In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman's Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not.
在这个新贝德福地方,有一个捕鲸者的小教堂.就要出发到印度洋或者太平洋去的郁郁不乐的捕鱼人,礼拜天不上那儿去的,可说为数寥寥。我当然也要上那地方去一趟。
Returning from my first morning stroll, I again sallied out upon this special errand. The sky had changed from clear, sunny cold, to driving sleet and mist. Wrapping myself in my shaggy jacket of the cloth called bearskin, I fought my way against the stubborn storm. Entering, I found a small scattered congregation of sailors, and sailors' wives and widows. A muffled silence reigned, only broken at times by the shrieks of the storm. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable. The chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit. Three of them ran something like the following, but I do not pretend to quote:
我在早晨第一次散步回来后,又特地为这事情赶到那里去。天际已经由晴冷又有阳光而变成飘着迷蒙蒙的雪雨了。我裹上那件用叫做熊皮的料子做成的毛茸茸的外套,冒着顶头的大风雨进发。我走进教堂,但见疏疏落落的一小群水手。水手的妻子们和寡妇们。除了不时传来的狂风暴雨的呼啸,里面弥漫着一片压抑着似的静寂。每个无言的做礼拜者都似乎是故意远离别人而坐着,仿佛各人的无言的忧伤都是孤立的,无可相通的。牧师还没有来;这些静寂的岛屿似的男男女女都坐在那里,睁着眼睛,望着几块镶有黑边。嵌在讲坛两侧的墙上的大理石碑.我不自以为抄引得一字不差,其中有三块写有如下的字样:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN TALBOT, Who, at the age of eighteen, was lost overboard Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia, November 1st, 1836. THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS SISTER.
约翰.塔尔伯特纪念碑 约翰.塔尔伯特,于一八三六年十一月一日,在寂寥岛附近的巴塔哥尼亚海面,失足落海身亡,终年一十八岁。他的姊姊特立此碑以为纪念。
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT LONG, WILLIS ELLERY, NATHAN COLEMAN, WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY, AND SAMUEL GLEIG, Forming one of the boats' crews OF THE SHIP ELIZA Who were towed out of sight by a Whale, On the Off-shore Ground in the PACIFIC, December 31st, 1839. THIS MARBLE Is here placed by their surviving SHIPMATES.
罗伯特.朗,威利斯.埃勒里 内森.科尔曼,沃尔特.坎尼 塞思.梅西,塞缪尔.格莱格纪念碑 上述诸人均为"伊莱扎号"船员,于一八三九年十二月三十一日在太平洋海面的渔场上被一巨鲸曳去失踪。
