英语听书《白鲸记》第13期

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 I have seldom seen such brawn¹ in a man. His face was deeply brown and burnt, 

 making his white teeth dazzling by the contrast;while in the deep shadows of his eyes floated some reminiscences that did not seem to give him much joy. 

 His voice at once announced that he was a Southerner,and from his fine stature, 

 I thought he must be one of those tall mountaineers from the Alleghanian Ridge² in Virginia. 

 When the revelry of his companions had mounted to its height,this man slipped away unobserved, 

 and I saw no more of him till he became my comrade on the sea.In a few minutes,however, 

 he was missed by his shipmates,and being,it seems,for some reason a huge favourite with them, 

 they raised a cry of Bulkington!Bulkington!where's Bulkington?and darted³ out of the house in pursuit of him. 

 It was now about nine o'clock,and the room seeming almost supernaturally quiet after these orgies, 

 I began to congratulate myself upon a little plan that had occurred to me just previous to the entrance of the seamen⁴. 

 No man prefers to sleep two in a bed.In fact,you would a good deal rather not sleep with your own brother. 

 I do not know how it is,but people like to be private when they are sleeping. 

 And when it comes to sleeping with an unknown stranger,in a strange inn,in a strange town, 

 and that stranger a harpooneer,then your objections indefinitely multiply. 

 Nor was there any earthly reason why I as a sailor should sleep two in a bed,more than anybody else; 

 for sailors no more sleep two in a bed at sea,than bachelor Kings do ashore⁵. 

 To be sure they all sleep together in one apartment,but you have your own hammock,and cover yourself with your own blanket,and sleep in your own skin. 

 The more I pondered over this harpooneer,the more I abominated⁶ the thought of sleeping with him. 

 It was fair to presume that being a harpooneer,his linen⁷ or woollen,as the case might be, 

 would not be of the tidiest,certainly none of the finest.I began to twitch⁸ all over. 

 Besides,it was getting late,and my decent harpooneer ought to be home and going bedwards. 

 Suppose now,he should tumble in upon me at midnight how could I tell from what vile⁹ hole he had been coming? 

 Landlord!I've changed my mind about that harpooneer.I shall not sleep with him.I 'll try the bench here. 

 Just as you please;I'm sorry I cant¹⁰ spare ye a tablecloth¹¹ for a mattress, 

 and it's a plaguy rough board here feeling of the knots and notches¹². 

 But wait a bit,Skrimshander;I've got a carpenter's plane there in the bar wait, 

 I say,and I 'll make ye snug¹³ enough.So saying he procured¹⁴ the plane;and with his old silk handkerchief first dusting the bench, 

 vigorously set to planing away at my bed,the while grinning like an ape. 

 The shavings flew right and left;till at last the plane iron came bump against an indestructible knot. 

 The landlord was near spraining¹⁵ his wrist,and I told him for heaven's sake to quit the bed was soft enough to suit me, 

 and I did not know how all the planing in the world could make eider down of a pine plank¹⁶. 

 So gathering¹⁷ up the shavings with another grin,and throwing them into the great stove in the middle of the room, 

 he went about his business,and left me in a brown study. 

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