The Fragrant Sperm Whale
The Fragrant Sperm Whale** The narrator argues that whales generally enjoy excellent health, take abundant exercise, and remain always outdoors—though seldom in actual open air. The motion of a Sperm Whale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume comparable to a musk-scented lady rustling her dress in a warm parlor. The narrator concludes with a question: to what may one liken the Sperm Whale for fragrance, considering its magnitude? The answer: the famous elephant with jewelled tusks, redolent with myrrh, which was led from an Indian town to honor Alexander the Great.
第九十三章 The Castaway.
After Stubb’s after-oarsman injures his hand, the small Black sailor Pip is temporarily assigned to take his place in the boat. During his first hunt, Pip displays nervousness but survives the encounter without incident. On the second lowering, when the whale is struck and the line comes against Pip’s seat, he leaps from the boat in panic and becomes entangled in the whale line, being dragged through the water until Tashtego, at Stubb’s command, cuts the line and loses the whale. The crew curses Pip, and Stubb gives him stern advice to stay in the boat, threatening not to pick him up if he jumps again. Pip jumps a second time during a subsequent hunt, but Stubb keeps his word and refuses to rescue him, leaving him alone in the vast ocean. The Pequod eventually retrieves Pip from the sea, but from that hour he walks the deck an idiot, his mind broken by the experience, though his soul has been carried down to strange, profound depths where he glimpses visions that his shipmates interpret as madness.
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