A nice spot, cried Flask; "just let me prick him there once."
嗳,一个好地方,弗拉斯克叫道,"让我在这地方戳它一下吧。"
Avast! cried Starbuck, "there's no need of that!"
住手!斯达巴克嚷道,"不必这样啦!"
But humane Starbuck was too late. At the instant of the dart an ulcerous jet shot from this cruel wound, and goaded by it into more than sufferable anguish, the whale now spouting thick blood, with swift fury blindly darted at the craft, bespattering them and their glorying crews all over with showers of gore, capsizing Flask's boat and marring the bows. It was his death stroke. For, by this time, so spent was he by loss of blood, that he helplessly rolled away from the wreck he had made; lay panting on his side, impotently flapped with his stumped fin, then over and over slowly revolved like a waning world; turned up the white secrets of his belly; lay like a log, and died. It was most piteous, that last expiring spout. As when by unseen hands the water is gradually drawn off from some mighty fountain, and with half-stifled melancholy gurglings the spray-column lowers and lowers to the ground— so the last long dying spout of the whale.
可是,人道主义的斯达巴克已经说得太迟了。这么一戳下去,这个凄惨的伤口就迸射出一阵溃疡似的喷水来,而且由于戳得它苦痛难挨,现在这条大鲸就尽喷射出浓血,向那只小艇迅疾狂急地乱射,对那些勇敢的水手合头合脑地射着阵阵的血雨,弄翻了弗拉斯克的小艇,撞伤了它的艇头。这就是它的垂死挣扎。因为这时它已耗尽了这许多血液,所以它毫无办法地从那被它毁了的艇边滚开来后,便侧躺在那里,喘个不停,有气无力地击拍着它那只残鳍,接着慢慢地翻过来又转过去,象一只行将告终的地球;终于翻了一个转身,露出它那只神秘的白肚皮,象一大块木头似的躺在那里,死了。最后那阵将了未了的喷水,煞是可怜。这时,好象有许多看不见的手在把大喷水池里的水慢慢地放光,又有一阵阵半哽住的哀怨的咯咯声,那只喷柱也越来越低,逐渐平息下来——这条鲸的最后的垂死的大喷泉也就此消逝了。
Soon, while the crews were awaiting the arrival of the ship, the body showed symptoms of sinking with all its treasures unrifled.
正当全体水手在等候大船开来的时候,立刻就发现那硕大的体躯已有连同它那些未被搜刮的宝藏一起下沉的迹象。