Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-color, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.

我们顿时简直把有关莫比－迪克的所有想法都给忘得干干净净，大家尽凝望着那神秘的海洋迄今所曾显示于人类的最为奇妙的景象。一大团软绵绵的东西，纵横有好几个弗隆（弗隆——英国长度单位，等于八分之一英里或201.167米。），闪着奶油色，漂泛在海面上，在它身体中央辐射出了无数的长手臂，卷卷曲曲，七缠八绕，活象一窝蟒蛇，仿佛盲冲瞎撞地要把任何碰得到的倒霉东西捉住似的。既看不出它究竟有没有脸相；又辨不清它有否感觉；但见一个神秘的、无定形的、偶然出现似的活幽灵在波涛间起伏。

As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed,

在它发出一阵低微的吮吸声后，又慢慢地消失的时候，还在朝它沉下去的急激的水面凝视着的斯达巴克，突然狂叫起来，

"Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!"

“你这白鬼，看到你这副鬼模样，我倒宁可看到莫比－迪克，跟它扑打一顿！”

What was it, Sir? said Flask.

“那是什么东西，先生？”弗拉斯克说。

The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it.

“大乌贼鱼，这种东西，据说，捕鲸船难得看到，只听到看过的人回港埠后说起它。”

But Ahab said nothing; turning his boat, he sailed back to the vessel; the rest as silently following.

可是，亚哈什么都不说，把他的小艇掉了头，划回大船去了；其余三只小艇，也都悄悄地跟上去。