Look! here, far water-locked; beyond all hum of human weal or woe; in these most candid and impartial seas; where to traditions no rocks furnish tablets; where for long Chinese ages, the billows have still rolled on speechless and unspoken to, as stars that shine upon the Niger's unknown source; here, too, life dies sunwards full of faith, but see! no sooner dead, than death whirls round the corpse, and it heads some other way.

瞧！老远的那个大水闸闸住了；听不到人间祸福的营营声；在这个最公正无私的海洋上；根据传说，那里没有可以立纪念碑的石块，那里的波涛跟中国的开国年代一般久远，依然在不声不响地滚滚起伏，一如那些照耀着尼加（尼加——非洲中西部的河名。）那条人所未知的河流的星星；在这里，生命也是充满忠诚地面向太阳而逝；可是，看呀，一完了蛋，死神就在死尸周围打了一转，然后向着其它方向转去——。

Oh, thou dark Hindoo half of nature, who of drowned bones hast builded thy separate throne somewhere in the heart of these unverdured seas; thou art an infidel, thou queen, and too truly speakest to me in the wide-slaughtering Typhoon, and the hushed burial of its after calm. Nor has this thy whale sunwards turned his dying head, and then gone round again, without a lesson to me.

你这个难解畸形的印度神呀，你用淹死了的骸骨，在这个光秃秃的大海中心的什么地方建起你那单独的宝座；你是个异教徒，你的皇后在凶残的飓风里老老实实地告诉过我了，飓风平息后也就寂然无声了。你这大鲸呀，以行将要死的头向着太阳，倒是给了我一个教训。

Oh, trebly hooped and welded hip of power! Oh, high aspiring, rainbowed jet! — that one strivest, this one jettest all in vain! In vain, oh whale, dost thou seek intercedings with yon all-quickening sun, that only calls forth life, but gives it not again.

啊，深沟高垒披坚执锐的强者！啊，巍然高耸、虹彩似的喷水！——那一个在拚命挣扎，这一个却在徒劳地喷水！枉费的呀，鲸啊，你想跟那个能够唤起生命、非常富有生气的太阳求情讨饶，它现在却再也起不了作用了。