The Foreboding Voice
A disembodied voice calls out from behind the departing Pequod, crying “Ha! yonder! look yonder, men!” with ominous prescience. The voice delivers a cryptic warning: “In vain, oh, ye strangers, ye fly our sad burial; ye but turn us your taffrail to show us your coffin!” This prophecy suggests that the Pequod’s escape is futile—that the vessel itself will become a coffin, and that the Delight’s fate awaits any ship that pursues the White Whale. The foreboding pronouncement binds both ships in shared destiny.
第一百三十二章 The Symphony.
The chapter opens with a description of a clear steel-blue day where the firmaments of air and sea merge into an all-pervading azure. The atmosphere is described as having a woman’s gentle look while the sea heaves with Samson-like strength.
The Azure Day
A clear steel-blue day where the firmaments of air and sea are barely separable. The pensive air is transparently pure and soft, contrasting with the robust and man-like sea that heaves with long, strong, lingering swells.
The Feminine Air
Above, small unspeckled birds glide gracefully on white wings—described as gentle thoughts of the feminine air. Meanwhile, beneath in the depths, mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks rush about—representing the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea. Though contrasting, the two seem one, distinguished only by sex.
Sun and Sea
Aloft, the sun appears like a royal czar giving the gentle air to the bold rolling sea, like bride to groom. At the horizon’s girdling line, a soft tremulous motion denotes the fond, throbbing trust and loving alarms with which the bride gives her bosom away.
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