Buckets” become some of the novel’s most rewarding as Ishmael compares bailing out a sperm-whale’s head to midwifery, which leads to reflections on Plato. Tangling whale-lines provoke witty reflections on the “ever-present perils” entangling all mortals. He draws on diverse branches of knowledge, like zoology, gastronomy, law, economics, mythology, and teachings from a range of religious and cultural traditions.
在那個時代,梅爾維爾的獨特之處在於 他並不避談這個產業的醜陋面, 一度還採用了鯨魚的角度, 他推測船隻的巨大影子會讓 在底下游泳的生物感到多麼害怕。 伊什梅爾生動的描述,一而再再而三 呈現出作者本身對於捕鯨的熟悉度。 在其中一章,鯨魚生殖器的皮膚 成了船員的保護裝。 名稱不起眼的章節, 如「水槽和水桶」, 是該小說中最值得一看的部分, 伊什梅爾把從抹香鯨頭部 取出鯨油比喻為助產, 這會讓人去反思柏拉圖。 糾纏在一起的鯨繩 會讓人產生機智的反思, 想到「總是存在的危險」 糾纏著所有凡人。 他會用到各種領域的知識, 如動物學、美食學、 法律、經濟、神話, 以及各種宗教及文化傳統的教義。
The book experiments with writing style as much as subject matter. In one monologue, Ahab challenges Moby Dick in Shakespearean style: “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” One chapter is written as a playscript, where members of the Pequod’s multi-ethnic crew chime in individually and in chorus. African and Spanish sailors trade insults while a Tahitian seaman longs for home, Chinese and Portuguese crewmembers call for a dance, and one young boy prophesies disaster. In another chapter, Ishmael sings the process of decanting whale oil in epic style, as the ship pitches and rolls in the midnight sea and the casks rumble like landslides.
這本書在撰文風格上的實驗性質 不亞於主題的實驗性質。 在一段獨白中, 亞哈用莎士比亞風格來挑戰莫比敵: 「我乘著搖擺的船朝你而去, 你這摧毀一切 卻不屈不撓的鯨魚; 我要與你爭鬥到最後; 我從地獄之心刺殺你; 出於仇恨,我將最後一口氣吐向你。」 有一章則是用劇本形式來撰寫, 皮廓號上各種人種的船員 有時個別插話,有時齊聲說話。 非洲及西班牙水手互相辱罵, 大溪地海員則渴望回家, 中國和葡萄牙船員邀請大家跳舞, 還有一名男孩預言會有災難。 在另一章中, 伊什梅爾用史詩風格 唱出取鯨油的過程, 船則在半夜的海上搖晃、擺動, 桶子則像山崩一樣隆隆作響。
A book so wide-ranging has something for everyone. Readers have found religious and political allegory, existential enquiry, social satire, economic analysis, and representations of American imperialism, industrial relations and racial conflict. As Ishmael chases meaning and Ahab chases the white whale, the book explores the opposing forces of optimism and uncertainty, curiosity and fear that characterize human existence no matter what it is we’re chasing. Through "Moby Dick’s" many pages, Melville invites his readers to leap into the unknown, to join him on the hunt for the “ungraspable phantom of life.”
這本書無所不包,適合所有人。 讀者可以找到宗教和政治上的寓言、 存在主義的疑問、 社會諷刺、經濟分析, 還有美國帝國主義的表述、 產業關係,以及種族衝突。 隨著伊什梅爾追尋意義, 以及亞哈追尋白鯨, 這本書探討了相反的力量, 如樂觀與不確定性、 好奇與恐懼, 不論我們追尋什麼, 這些都是人類存在的特徵。 梅爾維爾透過《白鯨記》的諸多篇幅 邀請他的讀者縱身跳入未知當中, 加入他,一同獵殺