第6集 - 舰长之后（最终篇）

欢迎收听帕特里克·奥布莱恩的《杠杆洞》播客第六集。伊恩，我们继续《后舰长》的故事。这一集我们有什么内容？

Welcome to The Levers Hole of Patrick O'Brien podcast episode six. Ian, we continue in post captain. What do we have in store this episode?

嗯，这是这本书的最后部分。我们希望杰克和史蒂文能有个结局。波利克莱斯特号上的行动将达到高潮，杰克和史蒂文都将有所收获。他们要穿越浅滩水域，杰克还要处理波利克莱斯特号上的骚乱。索菲也有机会主导她与杰克之间的浪漫关系。

Well, this is the final section of the book for us. We've got resolution, we hope, for Jack and Steven. We've got the culmination of action aboard the Polycrest with payoffs for Jack and payoffs for Steven. We've got shoal waters for them to navigate, and we've got unrest aboard the Polycrest for Jack to take care of. And we've got an opportunity for Sophie to take the lead on the romantic connection between her and Jack.

所以一切都值得期待。不错。史蒂文和杰克不得不登上波利克莱斯特号，执行哈特上将分配给他们的这项近乎自杀的任务。你觉得他们出发时，杰克脑子里在想什么？

So it's all to play for. Nice. Steven and Jack have had to set sail aboard the Polycrest on this probably near suicide mission that's been assigned to them by Admiral Hart. What's going on in Jack's head, do you think, as they set off?

是的。我们看到他们在等待黎明进行决斗。突然，他们被召唤行动。他们在船上。按照当时的礼仪，史蒂文和杰克就像新娘和新郎一样，作为潜在的决斗对手不应该在决斗前见面和互动。

Yeah. We've got them waiting for dawn for their duel with each other. All of a sudden, they're called to action. They're on the ship. And Steven and Jack, the etiquette of the time, like a bride and groom, cannot see each other as potential dueling partners are not supposed to see and interact with each other before the duel.

所以他们必须在船上但不交谈、不互动。但突然，你知道，史蒂文来找杰克。当杰克遇到麻烦时，即使他们之间有紧张和困难时期，史蒂文也会挺身而出。所以史蒂文来找杰克。杰克正试图处理波利克莱斯特号上的所有问题。

So they have to be on the ship but not speak to each other, not interact with each other. But all of a sudden, you know, Steven comes to Jack. You know, when Jack is in trouble, Steven rises to the occasion, even when there is tension and tough times between them. So Stephen's come to Jack. Jack is trying to deal with all his problems aboard the Polycrest.

杰克听了史蒂文的话。史蒂文给他带来了一些非常重要的消息，但杰克却有点打发他走。杰克对他非常冷淡、僵硬。杰克坐在那里。史蒂文一离开，书上说，当门在史蒂文身后关上时，他（指杰克）坐下来，双手抱头，陷入了彻底的不快乐，近乎绝望。

And Jack hears Stephen out. Stephen brings some very important news to him, and and Jack just kind of dismisses him. Jack is very cold, very stiff with him. And and you've got Jack sitting here. As soon as Steven leaves, it says, when the door had closed behind Steven, he, meaning Jack, sat down with his head in his hands and let himself go to total unhappiness, to something near despair.

这么多事情一起发生，再加上这冷酷、恶毒的眼神，他非常痛苦地责备自己没有抓住这个机会道歉。你知道，杰克在这里说，天啊，我之前太蠢了。我又犯傻了。我拥有这一切，而这里有这么好的朋友。你知道，我没有回应他。

So many things together, and now this cold, evil look, he reproached himself most bitterly for not having seized this chance for an apology. You know, here is Jack saying, Oh my gosh, you know, I was so stupid before. I'm so stupid again. I've got everything here, and here is this good friend. You And know, I'm not reaching back out to him.

然后他又一次突然打住了，因为他想，好吧，既然我知道史蒂文随时能一枪打掉红心K的脑袋，也许我只是想逃避这场决斗。但杰克明知自己理亏，却既不道歉也不愿示弱，就这样在船上陷入了进退两难的困境。

And then actually kind of calls himself up short once again because he thinks, well, and then again, it might just look like now that I know that Steven can shoot the head off the king of hearts anytime he pleases, that that maybe I'm just trying to get myself out of this dueling thing. But Jack, knowing he's wrong, doesn't apologize, doesn't want to be seen backing down, and still is in a real pickle there above aboard his ship.

这种困境既源于他与朋友史蒂文的关系，也因为这艘船正处于叛乱边缘，对吧？船员们正在酝酿哗变。

A pickle in the context of his relationship with his friend Steven, and a pickle because this is a shot rolling ship, right? There's mutiny brewing.

没错，完全正确。而且最新消息是，我们早前从帕特里克·奥布莱恩那里了解到，船医经常参与叛乱。他们某种程度上脚踏两条船，既属于军官阶层又贴近船员群体。史蒂文肯定早就听说过这些。

Yeah, absolutely. And that's the news. We've had so much from Patrick O'Brien earlier about how surgeons often are part of mutinies. They kind of have a foot in both worlds, the officer's world, the crew's world. Steven certainly has ever heard all this stuff.

他不是告密者，但他觉得杰克必须知道这事。于是他冒昧闯入，打破礼节向杰克通风报信。而杰克明知史蒂文可能又一次救了他的命——通过揭露这场叛乱——却依然拒不道歉。但杰克打算怎么应对这场叛乱呢？

He's not an informer, but he feels like Jack really needs to know that. And he just came in there, breached etiquette to interact with him, to tell Jack this. And Jack still, knowing that here Steven is perhaps saving his life again, by notifying him of this mutiny, you know, doesn't apologize. But what is Jack gonna do about this mutiny?

这是个转折点。我认为这对杰克而言是全书的重要转折——此前大部分篇幅里他都优柔寡断：在感情关系上举棋不定，在职业发展上犹豫不决。但此刻他内心突然觉醒，尽管对处理人际关系仍毫无头绪，却对如何挽救危局有了惊人洞见：必须这样做才能拯救我的船，把船员从叛乱边缘拉回来，或许——仅仅是或许——还能挽救我的职业生涯。

Well, this is a turning point. All I think is a turning point for Jack because for most of the book so far, he's been stuck in indecision. Indecision about his romantic relationships, indecision about what to do next with his career. But something switches inside him and having had no insight at all into how he can manage himself and his personal relationships, he has this really piercing insight into here's what I have to do to rescue my ship, to bring my crew back from the breach of mutiny and just possibly just possibly rescue my career. Yeah.

他做了周密准备。先是去找海军陆战队中尉史密瑟斯，冷静而犀利地询问：'你对你指挥的士兵了解多少？能确保陆战队员对命令的忠诚度吗？因为我可能很快要命令他们把枪口对准船员。'

And he does some very careful preparation. He goes and talks to Smithers, the marine lieutenant, and asks him very coldly, very incisively. What do you know about the men in your command? What do you know about how loyal your marines will be to command? Because I might ask them to point, you know, point their guns at the crew shortly.

接着他又与事务长商讨航线。此时他已决定不再耽搁一两天，而是当天就直奔肖利亚。他要横渡海峡立即完成任务，就像他常说的——这次真是一刻都耽误不起了。

And he goes and talks to the purser and talks about navigation. He's decided at this point that he's not gonna wait for a day or two before he goes to Sholia. He's gonna go straight there that very same day. He's gonna crack on across the channel to Sholia and complete this mission in the same day, in the same tide. And this time, like he always says, there really is truly not a moment to be lost.

确实如此。对他来说，这就是生死攸关的时刻。他在很多方面都可能丧命，必须采取行动。

Yeah. So very true. You know, this this is it for him. He's liable to be a dead man in many different ways here, and he's got to do something.

他确实别无选择。而且他还得发表演说。目前为止，这些书里发表长篇大论的角色通常是史蒂文，向他人阐述观点、哲学和人际关系。杰克很少有机会发表演说，除了像正式宣读这样的场合。但现在他必须把全体船员召集到甲板上。

He really has. And he's gotta give a speech. Now the person who tends to give speeches in these books so far seems to have been Steven, giving speeches to other people about points of view and philosophy and relationships. Jack doesn't very often get to give speeches apart from maybe formal ones like being read in. But he has to put the crew on deck.

他必须命令海军陆战队立正，然后发表这番演说——突然间他就进入了势不可挡的状态。他直截了当地说不敢相信他们会被这些叛乱言论蛊惑，立刻提醒他们不久前在同一艘船上作战时的英勇表现，紧接着就宣布进攻计划。他既没谈自己也没提国王，更没有呼吁他们效忠。

He has to call the marines to attention, and he has to give this speech where all of a sudden he's in headlong momentum. He gets straight into saying he can't believe that they've had their heads turned by this mutinous talk. He gets straight into reminding them of how brave they've been in action, only recently in the same ship, gets straight into his plan of attack. He doesn't talk about himself or the king. He doesn't appeal to their loyalty.

没错。他只说：我向你们保证绝不会秋后算账。这次事件不会被记录在案，但我们要证明自己不是懦弱的船员。我们要去舒利亚给波拿巴点颜色看看。这段精彩演说让我不禁感叹：干得漂亮。

Yeah. He just says, my ultimate promise to you is there's going to be no punishment. This will not be logged, but we're gonna show that we're not a shy crew. We're gonna go over to Shulia and show Bonaparte a thing or two. And it's one of those great speeches where I'm thinking, yeah, fantastic work.

我会愿意追随这家伙，因为他准确把握了演讲的基调，几乎完全扭转了船员们的态度。不过要真正巩固这种转变，他还需要再做一件事——我们马上就会听到。于是他进行了挑选舢板船员的紧张仪式，必须决定哪些人上舢板，如何利用舢板把这些叛变者置于不同处境。这确实是...

I'd be following this guy because he judged the tone of his speech, and he has almost almost turned the crew around. He's still got one more thing to do as we're gonna hear to really cement the changed sentiment, among the crew. So he goes through this very tense ritual of picking a crew for the barge, And and that crew, he has to choose who's gonna be in the in the barge crew and how can he use the barge as it were as a vehicle to get some of these mutineers into a bit of a different situation. Yeah. And it's a it's

这确实是棘手的事，因为他一方面承诺'我要赢得你们的心'，另一方面身后却有大炮瞄准船员，海军陆战队的枪口也对着他们。他似乎成功了，承诺不予惩罚后，竟不带武器走到船员中，开始点名叛变者——他知道谁是主谋，而所有人都意识到他心知肚明。这些被点名者因未知原因被派去登舢板，紧张气氛不断升级。

a it's a tough thing to go about because he's he's promised, you know, here here's I I wanna win your hearts and minds as I've got the cannons trained on you behind me and the the marines, you know, looking down their barrels at you. And he seems to have done that, and he's promised no punishment, but walks down among the crew unarmed and starts calling out the name of the mutineers because he knows who's likely to be this, and they're all recognizing that they know that he knows, and they're all being sent for some unknown reason off to get on this barge and the tension is mounting.

随时可能有船员违抗登舢板的命令，随时可能有人说'去他的，我们做了他'。那一刻他随时可能被叛乱者制服。

And at any moment, members of the crew could disregard his order to go join the barge. At any moment, members of the crew could just say, nuts to this. Let's let's scrag him. He could have been overwhelmed by by mutiny at that very moment. Right.

他们本可以简单地决定坚守立场，不服从他的命令。但他走到他们中间，实际上是在挑战自己和他们的底线，想证明自己在这种情况下是否拥有足够的权威，至少能从中引出些新变化。

They could simply have decided just to stand stand their ground and not not obey his orders. But he walked in amongst them. He was really challenging himself and them to say, you know, have I got enough authority in this situation to at least bring something new out of it?

如果有读者在读到《舰长》这部分时挠头不解，说‘等等，这整个驳船事件是怎么回事？我们明明决定发起这次进攻，听起来大家似乎都支持他’，我一点也不会感到惊讶。

I wouldn't be surprised if some people reading post captain through here might scratch their heads a little bit and say, well, wait a minute. What what is this whole barge thing about? You know, we're on here. We've decided to go make this attack. Sounds like people are sort of with him.

突然间，我们读到被点名登上驳船的人员名单——大多是叛变者，却也包括了他最忠诚的部下。而翻阅炮术手册的好处在于，总能找到其他资源：还有热爱这门炮术的人随时准备伸出援手。

And all of a sudden, we're reading off names of people to go on a barge. They're mostly mutineers. All of a sudden, it includes some of his most loyal men. And the nice thing about going through the cannon is that there are always other resources. There are other people who love this cannon, who are right there to help you.

于是你再次向炮舱寻求了帮助。

And again, you you reached out to the gun room here.

没错。我们联系炮舱是因为我试图回忆多年前初读这段时的感受——把这些人安置在船尾拖曳的驳船上确实有些古怪，而后天气恶化时他又要将他们接回。我试图剖析这里的真相：让驳船船员登船是突发奇想还是早有预谋？

That's right. So we we reached out to the gun room because I was trying to remember how this struck me when I first read it many years ago because it's a little bit of an odd situation to say, put these people in the barge towed behind the ship. And then later on, he's gonna recover them back from the barge when the weather gets up. And I was trying to pick apart what was really going on here. Was it an accident or a spur of the moment thing that he said Barge's crew were gonna go into the barge?

或许这是计划的一部分？通读整个故事并往后看，这似乎确实是奥布里的计策：如你所说，麦克，他将叛变者和自己的亲信一同隔离在驳船上，虽然被拖行很不舒服，但其他人得以安心用餐交谈，免受叛变者的蛊惑。

Or was it maybe part of a plan? And I think as you read the whole story and read a little bit beyond this moment, it does seem like it was part of a plan that Aubrey had to put this crew, as you say, Mike, some mutineers and also some trusted men of Aubrey's followers into the barge so that they were isolated, albeit pretty uncomfortable being towed behind a ship while everybody else goes to dinner and everybody else gets to talk in their messes without the mutineers around to kind of drip poison in their ears.

是啊。用奥布莱恩的话说，所有‘海上律师’都消失了。奥布里和奥布莱恩精心设计了这个局——我们知道他们不会割断缆绳抛弃驳船，因为亲信在船上；叛变者也无法在驳船上酝酿更恶毒的B计划。与此同时，舰上人员能重新团结起来，找回航海状态，在杰克·奥布里的带领下投入战斗。

Yeah. All the sea lawyers are gone as, O'Brien calls them. Aubrey and O'Brien have have just brilliantly engineered this thing so that, well, we know that they're not just gonna cut the barge loose, so they're not gonna fire on us because he's got his loyal men in there. And they're not going to foment even worse, know, plan B on the barge. And in the meantime, the people in the mess can kind of come together, you know, get their sea legs back under them, head into this battle, kind of rally back behind, Jack Aubrey again.

当驳船船员重新归队时，时机已过。而且，你知道，我很喜欢奥布莱恩在这里的台词，他说：'水手们大多以他们惯常的平静多变，从一场灾难转向下一场灾难前的间歇。'

And by the time the barge folks rejoin the crew, it's past them. And, you know, I love O'Brien's lane line here that he says, you know, The seamen, for the most part, had turned with their usual calm volatility from one disaster to the interval before the next.

非常酷。'平静多变'，有点矛盾修辞的感觉。

Very cool. Calm volatility. Bit of an oxymoron.

那么下一场灾难前的间歇。紧接着他们即将面临的下一个灾难是什么？

So the interval before the next disaster. What's the next disaster we have coming on top of them here?

没错。下一个灾难是波吕克鲁斯特号在乔留港的行动。我认为我们可以看出，这将是故事在行动层面的高潮，因为此刻一切都岌岌可危——船只、船员、任务、舰员们的突变状态、史蒂文与杰克的友谊、他们的恋情，所有筹码都已押上赌桌。

Right. Well, the next disaster is the Polycrust going into action at Cholieu. And we can tell, I think, that this is going to be the climax in action terms of the story because everything is now at risk. There's nothing that's not hanging by a thread at this point. The ship, the crew, the mission, the mutant estate of the ship's company, Steven and Jack, their friendship, their romantic relationships, everything is now in play.

这里有个重大赌注：或许他们能通过雷东秀达成目标，杰克已决定孤注一掷。我认为这是动作描写的巅峰之作，甚至超越了《主人与指挥官》里对抗卡卡菲戈号的场景。在我看来，这是帕特里克·奥布莱恩最接近C.S.福雷斯特那种硬核动作描写的时刻，或是汤姆·克兰西、迪恩·孔茨这类军事小说家的风格。

There's one big gamble going here, which is that maybe they could pull something off with this Redon show here, which Jack has decided to go into headlong. I think this is a really outstanding piece of action writing, better even than the action against Cacafuego with Master and Commander. For me, this is the closest that Patrick O'Brien comes to the sort of gritty action writing that C. S. Forrester was actually pretty good at or, you know, military fiction writers like Tom Clancy or Dean Kuntz.

帕特里克·奥布莱恩明白，以英雄视角来描写这种令人血脉偾张的动作场面——这种略带美化的视角——多少是种奢侈。除非他的小说沦为平庸之作，否则不能频繁使用这种手法。因此他知道必须极其克制地运用第一人称动作视角，并将全部写作才华倾注于乔留港之战，因这关乎杰克及其所有友谊的存亡。当然，没有早期挫折就不算奥布莱恩式的动作戏——波吕克鲁斯特号在雾区迷航搁浅，船只与设计者终于印证了长期存在的隐患：终有一天这艘船会让你失望。

Patrick O'Brien, I think, knew that describing action in this kind of pulse pounding way from the point of view of the hero, which is a bit of a flattering point of view, is a bit of an indulgence. He's not going to get to use this very often unless his novels are just going to turn into potboilers. So he knows that he's going to have to use this first person action point if you really sparingly and he's going to pour every ounce of his skill as a writer into this action at Cholier because it has such significance for Jack and for all of his friendships. So of course it wouldn't be an O'Brien action sequence without an early setback, and we get this undercutting of the action as Polycrust loses her way in the fog bank and is grounded. And the ship and her designers have finally come good on the perceived threat that's been there all along, which is, know, one day this ship is gonna let you down.

没错。船体已经开始解体，此刻正搁浅在沙洲上。

Right. And the ship is already breaking up and it's grounded on the sandbank.

是啊。而且这真的，你知道，很有趣。我们正在为这场精彩的动作戏做准备，但奥布莱恩以他自己的方式，在之前主人和史蒂文的对话中，已经铺垫了这里的入口有多复杂。你知道，有两个入口，内外两条路，我们必须精准把握时机。而杰克现在把他们的到达时间提前了24小时，说明天到已经来不及了。

Yeah. And it's really, you know, it's funny. We've got, you know, we're setting up for this incredible action scene, but O'Brien in his own way, you know, has had in an earlier conversation between the master and Steven, this whole setup about how complex the entrance is here. You know, there's two entrances, there's an inner and outer road, you know, we're going to have to hit this just right. And Jack has now fast forwarded their arrival by twenty four hours to say, forget getting there tomorrow.

我们必须现在就赶到。他们正匆忙赶来。砰。事情发生了，然后砰。我们搁浅了。

We gotta get there now. Here they are rushing in. Boom. Things are happening, and then boom. We're grounded.

我们还能做些什么来摆脱困境？

What could we possibly do to get out of this?

奥布莱恩对此有着非常出色、经过充分研究的见解，关于如何让一艘较大的船只从严重搁浅的沙洲脱困。他会尝试显而易见的方法，比如让船弹跳脱困，或者调整船只倾斜度。他知道不能简单地用小船拖锚出去，抛锚后收锚索，因为那根本不够。我们需要另一艘更重的船来拖拽像波利克雷斯特号这样严重搁浅的船。就在这短暂瞬间，杰克环顾港口道路，看到了范丘拉号，他脑海中闪过一个冒险的念头：也许，只是也许，我可以用范丘拉号把波利克雷斯特号拖出来。

And O'Brien's got this really great, very, very well researched, I think, perspective on what's it gonna take to get a large ish vessel off a sandbank when she's heavily aground. He's going to try the obvious things like try and bounce the ship off, try and heal the ship. He knows that you can't just tow an anchor out in a boat, drop the anchor and heave in on the anchor because that's not going to cut it. We need we need another heavier vessel to tow off a ship that's as heavily aground as the Polycrest is. And there's this brief moment where Jack looks around the road, around the harbor and he sees the Fanchula and he has this momentary flash of gambling reason, which says, well, maybe, just maybe, I can use Fanchula to tow Polycrest off.

没错。整个过程都在炮火下进行，他们试图解救波利克雷斯特号，又要再次冒着炮火驾驶小船，在火炮下方——那些炮口无法完全压低的位置——切断这艘船的缆绳，把它带回来。现在杰克需要一支相当勇敢的船员来完成这个任务。他必须看着这些在炮口下的叛变者，问：谁愿意跟我走？

Yeah. Under fire this whole time, trying to free the Polycrest, they're gonna take their, you know, smaller boats again under fire, cut this vessel out right below the cannons, which can't quite point down enough there, and bring her back. And now Jack, to do that, needs quite the crew. He's gotta look at these mutineers underneath all these cannons and say, who's willing to go with me?

是的。就在一个多小时前，这些人还处于叛变的边缘，直到此刻，我想他仍不确定他们的立场和跟随他的意愿。所以接下来会有一个非常精彩的时刻。

Yeah. The people who, not much more than an hour ago, were on the brink of mutiny, he's he's still not sure, I think, up to this point just where they are and their willingness to follow him. So there's a really great moment coming here.

没错。我们尽量不剧透——此处剧透警告。我认为，这时我们至少从情感上看到局势对杰克有利，因为他突然意识到所有人都站在他这边。而我们明白他们为何支持他，因为我们也支持他。我们都爱杰克。

Yeah. And we try to do this without spoilers and spoiler alert here. This is, I think, where we see the tide turn at least emotionally for Jack because he all of a sudden realizes that everybody is with him. And, you know, we we know why they're with him because we're with him. We love Jack.

是的，那些政客们都支持他。看吧，这几乎是在自杀任务中的自杀任务中的自杀任务，就为了尝试切除这个东西。

Yep. And the polycrats are with him. And here it is, this almost suicide suicide mission within inside the suicide mission to go try to cut this thing out.

没错。船员们都挤进了小船，当杰克意识到有七八十名部下跟随他时，心中涌起强烈的积极情绪。但要把拖缆从‘凡楚拉号’接到‘波利克雷斯特号’上可不容易。他们为了切断‘凡楚拉号’已经付出了伤亡代价。‘凡楚拉号’和‘波利克雷斯特号’都遭到要塞炮火攻击，拖缆还被一发炮弹打断了。

Right. So they have crew members all piled into the boats, and Jack has this great big surge of positive emotion as he realizes seventy, eighty dozens of his men are following him. But getting the tow aboard from the Fanchula to the Polycrest is gonna take a job of work. They've already had to incur casualties getting the Fanchula cut out. Both the Fanchula and the Polycrust are under fire from the fort and the towline is parted by a ball.

杰克，我觉得这一刻帕特里克·奥布莱恩把英雄第一人称视角推得有点过了，但我觉得他确实配得上这种写法。杰克本人不得不跳进海里，来回游动拖拽缆绳。有趣的是，我在想如果这部电影场景是由杰拉德·巴特勒而不是罗素·克劳来演，咬着拖绳独自跳水的画面会更贴切。不过奥布莱恩把我们带到这个场景的手法确实很精彩。

And Jack, this is a moment I think where you might say that Patrick O'Brien is pushing the hero first person thing just a tiny bit, but I I think he's earned it. Jack himself has to dive in to swim backwards and forwards with the towline. And it's funny. I I was thinking if if the movie had been made of this scene with Gerard Butler and not Russell Crowe, I think that would be fitting for this, you know, solo diving into the water with the toe line between your teeth bit. But O'Brien's done a nice job of getting us here.

杰克配得上这种英雄能力，因为我们知道他是个游泳健将，过去曾多次跳水救回落水船员。

Jack has earned this heroic ability because we know that he's a strong swimmer, and he's he's recovered men overboard in the past by diving in.

他是个游泳好手，但要知道他之前已经被打中头部，跳下去抓缆绳时还在大口喘气。在这个场景中他真的被揍得很惨，但最终还是把缆绳拖了回来。

He's he's a strong swimmer who's already been, you know, knocked on the head, is breathing profusely before he jumps in to grab this line and bring it back over. And he is he's really getting pounded, pretty tough in this scene and and and brings it home.

然后几乎在我们没注意到的时候，杰克已经回到了波利克雷斯特号上。拖缆固定好了，波利克雷斯特号开始移动。奥布莱恩用非常生动的笔触描写了绞盘上水兵们血淋淋打滑的双脚，直到绞盘终于咔哒一声咬合。波利克雷斯特号开始移动，但它正在下沉。当他们拖航时，我们迎来了杰克角色弧线上的重要时刻——他换乘新船，不过这次是从波利克雷斯特号转移到凡楚拉号。波利克雷斯特号就在他们旁边沉没，杰克和船员们继续前行。

And then almost without us noticing, Jack's back aboard the polycrest. The toe line is made fast. The polycrest swims. There's this really vivid writing of the men's feet on the capstan slipping in blood as the capstan finally finally tails on the paw, clicks, and polycrest swims. But the polycrest is sinking, and as they're towing away, we have one of these big moments in Jack's character arc where he moves into a new ship except in this case he's moving out of Polycrust into the Fanchola, the Polycrust sinks right next to them and Jack and the crew are on the way.

但正如你所说麦克，杰克确实伤得很重。

But Jack's really, as you say, Mike, really heavily wounded.

是的，他正在失血。我想对于我们这些读者来说，杰克和史蒂文之间仍有未解之事。就在这甲板的激战之中，你听到史蒂文在杰克耳边低语：来吧兄弟，宛如梦境。下去吧。

Yeah. And he's bleeding out. And I think for some of us reading along here, there's still this unresolved thing between Jack and Steven. And right here on the deck in the midst of this action, you hear behind Jack's ear, Come brother, said Steven in his ear, Very like a dream. Come below.

你必须下去。这里血实在太多了。邦登帮着史蒂文把杰克抬了下去。

You must come below. Here is too much blood altogether. And Bonden helped Stephen carry Jack below.

我们现在要稍作休息。广告后马上回来。如果你喜欢这个播客，请加入我们在Patreon的支持者行列。访问patreon.com/loverswhole。欢迎回来。

We're gonna take a break for a few moments right now. We'll be right back with you shortly just after this. If you're enjoying the podcast, please come and join our supporters on Patreon. Go to patreon.com/loverswhole. Welcome back.

这里是伊恩和迈克主持的《情人洞》，一档关于帕特里克·奥布莱恩的播客。这真是...以一种大师级的手法，非常非常微妙地化解了他们之间的分歧。杰克几乎以牺牲生命为代价救赎了自己，而史蒂文通过说'我来照顾这家伙'允许了这种救赎。是的。

You're with Ian and Mike, and you're listening to the lover's hole, a Patrick O'Brien podcast. And it's a it's a in a masterly way, it's a really, really subtle resolution of the whole disagreement between them. Jack's redeemed himself by sacrificing himself almost to the point of death. Steven permits that redemption by saying, I'm gonna take care of this guy now. Yes.

当我读到这些句子时，我就明白了——是的，他们现在和好了。翻过这一页，我们来到战后场景。两人重新回到了充满友谊、熟稔和互相调侃的世界。但这是个非常非常微妙的时刻，没有宏大的和解号角，他们只是默契地决定从此以朋友相待。

And I think I knew as I read the sentences that, yeah, okay, they're fine now. And we're going to turn the page and we're in after action. The two are back in the world of friendship and familiarity and joking along with each other. But it's a very, very subtle moment. There's no great kind of swelling of trumpets moment where the two are reconciled, but they both just decided that's the role that they're going to play now is friends to each other.

是啊。而且...伊恩，我不像你那么懂他们之间的'音乐'，但确实有种东西让矛盾自然消解并美好地向前推进。不过我想对那些习惯其他类型小说的读者来说，可能会觉得：等等，他们什么时候解决这个矛盾的？

Yeah. And there's, you know, I don't know the music like you know the music that these two play together, Ian, but there is kind of that thing that just says it resolves and moves forward beautifully. But I think for some folks who are used to perhaps a little bit different kind of book, it's like, wait a minute, Wait a minute. What let's come back to that. When when are they gonna solve that?

他们什么时候修复关系的？但其实...已经修复了。就在这里修复了，明白吗？

When are they gonna fix that? But, you know, it's fixed. It's fixed right here. Right? You know?

当邦丹和史蒂文抬着杰克时，

As Bondan and Steven are carrying Jack,

事情已经解决了。也许他们之间有过交谈，谁知道呢？这不重要。我们只需要知道奥布莱恩告诉我们的事实是两人已和解。

it's fixed. And and maybe words were spoken between them. Who knows? It it doesn't matter. All all we need to know is that O'Brien tells us the fact that the two are reconciled.

对我来说，当史蒂文把杰克带下去时就很清楚了。如果你不确定，那就翻到下一页，他们又成了朋友，尽管其中一人受了重伤。

And for me, it was clear as as Steven as Steven took Jack below. And if you're not sure, then turn the page, And and they're friends again, albeit one of them one of them badly wounded.

对，对，没错。这很有趣。看，杰克这个动作英雄救了所有人，现在又被我们完全非动作英雄的角色救了回来。

Right. Right. That's right. Well, it it is funny. And, know, here's Jack, the action hero, saving everybody, saved once again by our complete non action hero.

虽然，你知道，偶尔我们会觉得史蒂文可能比我们想象的更有行动力。但终究是非动作英雄救了杰克。这得感谢帕特里克·奥布莱恩。

Although, you know, every once in a while we think maybe Steven sees more action than we think. But but non action hero saving Jack. And, you know, thank thank Patrick O'Brien for it.

没错。我们稍后可能会再讨论史蒂文能用他的英雄气概做些什么——比如再多救杰克几次，但走着瞧吧。现在这一切都是杰克一次豪赌的回报。他掷了骰子。

Right. Well, we might get to come back in a short while to what is it that Steven can do with his own kind of heroics Yeah. To to rescue Jack some more, but we'll see. Now all this has been a payoff for a big gamble that Jack took. He rolled the dice.

他邀请船员保持忠诚时掷了骰子；他快速推进袭击舒利尔计划时掷了骰子；他决定不顾巨大风险选择用'凡丘拉号'作为拖离'波利奎斯特号'的工具时又掷了骰子。这是最大的赌注，但回顾全书（至少到目前），赌博、机遇以及角色如何应对这些，始终是本书叙事的重要部分。若追溯到情感线，苏菲就不愿冒险承受母亲的不认可。

He rolled the dice in inviting the crew to stay loyal to him. He rolled the dice when he rapidly advanced the plans for the attack on Schulier. He rolled the dice when he decided against considerable odds to decide to cut out the Fanchula as the means by which he would pull the Polyquest off the Sandbank. And this was the one big gamble, but it seems to me looking back at the whole book, certainly up to this point, that gambling and chance and how the characters respond to it have been a big part of the storytelling in this book. So if we go right back to the emotional stories, Sophie isn't willing to risk her mother's disapproval.

史蒂文不愿冒险向戴安娜求婚，害怕遭到拒绝。杰克也不敢向索菲求婚，担心被拒，更不敢接受坎宁提供的船只，因为成为私掠船船长可能损害他的声誉。因此，这些角色在小说中都处于一种漂泊不定的状态，而杰克与史蒂文之间那场潜在的决斗，就是他们最终的豪赌。两人都宁愿用生命在决斗中一搏，也不愿在某些方面冒险暴露自己的情感或名誉。我认为，正是他们愿意孤注一掷的时刻，才让他们得以摆脱困境。

Steven isn't willing to risk the possibility of rejection by pressing his his marriage suit with Diana. Jack doesn't dare to propose marriage to Sophie for fear of rejection and doesn't dare to accept the offer of a ship from Canning because of the risk to his reputation from becoming a privateer captain. So these characters are all spending time in this novel sort of adrift in a world of uncertainty and this ultimate gamble was the prospective duel between Jack and Steven. And each of them was willing to gamble their lives in a duel rather than to risk in some ways their feelings or their reputations. And I think the fact that they're willing to take a gamble is the the moment when they're able to get themselves out of the the bind that they're in.

所以杰克这些大胆的战略赌博为他带来了丰厚回报。索菲很快也将进行一场豪赌，试图推进她与杰克之间的婚约。顺便说一句，史蒂文早前通过在牌桌上击败海军陆战队中尉史密斯来发泄挫败感。我们逐渐了解到，赌博是史蒂文热爱且擅长的事。每个人都在冒险，而奥布莱恩似乎赞许这种态度——当人们敢于掷骰子、鼓起勇气接受不确定性时，更好的事情就会发生；而他们此前正因为半心半意地生活而饱受煎熬。

So Jack making these big tactical gambles has been a big payoff for him. Sophie is going to take a big gamble very shortly as well to try and make progress in cementing the, the engagement between her and Jack. And and by the way, Steven's taken his frustrations out earlier on by beating Smith as the marine lieutenant at cards. We learn along the way that gambling is something that Steven loves and that he's very good at. So everybody's been taking a gamble and O'Brien seems to approve of the fact that when people have been able to roll the dice and have courage and accept the uncertainty that better things have happened and that they've all suffered by being half stepped out of their, of their lives.

这确实有趣。我在想史蒂文——他是个能在脑中正反推算概率、极擅察言观色的人。所以赌博对史蒂文而言或许不算冒险，但感情关系对他绝对是场豪赌。我们且看帕特里克·奥布莱恩笔下这种风险与回报的关系是否会持续，特别是随着系列故事发展，对史蒂文而言是否依然成立。

It it is interesting. I I wonder with Steven. Steven's a guy that can probably do odds forward and backwards in his mind and can read people incredibly well. So I'm not sure if gaming and gambling is a big gamble for Steven, but certainly relationships may well be a big gamble for Steven. We'll see if Patrick O'Brien and this relationship between risk and reward continues to hold, you know, continues to hold particularly for Steven as we go forward in the series.

没错。现在我们可以快速进入本书最终阶段。杰克和史蒂文回到岸上，杰克获得了晋升。自前作结尾以来他梦寐以求的这一步，终于因他在波利克雷斯特号的行动及将方图拉号带回英国而实现。他被任命为一艘非常豪华的护卫舰HMS活泼号的代理船长，奥布莱恩借此机会将我们突然带回一个平静有序的世界，但其中仍充满新的社交情境和幽默桥段。

Yeah. So now we can get quickly into the final phases of the book. Jack and Steven go back ashore, and Jack is made post. This step that he's longed for ever since the end of the previous book finally comes about as a result of this action and in the Polycrest and bringing the Fantula back to The UK. He's made post and appointed to be acting captain or jobbing captain on a very fancy frigate HMS Lively and O'Brien uses this as a chance to turn us abruptly back into a world where things are calm and things are orderly, but there's plenty of new social situations and plenty of humor to be had as well.

确实如此。你看，我们现在来到了你所说的活泼号上。在这艘一切井井有条的舰船上，我们见证了一段小对话，仿佛有时效专家在船上精心规划过每个细节。

There really are. It's it's you know, here we are. We're on the ship, as you say, the lively. And we have a little conversation here on this ship where everything is extremely well ordered. It looks like they've got time and motion efficiency experts having shaped them onboard everything.

但与此同时，船上还有只备受众人喜爱的大猿猴卡桑德拉，它在船上跑上跑下。

But in the midst of that, there's also this great ape, Cassandra, who, who runs up and down the ship and everybody loves.

而史蒂文差点祸从口出——他说自己认为这只猿猴很快会死，并期待解剖它。这话引起了船员们和杰克的强烈反感。

And Steven almost puts his foot in it by saying that he believes that the ape's gonna be dead pretty soon, and he's looking forward to dissecting her, and that's really taken in bad part by the crew and by Jack.

嗯，这很有趣。这就是史蒂文的作风——生活就是这样。我是说，史蒂文观察到，没错，船员们在喂这只叫格罗格的猩猩。而格罗格正在杀死这只猩猩。

Well, and it's funny. It's it's just Steven being so this is the way life is. I mean, Steven observes that Yeah. You know, the crew is feeding this ape Grog. The Grog is killing the ape.

所以，没错，这是只大猩猩，而你们都要杀了她。我还盼着解剖她呢。杰克为了赢得新船员的信任，适时指出：'史蒂文，我觉得他们更希望你救这只猩猩而不是解剖她。对吧？'

And so, yeah, it's a great ape, and you're you're all gonna kill her. And I look forward to dissecting her. Jack rightfully, in in order to win his new crew over, points out Steven, I think they'd rather you save the ape than dissect her. Right?

有趣的是，在《登船记》那集里，奥布莱恩再次抓住机会把史蒂文塑造成异类。虽然他们修复了友谊，但这不意味着角色变得更亲密或相似。史蒂文几乎是如释重负地回归了他古怪博物学家船医的人设——穿着奇怪的羊毛连体衣登船，还带着蜂箱...天啊...带进了大船舱。是的。

And interestingly, I think in the episode of Coming Aboard Alively, O'Brien takes the chance to paint Steven as different again. So they've reconciled their friendship, but that doesn't mean that they've become characters that are closer together and more like each other. As Steven almost, with a sense of relief gets back into his persona of being the the oddball, rather eccentric naturalist surgeon coming aboard in his strange kind of woolen one piece onesie and bringing the beads- Oh my God. Into the, into the great cabin. Yes.

所以史蒂文又做回了史蒂文，你知道这意味着什么。

So Stephen's back to being Stephen again, you know, with all that entails.

你又会好奇：奥布莱恩到底从哪儿想出这些桥段？这种羊毛连体衣，这种带着上万只蜜蜂进主舱的行为。简直太滑稽了。你会挠着头想，这八成有日记依据，很可能来自某人的信件。

And you you wonder again, where does O'Brien come up with this stuff? This woolen one pieces, this bringing on, you know, tens of thousands of bees into the main cabin. It's just, it's hilarious. And it's just, you scratch your head and you think probably there's a journal reference. Probably there's a letter from somebody.

这种事很可能真实发生过。就是...

It probably happened somewhere. It's it's

而杰克也暂时回归了船长的角色，这让我们想起他刚被任命为'索菲号'指挥官时的感受——那种指挥官的孤独感。我想这一点又是通过晚餐对话展现的。他被那位牧师盘问得很紧，不是吗？

And Jack also is settled back, albeit temporarily into his role of captain, and we get reminded of how it felt when he was first appointed commander of the Sophie because he has this sensation of the loneliness of command. And that's brought out, I think, by the yet again, a conversation over dinner. He's interrogated pretty closely by the parson, isn't he?

是的，其他人都不能和他说话。他们必须只在船长发话时才能开口。但那位对海军礼仪一无所知的牧师，你看，开始滔滔不绝了。有趣的是，杰克观察过这艘船运行得多么良好，组织得多么精密。

Yeah. Nobody else can talk to him. They have to only speak when spoken to by the captain. But the parson, who knows nothing about naval etiquette, you know, starts going on. It's interesting because Jack has watched how well this ship runs and how finely honed it is.

我认为他并非真的怀疑自己，而是有点像是在说，你知道，我不想越界。我确实需要离开陆地，以免因债务被捕。我很高兴他们给了这个临时职位，而真正的船长正坐在议会里。但牧师的问题凸显了杰克作为船长、活泼号的常任船长以及这艘船船员之间的巨大差异，因为牧师在这次谈话中发现杰克曾参与过一些重大海战，并想听详细讲述。给我讲讲印象吧。

And I think is not really doubting himself, but kind of saying, you know, I don't wanna step out of line here. I I really needed to be off of land in order not to be arrested for debt. I'm glad they gave the this temporary thing while the the true captain is is in his seat in parliament. But the Parsons question brings up a big difference between Jack as captain, the Lively's full time captain, and the crew of this ship because the Parsons finds out in in this conversation that Jack has been in some great naval battles and wants to hear all about it. Give me the impression about it.

告诉我吧。我被杰克的话迷住了，他说，你知道，我不知道该怎么向你描述。我是说，这就像告诉你...你该怎么描述呢？杰克试图给出身处战斗中心的感受。然后他又想到了另一场战斗，再一场战斗。

Tell me about it. And I was fascinated by Jack's saying, you know, howI don't know quite how to tell you about it. I mean, it's like telling you about a How do you, how do you do that? And Jack tries to give some impression of what it's like to be in the midst of battle. You know, and then he kind of thinks to another battle and another battle.

当他说到这些时，我想在场的所有人，甚至包括所有军官，都对他有了些许不同的看法。

And as he speaks to this, I think the whole, you know, they're even with all the officers together here. And I think they see Jack a little bit differently in the midst of this.

因为他们最初对杰克担任船长有些保留，但现在他们意识到，他们拥有一位真正有能力的战斗指挥官，具备与之相称的品格与行为。

Because they were initially a little bit reserved, I think, about Jack as captain, but now they're realizing that they've got a genuinely capable fighting captain with with all the character and conduct that that goes with that.

是的。而且这是他们之前很少经历过的。

Yeah. And something that they really have not done much of.

没错，没错。他们还遇到一个爱开糟糕玩笑的人。我们即将听到其中一个笑话。先向那些准备提前阅读的朋友致歉——这是个剧透——这个笑话每本书至少会重现一次，奥布莱恩显然对此非常得意，他也让杰克对这个笑话乐此不疲。

Right. Right. They they've also got someone who loves a terrible joke. And we're about we're we're about to have sprung on us one of the jokes. With apologies to those of you who are saving this for reading ahead, this is a spoiler this joke is going to come back at least once per book and O'Brien's obviously so delighted with it and he makes Jack so delighted with this joke.

为什么将值更班称为‘狗班’？顺便说一下，狗班指的是海军值更系统中下午4点到6点以及6点到8点的两小时班次，而其他所有班次都是四小时。为什么叫狗班？因为它们被‘剪短了尾巴’。这个笑话乍听并不让人捧腹，但当你反应过来时，枪械室、军官餐厅乃至晚宴上的所有人逐渐领悟后的集体欢愉才真正令人发笑。众人为这个其实相当蹩脚的笑话笑得前仰后合。

Why is a dog watch called a dog watch? By the way the dog watch being the watch between four and 6PM and six and 8PM dog watches being two hours long instead of four hours long as are all the other watches in a naval watch system Why are the dog watches called dog watches? Because they're Kur tailed And it's not one that makes you chortle right off the page, but what makes you once you chortle is the the unfolding glee of the members of the gun room, the members of the ward room, the dinner party as they all start to get it. And everybody is just falling about with this really quite lame joke.

这句台词是谁说的？是护士长。当然，所有人都无视了护士长，因为她对海军事务一无所知。但你看，当护士长讲完这个笑话时，起初没人有反应。最后是一名海军候补生突然笑出声来，悄悄告诉邻座，理解的火花才逐渐蔓延。所有人都不约而同看向史蒂文——尽管他对海军值更可能一窍不通，却深谙双关语的妙处。

And who delivers that line? Matron. And of course, everybody ignores Matron because Matron doesn't know anything about the Navy and naval But that, you know, Matron makes this, nobody does anything. And then finally, one of the midshipmen starts to chortle and says, you know, kind of tells his neighbor about it, who then catches up. And then everybody's not all eyes on Steven about, you know, a naval watch, which Steven probably knows nothing about, but he knows a great pun.

确实如此。此刻史蒂文也获得了上岸的机会。他的情报工作进展顺利：能在伦敦小住，享受古典音乐的熏陶。

He does. Now Steven also gets the chance to go ashore. Steven's intelligence life is going on apace. He gets to spend some time in London. He gets to spend some time enjoying classical music.

我记得他去欣赏了小号协奏曲。他还与索菲共度了时光——这应该是他最后一次尝试说服她。军舰已沿英吉利海峡驶往普利茅斯，那里距离索菲和塞西莉亚与母亲同住的地方不远。史蒂文上岸后对索菲做了最后的恳求：你就不能从母亲的控制中解脱出来吗？

I think he goes and enjoys a trumpet concerto. He also gets to spend some time with Sophie. And one last time, I think, tries to persuade Sophie. The ship has gone down channel to Plymouth and that's not far from where Sophie and Cecilia are living with their mother. Stephen goes ashore and says to Sophie one last time look can't you set yourself free from your mother?

你难道不能告诉杰克你爱他，愿意嫁给他吗？我记得他用了个特别的说法：男性在直面情感攻势时其实非常脆弱。

Can't you let Jack know that you love him and that you'd like to be married to him? Because I think he uses this word, this phraseology that says, you know, men are very vulnerable to a direct assault and to a direct attack.

是的。

Yes.

索菲内心充满矛盾。她坚信这样做是错误、冒失、违背道德且邪恶的。史蒂文最终放弃了这个无望的任务。回到船上写日记时，他感叹这简直是白白浪费机会，接着开始在日记里泛泛地记录起来。

And and Sophie's so conflicted. She's really, really sure that this would be a bad, wrong, forward, contrary, wicked thing to do. And Steven gives it up as a bad job. And he's writing in his diary back aboard ship saying that this is such a wasted opportunity. And he he starts writing in the diary in a general way.

他正为那种难以言喻的轻率而哀叹——人们竟会因嫉妒、口角、闷闷不乐、个人虚荣或错误的荣誉感，将渺茫的幸福机会轻易抛弃，这种观念既迂腐又软弱可笑。接着他透露了写作时心中所想的具体情景：'我本敢发誓苏菲更有骨气'。正当他将这些文字付诸纸面时，那个决定性时刻到来了。有趣的是，我此前多次阅读都未曾察觉这正是转折点，但这次重读时，我猛然意识到这一刻正是杰克与苏菲角色弧光真正转向的契机。

He's lamenting the unspeakable levity with which the faint chance of happiness is thrown away for some jealousy, tiff, sullenness, private vanity, mistaken sense of honor, that dead, weak, and silly notion. And then he reveals the specific thing that he has in mind when he writes, I would have sworn that Sophie had more bottom. And and as he's writing those words on the page, the moment arrives. And it's funny. I'd never really spotted that this was the turning point in my previous reads, but rereading this time, I've just landed on this moment as the chance for the character arc between Jack and Sophie to really take a turn.

就在那一刻，他从稿纸上抬起头直视她的脸庞。别忘了，他正在船上。舷窗外几英尺下方，小艇正绕着护卫舰船尾划行。苏菲微张着嘴，目光越过舱窗望向坚硬的船舷栏杆。

At that moment, he looked up from the page straight into her face. Remember, he's a board ship. Right. It was outside the window, a few feet below him, in the boat pulling around the frigate's stern. She, Sophie, was looking up beyond the cabin window towards the tough rail with her mouth slightly open.

她的下唇被上齿轻咬着，那双仰视的明眸里含着克制的惊惶。哈多克海军上将坐在她和塞西莉亚身旁。尽管这个简·奥斯汀式喜剧姓氏的角色，哈多克上将在故事中却肩负着严肃使命。好极了，因为他正是那位无名英雄。

Her lip caught behind her upper teeth with an expression of contained alarm in her immense upturned eyes. Admiral Haddock sat beside her and Cecilia. Now although he was given a Jane Austen comedy surname, Admiral Haddock gets to do a serious job in the story. Hooray. Because he's the unsung hero.

从故事中我无法确定，究竟是苏菲和塞西莉亚为规避社会规范而拉上将作掩护同行探访杰克船，还是这位老派浪漫的上将主动提议——毕竟他是个老派多情种。也可能是史蒂文请上将协助，但我对此存疑，若真如此故事应该会提及。

I'm not really sure from the story whether Sophie and Cecilia recruited him as cover so they could go and have this journey to go visit Jackabord's ship without breaching the convention of society. Or I don't know. Maybe admiral Haddock offered it to the girls as his idea because he's a bit of a an old lotion, an old romantic. Maybe Steven recruited the admiral to help, but I I doubt that. I think we would have heard that in the story if he'd done

史蒂文确实指示苏菲去找上将，并持续关注上将住所，但具体如何操作的我们不得而知。

Well, Steven certainly directed Sophie to get the admiral and and kept looking up the admiral's house, but how they actually did it, we don't know.

不，不，不。我们只能自行揣测，这反而很妙。接着便是杰克按自认为女性会喜欢的风格布置船舱的精彩桥段。

No. No. No. And, we're just left to we're left to suppose that, which is great. And we have this delightful episode of Jack furnishing the cabin in what he thinks will be female compatible taste.

不过中途马塔兰吐槽说：'只要你是打算把这房间当殡仪馆用，那倒挺合适'。对吧。

Although at some point, Mataran says this is this is great as long as you're planning to, you know, use the room as an undertaker's parlor. Right.

或者一家妓院。

Or a brothel.

是的。一家妓院或殡仪馆。他把其他船员的生活搞得痛苦不堪。我特别喜欢这句描述：已婚军官们带着恶意的满足看着他，而其他人则满脸不赞同。

Yes. A brothel or an undertaker's parlor. And he's making the rest of the crew's life a misery. And I love this line about the married officers looked at him with malignant satisfaction and the rest with disapproval.

没错。哦，你知道吗？他试图在船员中搜寻一个了解女性喜好的人，一个有品位的人。最后他碰巧找到了船上的一名船员。

That's right. Oh, and you know, he tries to search the crew for somebody who would know what ladies like, somebody who knows, who has good taste. And he finally happens upon one of the, you know, one of the ship's crew.

哦对，这是马利特。首先，我很喜欢这种有犯罪前科的人物在另一个世界登场的设定。我们短暂地瞥见了这个叫马利特的喜剧角色——他是木匠的船员，显然曾被强征入伍，也可能是从监狱发配来的，因为他曾是赃物收受者。

Oh, yes. This is Mallet. Now, first of all, I I like there's something appealing about people who've got a criminal past showing up in a in a in another world. And we have this brief comic glimpse of a man called Mallet who is Carpenter's crew. He's obviously been pressed at some point, or maybe he got sent from prison because he is a former receiver of stolen goods.

他过去专为艺术品销赃。如今在船上，却被视为品味仲裁者。于是奥布里召见他说：我需要你去采购些优雅的舱房陈设和配饰。马利特用一本正经的语气回答：完全明白，长官。您想要什么风格？中国风、古典主义还是督政府时期风格？

He's a former fence for artworks. And he's aboard ship, and he's seen as an arbiter of taste. And so Aubrey summons him and says, I need you to go and procure genteel furnishings and accessories for the cabin. And Mallet says in this rather prim way, Well, understand perfectly, sir. And in what style would you like chinoiserie or classical or directois?

杰克完全没概念，只说：我要最上等的风格。现在我要把这个情节和我们俩都爱的《白宫风云》联系起来，迈克。

And Jack has no idea and he just says I want it in the best style. Now I'm gonna make a connection here to another work of writing that you and I both love Mike which is The West Wing.

哦对。

Oh yes.

在《白宫风云》第二季第10集中，有个角色叫伯纳德·撒切尔，他在白宫访客办公室工作，

So in episode 10 series two of The West Wing there's a character called Bernard Thatch and Bernard Thatch works in the White House in the White House visitor's office. He's

负责

in

基本上就是管理送到白宫的各种礼物和文物。这个角色由一位非常老派、上流社会范儿的英国演员饰演，他与白宫新闻秘书CJ有一段对话，

charge of gifts and artifacts that arrive in the White House basically and he's played by this very far back very upper class English actor and he has this conversation with the White House press secretary CJ

克雷格：报告里都写了。本来没什么问题，但我还是想来新闻发布厅确认下。导游当时正在介绍蓝厅外挂着的古斯塔夫·卡约画作，突然有个女人开始语无伦次地尖叫。是用英语喊的吗？

Craig It's all in the report. It wasn't a problem Yeah but I made it to the Press Room so I just wanted to check-in. The guide was pointing out the Gustave Caillou hanging outside the blue room. A woman began screaming completely incoherently. In English?

如果那也算一种语言，我对它的起源一无所知。我叫来了值班人员，他试图记录口供，但由于听不懂这位女士说的语言，只能将她护送出了大楼。好吧，谢谢你的来访。CJ，你的项链简直是资产阶级品味的纪念碑。

If it was a language at all, its origin was unknown to me. I sent for the agent on duty who attempted to take a statement, but not speaking whatever language this woman was, simply escorted her out of the building. Well, okay. Thanks for stopping by. CJ, your necklace is a monument to bourgeois taste.

谢谢。不客气。伯纳德，听着。古斯塔夫·卡约是谁？这幅画挂在蓝厅外多久了？卡约是库尔贝同时代的画家，但才华远胜于他。

Thank you. You're welcome. Bernard, Listen. Who is Gustave Caillou, and how long has this painting been hanging outside the blue room? Caillou was a contemporary of Courbet who was considerably more gifted.

这是埃特勒塔悬崖的油画，标题很直白就叫《埃特勒塔悬崖》。这是件次要作品。它怎么会在这里？原本是多塞特博物馆借给国家美术馆的展品。总统参观国家美术馆时——他对高雅艺术的品味甚至不及你对配饰的品味——宣称自己喜欢这幅画。

This is a painting of the cliffs at Etretat, cleverly titled the cliffs at Etretat. It is a minor work. What's it doing here? It was on loan from the Musee Dorset to the National Gallery. The president, on a visit to the National Gallery, and possessing even less taste in fine art than you have in accessories, announced that he liked the painting.

法国政府将其作为礼物赠予白宫，我想，这是对欧洲迪士尼的补偿。所以它现在就像淋浴杆上的运动袜一样挂着。你真是个势利眼。是的。

The French government offered it as gift to the White House, I suppose, as retribution for Euro Disney. So here it hangs like a gym sock on a shower rod. You're a snob. Yes.

你看，我们只用了六集就和《白宫风云》扯上关系了。我敢肯定很快还会有另一个《白宫风云》的关联出现。

So you see, it only took six episodes for us to make a West Wing connection. I'm I'm sure there's gonna be another West Wing connection coming soon.

哦，我们必须这么做，因为我们爱《白宫风云》，也爱帕特里克·奥布莱恩。

Oh, we'd have to make those because we love the West Wing and we love Patrick O'Brien.

哦，确实如此。现在，史蒂文显然正处于他人生中欣赏古典音乐的阶段，因为早些时候他上岸欣赏了小号协奏曲，现在又上岸去欣赏歌剧。实际上，他是去提醒情报部门西班牙发生的事，而当他深夜等候时，情报部门负责人约瑟夫·布莱恩爵士给了他一张奇马罗萨歌剧的门票。观看歌剧时，史蒂文的体验可能与布莱恩预期的截然不同。

Oh, so do. Now, Steven is obviously in the time of his life where he's enjoying classical music because earlier on he went ashore and enjoyed a trumpet concerto and now he goes ashore to enjoy the opera. In fact he's ashore to alert the intelligence authorities about what's happening in Spain and while he's left waiting late one night sir Joseph Blayne, the head of the intelligence service, gives them gives him a ticket for an opera by Chimarosa. And attending the opera, Steven has probably a very different experience from the one Blayne was anticipating for him.

史蒂文在歌剧院。他在包厢里有个好座位。他注意到有些不对劲。尽管歌剧非常精彩，完全符合人们的描述，但就是感觉不对。

Steven's at the opera. He's got a great seat in one of the boxes. And he notices that something is off. Something is just not working for him. Even though the opera is phenomenal, it's everything that he's been told.

然后他看到了她。他看到了戴安娜，注视着她，她就像个被展示的情妇。她和坎宁在一起。坎宁在炫耀她，每个人都停下来看这个漂亮的宠物。史蒂文意识到是她的香气，他送给她的香气一直萦绕在他脑海中，而这香气正是我们在这本小说中一直追寻的。

And then he sees her. He sees Diana, and he's watching her, and she's kind of like a kept woman who's being showed off. And she's with Canning. Canning is showing her off, everybody's stopping by to see this pretty pet. And Steven realizes that it's her scent, the scent that he gave her that's been lingering behind in his mind, and that scent that we've been following all through this novel there.

你知道吗，当他看着她时，在那香气中，他爱着此刻看到的戴安娜，与他之前见过的她如此不同，他的大脑无法调和这一点。他自问，我在新地方见到的戴安娜真的存在过吗？还是我自己创造的？渴望能创造出一只独角兽吗？然后他怀疑自己是否参与了那个他认识的戴安娜的死亡。

You know, and in that scent, as he looked at her, I'd loved as he sees Diana so differently that he's seen her before, and his mind can't reconcile this. He says to himself, Did the Diana I saw at New Place ever exist, in fact? A creation of my own? Can you create a unicorn by longing? And then he wonders to himself if he had a part in the death of the woman that he had known as Diana.

此刻真是令人心碎的一幕。

Just such a poignant moment here.

没错。他对戴安娜·维利尔斯的热爱将继续折磨他，这种折磨出现在最意想不到的地方，似乎他无法逃脱。这真的非常非常可悲，让你觉得，本可能成为救赎的机会，却仍给史蒂文留下了许多未解之谜。

That's right. And his love for Diana Villiers is gonna continue to torture him, and it tortures him in the most unlikely places, and it seems like he can't escape it. It's really, really sad and leaves you feeling that, you know, what might have been redemption is still it leaves a lot unresolved for Steven.

你看，作为一个如此出色的思想家，如此才华横溢的人，如此善于观察人性的人，他确实过得很艰难。他和劳丹有点问题，和戴安娜也有点问题。是的，我是这么认为的。

You know, for such a fabulous thinker, for such a brilliant man, for such an observer of human character, he really has a tough time. You know, he's he's he's got a bit of an issue with Laudam. He's got a bit of an issue with Diana. Yep. I think.

而他最接近解决这些问题的方式，就是找到帮助朋友的新途径。他在西班牙的情报工作——这几乎导致他与杰克在书中早些时候的友谊破裂——现在意味着他提前得知了西班牙即将参战的消息，并看到了让秘密工作为杰克带来好处、并有望修复他们友谊的机会。

And the closest he can come to resolving any of that is to find a new way to help out his friend. So his intelligence work in Spain, which actually was almost the end of his friendship with Jack earlier on in the book, now means that he's got early intelligence of the forthcoming entry of Spain into the war, and he sees an opportunity to make the clandestine side of his life pay off to the benefit of Jack, and hopefully for the benefit of their friendship.

是的，史蒂文从未因情报工作向海军部收取过一分钱，他们却比任何人都更看重他。他请求一个恩惠，不是为了自己，而是为了杰克——询问杰克和他现在的战舰‘活力号’能否在应对西班牙参战这件事上发挥作用。

Yeah, Stephen, who's never taken a cent from the admiralty for his intelligence work, and they value him above everybody else, ask for a favor, not for himself, but for Jack. That, you know, could Jack be could Jack and his current ship, the Lively, play a role in trying to deal with this coming of Spain into the war here.

我重读这部分时注意到，这实际上是杰克开始明确意识到史蒂文作为情报人员的隐秘身份的时刻。作为读者，我们很早就知道史蒂文有情报工作的背景，但杰克并不清楚，这甚至导致了他们决斗的冲突。杰克指出，海军部用迂回的方式奖励了史蒂文——他被临时授予上校军衔，负责为拦截西班牙舰队的英国中队提供建议。

I was rereading this and noticing that this is actually the moment where Steven's clandestine character as an intelligence agent begins to become really unambiguous for Jack. Yes. And we've always known I think we've always known as the reader from fairly early on that Stephen had this profile with the world of intelligence. But that was not really clear to Jack, and it was certainly the cause of the confrontation that led to the duel. And Jack points out to Stephen that the admiralty have found their own backhanded way of rewarding him because Stephen is made, pro hack vice, a captain covering the role of him giving advice to the British squadron that's been sent out to intercept these Spanish ships.

某个时刻，杰克说：‘哦，我奇怪他们为什么让你当上校。’然后他突然恍然大悟：‘这次行动可能有利可图？’史蒂文回答：‘是的，因为即将发生的战斗在历史上真实存在。’帕特里克·奥布莱恩又一次找到了与故事完美契合的真实海战——1804年10月，一支运送普拉特河黄金的西班牙舰队被英国护卫舰中队拦截。

At some point, Jack says, oh, I wonder why they've made you a captain. And then all of a sudden, the penny drops, and he goes, is it possible that this could be a profitable expedition? And Stephen says, well, yes, it could be because the action that's about to take place, in fact, was a real life action. Again, Patrick O'Brien found an action between ships that fitted his story really superbly. On October '4, a Spanish fleet bringing gold back from the River Plate was intercepted by a squadron of frigates.

在虚构世界中，那支护卫舰中队是根据斯蒂芬·马塔兰提供的情报被派往那里的。而在虚构世界里，HMS活泼号并非被哈蒙德俘获，而是被杰克·奥布里所捕获。他再次成功地将我们的虚构角色置于真实情境中。最终扭转战局的关键是什么？正是两组护卫舰之间的交战。

And in the fictional world, that squadron of frigates was sent there on the intelligence provided by Stephen Mataran. And in the fictional world, HMS Lively was captured not by Hammond, but by Jack Aubrey. So he successfully again placed our fictional characters in in a in a real situation. And what is it that finally wins the day? Well, we have the action between the two groups of frigates.

我们看到西班牙护卫舰梅赛德斯号在战斗中爆炸，那是一场真正骇人、吞噬一切的巨大爆炸。载有财宝的船只调转船头驶向海岸。哪艘船速度最快？正是活泼号。但活泼号存在什么问题？

We have the Spanish frigate Mercedes blown up in action in this really horrifying, all encompassing explosion. The ship with the treasure aboard turns tail and heads for the coast. And which ship is it that's fastest? It's the Lively. What's the problem with the Lively?

在战斗中，所有的斜桅和帆桁都被击毁了。斯蒂芬对杰克为何如此气定神闲感到困惑——明明我们落后西班牙船只一两英里，却只是不紧不慢地追赶。但杰克深知航海技术将决定胜负：很快斜桅就被修复，帆桁全部就位，书中描绘活泼号如鸟儿般展开双翼，最终挂满所有能承载的风帆。就这样，西班牙船只被俘获——船上已有一位早前被俘的西班牙船长，而第二位西班牙船长登舰竟是为了赴宴。

Well, in the action, all of the stencil booms and spas were knocked away. And Steven's a bit puzzled about why it is that Jack seems so kind of at ease about the fact that we're just chasing we're a mile or two behind the Spanish ship and we'll just get there. Well, Jack knows that seamanship is going win the day because pretty soon the stunsel booms have been repaired, the spas are complete, and we have this imagery of the lively unfurling her wings like a bird, and she finally sets full sail all the sail that she can carry, and that's it. The Spanish ship is captured with one Spanish captain already aboard from an earlier pride. It's the second Spanish captain comes aboard for, guess what kind of social occasion, a dinner.

是场宴会。要知道早些时候，当斯蒂芬还在纳闷为何杰克对即将逃脱的战利品如此淡定时，杰克已吩咐基利克为四人摆好餐具——为他本人、斯蒂芬，以及他预见到晚餐前必将登舰的两位西班牙船长。

It's a dinner. And and Jack, you know, back earlier when Steven was wondering, you know, how in the world you know, why Jack seemed so nonchalant as the prize was getting away from them. Jack had asked Killick to set the table for four, for him, for Steven, and what he knew would be two Spanish captains before dinnertime.

这种傲慢姿态，我认为是杰克赢得的特权。

A bit of hubris there that I think Jack's earned.

确实如此。正如你所说，《舰长候补》的结尾定格在这场晚宴上。想必杰克和斯蒂芬都因战利品而腰缠万贯，所有麻烦也烟消云散。我不禁想问读者：这个场景是否似曾相识？

Yeah, for sure. So here we are, end of post captain at a dinner, as you say. Presumably, Jack and Steven, both rich from their prize, their troubles over. And I wonder to our readers, does this somehow sound familiar?

感觉我们似曾相识。我要提醒想避免剧透的读者：不要阅读1804年10月5日战役的维基百科摘要全文，否则当你翻开《HMS惊奇号》第一页时，就会提前知晓后续剧情发展。

It sounds like we've been here before. And I'm gonna say to readers who want to avoid spoilers, don't read all of the Wikipedia summary of the action of 10/05/1804 because that will get you into the world of what's happening as we turn the first page of HMS surprise.

哦，说得好。那么

Oh, well put. So

让我们回顾一下对《Post Captain》的整体评价，迈克。你觉得呢？

let's take a look back at reflections on Post Captain overall, Mike. What do you think?

嗯，这确实是一本大部头。内容非常丰富。我之前可能提到过，对我来说，它完全兑现了《Master and Commander》的承诺，并且在规模、宏大程度、深度和广度上都更进一步。我简直爱不释手。你觉得呢，伊恩？

Well, it's a really large book. It's a very rich book. And it I think I mentioned this before that for me, it took all the promise of Master Master Commander and then exploded it, in terms of making it bigger and grander and more of it and deeper and wider. I just loved it. How about you, Ian?

我也是。这可能仍然是我最喜欢的一部正典作品。虽然它可能是最难读的一本，部分原因是篇幅，还有他让角色们陷入的那些黑暗境地。但角色们获得的所有回报都让人感到值得，特别是作为重读者，你会发现他为许多即将展开的角色弧线奠定了基础，还有杰克和斯蒂芬之间那些非常迷人可爱的微妙互动，以及他们生活中其他人的关系。所以它在我心中始终占据特殊地位。

Me too. It's still probably my favorite of the canon. It's the it's probably the most difficult read partly because of its length and also because of the very dark places that he takes the characters to. But there's so much reward in all of the payoffs that the characters get and especially as a re reader you see that he's laying the foundations for lots of the character arcs that are still to come and lots of the kind of really appealing lovable nuances between Jack and Stephen and between the other people in their lives. So I still still holds a special place for me, I think.

不过，我想我们已经看够了环不列颠的近海航行。地中海的故事也差不多了。杰克和斯蒂芬很快就要去更远的海域了。我相信是时候让杰克上岸处理事务了，比如巩固他与索菲的婚约，这可能意味着我们需要转向另一本书了。

However, I think we're done with coastal sailing around Britain. I think we're probably done with the Mediterranean. I think it's gonna be time soon for Jack and Steven to visit some shores further afield. I'm sure it's time for Jack to go ashore and, take care of business with cementing his engagement to Sophie, which probably means we need to turn to another book.

我们确实需要转向另一本书。而且到时候，我们可能还需要一些帮助，比如搞清楚这些家伙现在在哪里？他们要去哪儿？怎么去的？沿途发生了什么？

We do need to turn to another book. And at some point, we're gonna have to maybe get a little help in terms of, you know, where are these guys? Where are they going? How did they get there? And what happened along the way?

敬请期待即将到来的特别嘉宾。我们会有一位特别嘉宾来和我们讨论如何绘制和追踪奥布里与马图林的航行路线。还有一位特别嘉宾将从二十世纪文学正典的宏观视角，以及初次接触帕特里克·奥布莱恩作品的新读者角度，来重新解读这些作品。所以迈克，是时候合上《Post Captain》，伸手拿起《HMS Surprise》了。要不要再来点帕特里克·奥布莱恩的故事？

Watch out for special guests coming soon. We've got a special guest coming to talk to us about mapping and tracking the voyages of Albury and Matarin. And we've got a special guest coming in to talk to us about how this work of literature sits in the canon of twentieth century literature generally and taking a fresh look at the Patrick O'Brien books from the perspective of somebody who's new to the canon. So Mike, time to close the page on Post Captain and time to reach out and pick up HMS surprise. So what do you say to a bit more Patrick or Brian?

全心全意。

With all my heart.

CJ，你的项链简直是资产阶级品味的纪念碑。

CJ, your necklace is a monument to bourgeois taste.