Whale

Author: (American) Melville
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The story is narrated in the first person. The narrator Ishmael is hired to sail on the Pequod to hunt whales. The captain Ahab is a cunning and experienced sailor who plans to avenge the white whale Moby Dick, which had lost him a leg during a previous voyage. The first mate Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to abandon his revenge plan but is forced to obey. During their search for Moby Dick, they catch some whales and get entangled with several whaling ships. Later, they discover the white whale, and after three days of battle, Ahab stabs Moby Dick with a harpoon. Enraged, the white whale sinks the Pequod, and only Ishmael is saved, able to tell this story. Moby Dick is the masterpiece of American writer Herman Melville (1819—1891), published in 1851. When it was first published, it did not receive much attention from readers or the public. However, half a century later, especially since the 1920s, critics finally recognized its value, exploring its rich content, profound meaning, and unique literary imagery from multiple perspectives, achieving significant success. More than a century after Melville’s death, we are privileged to reread and translate this great work, filled with infinite admiration and nostalgia for the author, and a deeper understanding of its various aspects. The work uses a realistic approach to comprehensively and systematically describe the history and entire process of whaling: from spotting large whales from the mast, chasing them in small boats, engaging in a fierce battle with the whales, to the post-mortem processing—carcass cutting, skinning, blubber extraction, and oil refining—all vividly depicted on the page. The work portrays the hardships, sorrows, and tragic experiences of whalers during their long-distance voyages. For example, the passageway of the whale hotel where whalers stay is described as "low and cluttered," "almost like the side walls of a ship that transported slaves in ancient times," and the main hall is "even darker, with low and cumbersome beams overhead and old, wrinkled wooden floors." The whalers returning on the Pequod are described as "patched and ragged, with hard ice chunks hanging from their beards, like a group of bears from Labrador." (Chapter 3) Onboard, the captain and first mates can arbitrarily kick the crew, whip them, and lock them up in confinement; (Chapter 54) the crew of the Pequod must endure Ahab’s cruelty and obsession. In Chapter 34, the author describes three first mates dining, "if they weren’t careful and the knife clanged against the plate, they would be startled, cut it into pieces, and then chew silently, finally swallowing it timidly." After Frasque promoted himself to first mate, "his stomach was never at peace again." The boy servant Tub is "constantly on edge," "frequently peering out warily through the door." In Chapter 64, the author portrays Starbuck tormenting, mocking, and even torturing the 90-year-old cook. The author’s realistic and detailed depiction of the whaling process is due to his personal experience in whaling early in life, and the work’s heavy tragic atmosphere is also closely linked to his difficult life. Herman Melville was born in New York City, New York, in 1819, of Scottish descent, with Dutch ancestry on his mother’s side. Although his ancestors once flourished, his father went bankrupt and died when young Herman was twelve. After losing his father, Melville had to drop out of school and started working independently at the age of fifteen, working as a bank clerk, salesman, elementary school teacher, and farm worker, enduring all kinds of hardships. In 1837, he boarded a ship bound for Liverpool as a steward, this voyage sparking his love for the sea. After returning, he taught in New York and other places before boarding the Aggie, a whaling ship, in January 1841, beginning the most tragic chapter of his life at sea. Years of life at sea tempered his will and made him familiar with the entire process of whaling and the hardships and joys of sailors. No wonder the author writes in this book, "The whaling ship was once my Yale and Harvard." (Chapter 24) The era in which the author lived was one of rapid development of American capitalism. After the Industrial Revolution, American social productivity developed rapidly, and the ability to conquer and transform nature grew stronger. The capitalist class, controlling the means of production, exploited nature and the hired laborers without restraint. The long-distance whaling voyage was a reflection of this production relationship and mode. The Pequod was a floating factory, not only for spotting and chasing but also for processing whale blubber and refining oil, with the author providing detailed and vivid descriptions of each step. The lower-class enslaved workers, the harpooners and sailors, worked day and night, often beaten and cursed, living in constant fear. The author expressed great sympathy for these poor sailors while enthusiastically praising their excellent qualities, calling them "heroes." When describing Queequeg, he says he is "tall and strong," "walks like a lion, fierce and majestic—as Ahab," and that "a white man standing before him is like raising a white flag outside a fortress, asking for surrender." (Chapter 27) The author devoted considerable attention to shaping the character of Queequeg, depicting his chivalrous deeds of self-sacrifice, his "simple and honest" soul, his "steadfast and brave" eyes, and his heroic spirit that "nothing could scare him, even a thousand demons." The author even called him "George Washington, wild and cannibalistic." (Chapter 10) Regarding the symbolic meaning of Moby Dick (the white whale), literary critics often debate it. Generally, Moby Dick is seen as the embodiment of "evil" in the world, the devil Satan in the sea. It has caused many tragedies of shipwrecks and deaths, making it a demon that sailors must eliminate. However, from an ecological ethics perspective, I feel this creature is unfairly blamed. The cause of the shipwrecks and deaths is humans themselves—the captain, first mates, and all the sailors. For the Pequod, it was Ahab’s desire for revenge and obsession that led to its downfall. What crime has the whale committed? In Chapter 61, the author describes the leisurely and unassuming play of the sperm whale: "About eighty meters away, a huge sperm whale was rolling in the water like an upside-down battleship. Its broad back was shiny black, reflecting the sun like a mirror. The whale lazily rose and fell in the waves, occasionally spraying water vapor, like a fat citizen smoking a pipe in a leisurely afternoon." How harmonious, beautiful, and elegant a scene is this! Why must humans disturb its tranquility? I believe the source of all evil is human greed! The Buddha says, "All living beings are equal." If they are equal, they also have the right to self-defense."—Enough said. I have no intention of imposing preconceived notions on the readers. Let each person judge for themselves. Opening this book, the author writes on the first page: "This book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne as a token of my admiration for his talent." The reader may wonder why the author admired the great writer Hawthorne so much. Let me explain briefly. In 1850, Melville moved with his wife to a farm in Massachusetts, where they settled for thirteen years. It was here that he and Hawthorne lived together day and night, like brothers, often discussing and inspiring each other’s creativity, a friendship that became a celebrated story in American literary circles. Therefore, when Moby Dick was published in 1851, the author solemnly dedicated it to Hawthorne. The following year, Melville’s work Pierre was published alongside Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and both explored the same theme. Later, when Hawthorne moved to Concord, Melville’s creative passion was greatly affected, as if he had run out of inspiration. The author showed due sympathy for the black and Native American crew members on the Pequod and affirmed their excellent qualities as ordinary laborers, such as diligence, simplicity, and bravery. However, it should be noted that the author held great prejudice against these "minority people," calling them "savages" and "cannibals." He wrote that Queequeg, Dag, and Tashtego "argued and caused trouble" while dining together, and that the boy servant Tub "trembled all over when he heard chewing sounds" and "couldn’t help but look at his thin arms, wondering if they had bite marks." (Chapter 34) Especially when introducing Queequeg, (Chapter 3) the author’s narrator, Ishmael, described him as a "demon-like slave trader" with a "dark, purple, and yellow" face and a head "like a moldy skeleton." He also had some reservations about Queequeg’s small black god. In Chapter 17, Queequeg’s homeland, the island of Rockaway, was depicted as a lawless and barbaric society, "fifty enemies were killed that night, and they cooked and ate them all." The author not only held deep prejudice against savages but also had some criticism of China and Chinese culture. For example, in Chapter 55, he wrote: "Perhaps he had obtained a truly poor drawing from a predecessor scientist, that is, one derived from a Chinese painting. When Chinese people hold brushes, they look like lively and unruly young men. Just look at the stack of bizarre-shaped color cups and washing dishes to understand." This shows that the author had too little understanding of Chinese painting and too little tolerance for foreign cultures. There are a few characters in the work, such as Queequeg and the cook, whose dialogue contains many misspelled words. This was a necessary means for the author to shape their characters. In translation, we tried to imitate the original text and use homophonic words to recreate it. However, English is a phonetic script, while Chinese is a logographic script. The homophonic words in Chinese are independent phonetic and semantic symbols, which have lexical associative meanings in the Chinese lexical system that do not exist in the original text. Therefore, whether the effect meets our original intention, we leave it to our peers and readers to judge. For names of people and places, we tried to use conventional translations, but there were also some changes, such as translating Queequeg as "." My consideration was twofold: first, these characters approximate the pronunciation, and second, the appearance of Queequeg in the work is depicted as fierce and demonic, almost like a devil, so I chose two characters with "" to translate it. The landlord of the whale hotel is surnamed Coffin (coffin). Originally, I considered translating it as "," which sounded and meant well, but since his relatives also appeared later in the text, there was no need to highlight its meaning throughout. So, I translated it as "Coffin" and supplemented it with a note. Speaking of notes, we only added them where they were absolutely necessary, because too many notes would affect readers’ reading speed and even their interest. Therefore, some notes were inserted into the text, such as in the sentence "The old monks in the town of Dunfermline in Scotland love to eat very much" (Chapter 65), where the word "Scotland" was added by me and does not appear in the original text. Some words have very clear cultural connotations and cannot be explained without notes, such as "everyone on board is engaged in a terrifyingly shark-like business" (Chapter 64). In Chinese, a shark symbolizes cruelty, while in English, it symbolizes greed, cunning, extortion, and fraud, etc. There are also puns, such as "ball" meaning both "ball" and "dance party" (Chapter 40), which also need to be explained. Translating Moby Dick is indeed not an easy task. On one hand, because the work adopts a realistic writing style, the detailed descriptions of all aspects of whaling and the portrayal of the psychological state of whalers are difficult for us, who have no such experience, to fully understand. On the other hand, the work is not bound by genre, containing narration, commentary, and lyricism; dramatic dialogues (e.g., Chapter 40); rigorous cetological essays (e.g., Chapter 32); and brilliant sermons (e.g., Chapter 9). Despite the difficulties, we faced them and tried to translate accurately and appropriately. However, due to our limited abilities, there will undoubtedly be errors, and we sincerely ask our peers to correct them and readers to forgive us. The Etymology, Excerpts, and the first 66 chapters, totaling about 300,000 words, were translated by me, while the remaining 67 chapters, about 250,000 words, were translated by Professor Wan Maolin. During the translation process of this book, we received care and help from Professor Wang Nanfang, especially me, who was always warmly guided, cherished, and helped by Professor Wang. Here, I extend my sincere gratitude.