any of you who have read Moby Dick will recall that

你们中读过《白鲸》的应该会想起
Ishmael talks at the beginning, before he gets on the Pequod,

Ishmael在他上皮廓德号捕鲸船前说的
he talks about how streets that lead to water draw you inevitably,

他提到通向大海的街道紧紧牵引着人们
and he talks about all the streets in New York that end in water.

他还列举了所有纽约通向大海的大街
And he has this long meditation on that aspect of city geography.

他对城市地理方位做过久久的冥思
Well, here is Sal having that meditation, too.

萨尔同样有过这样的冥思
So, what you see in this passage is not only a sort of mystical

你在这段话看到的不仅是一种神秘的
trans-historical fantasy, but a literary one.

超历史幻想更是文学意义上的
He's getting his mythology not just from the cupboard of stereotypes

他不仅从美国人自我概念特有的
that are proper to American self-conception.

固定模式中提取他的神话
He's looking back to literary stories, too,

还从文学题材中获取灵感
that he can assimilate into his experience

然后和他的经历融合起来