'No thank you,' said the Manager, standing, perhaps from the force of winter habit, with his back against the chimney-piece, and looking down upon the Captain with an eye in every tooth and gum. 'You have taken the liberty, you were going to say - though it's none—'
“不,谢谢您,”经理说道;也许是由于冬天养成的习惯,他还继续站着;他的背靠着壁炉架,并往下望着船长,好像他每个牙齿和牙床中都长着一只眼睛似的。“您刚才说,您冒昧地——其实并没有什么冒昧。”
'Thank'ee kindly, my lad,' returned the Captain: 'of coming here, on account of my friend Wal'r. Sol Gills, his Uncle, is a man of science, and in science he may be considered a clipper; but he ain't what I should altogether call a able seaman - not man of practice. Wal'r is as trim a lad as ever stepped; but he's a little down by the head in one respect, and that is, modesty. Now what I should wish to put to you,' said the Captain, lowering his voice, and speaking in a kind of confidential growl, 'in a friendly way, entirely between you and me, and for my own private reckoning, 'till your head Governor has wore round a bit, and I can come alongside of him, is this - Is everything right and comfortable here, and is Wal'r out'ard bound with a pretty fair wind?'
“非常感谢您,我的朋友,”船长回答道,“我是为了我的朋友沃尔冒昧地到这里来的,他的舅舅所尔·吉尔斯是一位搞科学的人,在科学上他可以算得上是一只快速帆船。可是,我不能把他称为能干的船员——他不是个注重实际的人。沃尔是个难得的棒小伙子;不过他也有缺点,那就是谦虚。现在,在你们老板心情没有稍稍恢复,我可以来跟他一起交谈之前,”船长压低了声音,以极为信任的低沉的粗声说道,“我希望以友好的方式,完全在您与我之间,也为了我个人有个正确的估量,向您提个问题,就是:这里是不是一切都很完善妥贴,沃尔出航是否顺风?”
'What do you think now, Captain Cuttle?' returned Carker, gathering up his skirts and settling himself in his position. 'You are a practical man; what do you think?'
“您现在怎么想,卡特尔船长?”卡克提起衣服下摆,站好姿势,回答道,“您是个注重实际的人,您怎么想呢?”
The acuteness and the significance of the Captain's eye as he cocked it in reply, no words short of those unutterable Chinese words before referred to could describe.
船长的眼睛向上一瞟作为回答,那眼光的锐利与意味深长,除了前面提到的不能发音的中国语言外,其他语言都不能形容。
'Come!' said the Captain, unspeakably encouraged, 'what do you say? Am I right or wrong?'
“好啦!”船长受到难以表述的鼓舞,说道,“请您说说,我对了还是错了?”