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Chapter 58 Brit
第五十八章 小鱼
Steering north-eastward from the Crozetts, we fell in with vast meadows of brit, the minute, yellow substance, upon which the Right Whale largely feeds. For leagues and leagues it undulated round us, so that we seemed to be sailing through boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
从克罗泽斯向东北方驶去，我们掉进了一大片小鱼牧场，这些小鱼主要是露脊鲸赖以为生的黄色细小的东西。这些东西在我们周围起伏绵延了好许多海里，所以，我们仿佛驶进了一片一望无际金黄成熟的麦地。
On the second day, numbers of Right Whales were seen, who, secure from the attack of a Sperm-Whaler like the Pequod, with open jaws sluggishly swam through the brit, which, adhering to the fringing fibres of that wondrous Venetian blind in their mouths, was in that manner separated from the water that escaped at the lip.
第二天，就看到了无数的露脊鲸。它们都大张着嘴，迟钝地在小鱼群里穿梭，不怕会遭到象“裴廓德号”这样的捕抹香鲸船的攻击。那些小鱼，一粘在鲸嘴里那象是奇妙的细长窗帘的缝饰后，就那样同打唇边流出来的海水分别了。
As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; even so these monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; and leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.
它们如同早晨的刈草人那样，肩并肩地穿过那片有如长长的湿草的沼泽地，慢慢地向前挥动着他们的镰刀。这些巨兽在向前游去的时候，也同样发出一种奇特的、刈草似的声音来，在黄色的海面上，撇下了一片漫无尽止的刈过了草后的蓝色
Footnote: That part of the sea known among whalemen as the "Brazil Banks" does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.
（原注：这一带的海洋，虽被捕鲸人称做巴西沙洲，可是它并不象纽芬兰沙洲那般名实相符，因为后者水浅，容易测探，前者则因为是小鲱鱼经常大群漂流的地方，外表上很象一片牧场，也是经常追击露脊鲸的地方。）。
