英语听书《白鲸记》第286期

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

It turned out to be Captain Bildad who along with Captain Peleg was one of the largest owners of the vessel²;  原来他就是跟法勒船长同属这只船的最大股东老板之一的比勒达船长。

the other shares, as is sometimes the case in these ports, being held by a crowd of old annuitants;  至于其余的股份,按照这些商港的情形,往往是属于一群领年金的老年人的;

widows, fatherless children, and chancery wards³; each owning about the value of a timber head, or a foot of plank⁴, or a nail or two in the ship.  其中也有一些寡妇。孤儿和受保护的未成年人;每个人大概是拥有一根船骨,一英尺船板或者是船里一两枚钉子的价值。

People in Nantucket invest their money in whaling vessels⁵, the same way that you do yours in approved state stocks bringing in good interest. 南塔开特人都把他们的钱投资到捕鲸船中,就跟人们把钱投资到有好出息的。信用良好的股票生意上一样。

Now, Bildad, like Peleg, and indeed many other Nantucketers, was a Quaker, the island having been originally settled by that sect⁶;  且说比勒达,象法勒,实在也象许多南塔开特人一样,也是一个桂克,这海岛本来就是这种教派的人定居的地方;

and to this day its inhabitants in general retain in an uncommon measure the peculiarities⁷ of the Quaker,  直到如今,这里的居民一般都还多多少少保存有桂克的特征,

only variously and anomalously⁸ modified by things altogether alien and heterogeneous⁹.  只不过受了许多化外与异类的事物所冲淡而有所悬殊罢了。

For some of these same Quakers are the most sanguinary of all sailors and whale-hunters.  在这些桂克中,有一些就是残忍无比的水手和捕鲸手。

They are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance¹⁰. 他们都是好战的桂克;他们都是复仇心切的桂克。

分享到：