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While we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the yard, reefed, and ready for hoisting.
桅顶还在我们头顶上时，帆已经伸出去了，弯向甲板，卷起缩帆部后准备升起。
Waiting for a good opportunity, the halyards were manned and the yard hoisted fairly up to the block;
需要一个最适合的时机才行，船员操纵升降索，帆桁正好升到阻塞物处；
but when the mate came to shake the cat's paw out of the downhaul,
可是当大副开始将猫爪棒从收帆索抖出来时，
and we began to boom end the sail, it shook the ship to her center.
我们一窝蜂地开始收帆，而帆将船摇到了中央位置。
The boom buckled up and bent like a whipstock, and we looked every moment to see something go;
帆桁向上扣紧，像鞭子那样弯曲，我们时时刻刻都能看到有东西从眼前经过；
but, being of the short, tough upland spruce, it bent like whalebone, and nothing could break it.
但是，短而坚硬的高地云杉，弯起来就像鲸须一样，任什么也没法将其折断。
The carpenter said it was the best stick he had ever seen.
木匠说那是他见过最上乘的木材。
The strength of all hands soon brought the tack to the boom end, and the sheet was trimmed down,
大家一起动手，很快就把帆桁放平，帆脚索也变细了。
and the preventer and the weather brace hauled taut to take off the strain.
辅助索和气象仪托架拉紧，以便充满张力。
Every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the utmost, and every thread of canvas;
每根绳索似乎都延伸到了极限，每根绑帆布的绳线也是一样。
and with this sail added to her, the ship sprang through the water like a thing possessed.
借助船帆，这条船像有了主心骨一样在水面上劈波斩浪。
The sail being nearly all forward, it lifted her out of the water, and she seemed actually to jump from sea to sea.
船帆几乎都冲着前方，把船托着离开了水面，似乎真的从一片汪洋跳到另一片汪洋。
From the time her keel was laid, she had never been so driven;
从龙骨被放倒开始，她从未如此横冲直闯过；
and had it been life or death with everyone of us, she could not have borne another stitch of canvas.
不论我们每个人未来命运怎样，这艘船都不可能承担得了帆布另一次被撕扯坏了的后果。
