Surely these two travelers shall meet in joy and friendship; the flag at the masthead shall give the signal of friendship;
可以肯定的是，这两艘船上的旅行者相遇时应该非常高兴，共话友情。
the happy sailors shall cluster in the rigging, and even on the yardarms, to look each other in the face,
桅顶上的旗子会发出友好的信号。兴高采烈的水手会在索具旁，甚至在桁端上簇拥到一起，彼此打量着，
while the exhilarating voices of both crews shall mingle in accents of gladness uncontrollable.
双方全体船员的欢呼声与难以抑制的喜悦汇成一片。
It is not so. Not as brothers, not as friends, not as wayfarers of the common ocean, do they come together; but as enemies.
可是，事实不是这样。他们不像兄弟，不像朋友，也不像在共同的海域航行的旅人，他们只是作为相互的敌人走到一起的。
The gentle vessels now bristle fiercely with death-dealing instruments.
这两艘本来彬彬有礼的船，现在开始用致人死命的工具发出凶猛的攻击。
On their spacious decks, aloft on all their masts, flashes the deadly musketry.
在宽敞的甲板上，在船桅的高处，致命的火器闪烁着火光。
From their sides spout cataracts of flame, amidst the pealing thunders of a fatal artillery.
在大炮的雷鸣声中从船的两侧喷出火舌。
They, who had escaped "the dreadful touch of merchant-marring rocks",
本来已经逃过“岩礁致命接触”一劫的他们，
who had sped on their long and solitary way unharmed by wind or wave — whom the hurricane had spared,
本来已经在风浪伴随下安然度过漫长而孤寂的航程的他们，
in whose favor storms and seas had intermitted their immitigable war — now at last fall by the hand of each other.
飓风也没能奈何了的他们，最终却在彼此手中魂归天外。
