The old man and the sea(24)
"He is tiring or he is resting," the old man said. "Now let me get through the eating of this dolphin and get some rest and a little sleep." Under the stars and with the night colder all the time he ate half of one of the dolphin fillets and one of the flying fish, gutted and with its head cut off. "What an excellent fish dolphin is to eat cooked," he said. "And what a miserable fish raw. I will never go in a boat again without salt or limes." If I had brains I would have splashed water on the bow all day and drying, it would have made salt, he thought.
「它不是累了，就是正在休息，」老人说。「让我赶快把海豚吃了，休息一会睡个觉。」
在星光下，他忍着比昨夜更冷的寒气，把半片海豚鱼排和其中一条肠肚已经掏空，头也切掉了的飞鱼慢慢吃完。「煮熟的海豚是绝佳的风味，」他说。「而生吃却难以下咽。以后出海在船上一定要带盐或莱姆。」我要是聪明一点的话，在白天时把海水泼到船里，晾它个一整天，也会制造出一点盐来，他想。
But then I did not hook the dolphin until almost sunset. Still it was a lack of preparation. But I have chewed it all well and I am not nauseated. The sky was clouding over to the east and one after another the stars he knew were gone. It looked now as though he were moving into a great canyon of clouds and the wind had dropped. "There will be bad weather in three or four days," he said. "But not tonight and not tomorrow. Rig now to get some sleep, old man, while the fish is calm and steady."
但我是在日落时才钓到海豚的啊。不管怎么说，都是准备不够。好在我把它嚼得很细很碎，吃起来至少没有反胃的感觉。东边的天空云朵愈堆愈多，而他所认识的星星也一个接一个地都消失了。此刻看起来，那条鱼似乎正朝一个云的大峡谷里前进，此时风速已经减弱了。「三四天之后，天气就要变坏了，」他说。「但不是今晚也不是明天，趁着这条鱼还很稳定的时候，老头子，你赶快想办法睡一下吧！」
He held the line tight in his right hand and then pushed his thigh against his right hand as he leaned all his weight against the wood of the bow. Then he passed the line a little lower on his shoulders and braced his left hand on it. My right hand can hold it as long as it is braced, he though. If it relaxes in sleep my left hand will wake me as the line goes out. It is hard on the right hand. But he is used to punishment. Even if I sleep twenty minutes or a half an hour it is good.
他用右手紧紧地握住鱼线，大腿抵着右手，全身的重量都落在船头的木板上，于是他将大腿挪过去好支撑他的右手。然后他又把肩膀上的绳索往下拉一点，让绳索支撑他的左手。我的右手只要有了支撑就能稳稳握住绳子，他想。如果右手在我睡着时放松了，当鱼线被拖走的时候，左手会马上把我给叫醒的。我的右手的工作真是吃重。但它已习惯做这些苦差事了。即使睡个二十分钟或半小时都好。
He lay forward cramping himself against the line with all of his body, putting all his weight onto his right hand, and he was asleep. He did not dream of the lions but instead of a vast school of porpoises that stretched for eight or ten miles and it was in the time of their mating and they would leap high into the air and return into the same hole they had made in the water when they leaped. Then he dreamed that he was in the village on his bed and there was a northern and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep because his head had rested on it instead of a pillow.
他身子往前靠，用全身挤紧了绳子，整个重量放在右手上，就这样他睡着了。他没有梦见狮子，却梦到好大的一群海豚，并排着共有八至十哩这么广，在这海豚交配的季节里，它们会跳跃到空中，再落入原来跳起时在水面上所造成的洞里。接着，他梦见自己在某个村落里，躺在床上，以及墨西哥湾流寒冷的北风，他感觉好冷，由于他把头靠在右手上面当枕头用，因此右手麻木了。
After that he began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come down onto it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy. The moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled on steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of clouds.
然后，他梦见那长长的黄色海滩，他看见第一头狮子，在黄昏中从海滩的另一端奔跑过来，于是其它的狮子也跟了过来，他把下额靠在船头的木板上，他的船在傍晚岸上吹来的微风中停泊，他等着想看是不是还有更多的狮子，他好快乐。月亮已经升起好长一段时间了，他继续睡着，鱼很稳定地拖着，船航向云层里。
He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up against his face and the line burning out through his right hand. He had no feeling of his left hand but he braked all he could with his right and the line rushed out. Finally his left hand found the line and he leaned back against the line and now it burned his back and his left hand, and his left hand was taking all the strain and cutting badly. He looked back at the coils of line and they were feeding smoothly. Just then the fish jumped making a great bursting of the ocean and then a heavy fall.
突然间他的右拳碰到他的脸，鱼线在右手中拖出，像燃烧似的那么刺痛，于是他惊醒过来。他的左手什么都没有感觉到，但他还是尽量用右手把绳索控制住，但绳索还是继续往前冲去，最后他的左手终于也摸到了绳索，他往后紧靠着绳索，现在背脊和左手感觉像是烫伤似的，他的左手因为承受了所有拉力而擦伤得很厉害。他回头看看备用绳圈，正毫无阻碍地向前滑溜。这时那条大鱼猛然冲破水面跳起，然后又重重地沈入水中。
Then he jumped again and again and the boat was going fast although line was still racing out and the old man was raising the strain to breaking point and raising it to breaking point again and again. He had been pulled down tight onto the bow and his face was in the cut slice of dolphin and he could not move. This is what we waited for, he thought. So now let us take it. Make him pay for the line, he thought. Make him pay for it.
接着又一次一次地跳起来，虽然线绳仍不断地往前冲，船却移动得好快，老人拼命地拉紧线绳直到濒临断裂点，他继续增强拉力，线绳几度近乎断裂。他被绷紧的拉力拖倒在船头上，而脸正好埋在切开的海豚肉上不能动弹。他想，这就是我们所期待的。所以，现在就让我们好好领受吧。他心中暗想，一定要让它为鱼线付出代价。一定要让它付出代价。
He could not see the fish's jumps but only heard the breaking of the ocean and the heavy splash as he fell. The speed of the line was cutting his hands badly but he had always known this would happen and he tried to keep the cutting across the calloused parts and not let the line slip into the palm nor cut the fingers. If the boy was here he would wet the coils of line, he though. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here.
他看不见鱼在跳跃，只听到它冲破海水的声音，和沈入时溅起的水声。绳子快速地滑溜，在他手中刻下了深深的伤痕，但是他对此早有准备，他设法让绳索经过手上长茧的地方，而不要落到掌心，也不能让它割伤手指头。他想，如果男孩在这里的话，他一定会把那些一卷卷的绳子弄湿。是的，如果那男孩在的话。如果男孩在的话。
The line went out and out and out but it was slowing now and he was making the fish earn each inch of it. Now he got his head up from the wood and out of the slice of fish that his cheek had crushed. Then he was on his knees and then he rose slowly to his feet. He was ceding line but more slowly all the time. He worked back to where he could feel with his foot the coils of line that he could not see. There was plenty of line still and now the fish had to pull the friction of all that new line through the water.
绳子不停、不停地被拖走，但现在速度渐渐慢了，他让那条鱼费力地将绳子一吋一吋地拖走。他把头从木板上被脸颊压烂的鱼肉中抬起来，然后他跪起来，再慢慢地站起来。他仍然不继地放线，但是速度却慢多了。他设法往后移动，用脚碰一下那落在视线之外的鱼线。还有非常充裕的线够它拉的了。现在它必须拖出一卷卷新绳，并克服新绳在水中的磨擦阻力。
Yes, he thought. And now he has jumped more than a dozen times and filled the sacks along his back with air and he cannot go down deep to die where I cannot bring him up. He will start circling soon and then I must work on him. I wonder what started him so suddenly? Could it have been hunger that made him desperate, or was he frightened by something in the night? Maybe he suddenly felt fear. But he was such a calm, strong fish and he seemed so fearless and so confident. It is strange.
太美妙了，他想。它现在已经跳了至少十几次了，它的背脊两边的气囊已吸满了空气，它不可能沈到深处死亡了，否则我是没有办法把它弄上来的。他不久就会开始转圈子了，那时我必须好好对付它。我不知道，是什么原因让它突然地开始激动起来？难道是因为饥饿使得它拼命挣扎吗？或者是晚上被什么东西吓了一跳，也可能是突然感到害怕吧。但是它是这么镇定而坚强的一条鱼，看起来毫无恐惧又充满信心。这真是奇怪。
"You better be fearless and confident yourself, old man," he said. "You're holding him again but you cannot get line. But soon he has to circle." The old man held him with his left hand and his shoulders now and stooped down and scooped up water in his right hand to get the crushed dolphin flesh off of his face. He was afraid that it might nauseate him and he would vomit and lose his strength. When his face was cleaned he washed his right hand in the water over the side and then let it stay in the salt water while he watched the first light come before the sunrise.
「你自己最好勇敢起来，对自己要有信心啊，老头子。」他对自己说。「你现在只是又握稳了绳子，可是你还不能收回绳子。不过，他很快就会开始打圈圈了。」现在老人用左手和肩膀来撑住绳子，弯着身子用右手掬水，把脸上海豚的肉渣子洗掉。他害怕那些东西会让他反胃呕吐，因为吐了之后就没有体力了。把脸洗干净后，他又在船边把右手洗了洗，然后把手泡在盐水中，并注视着太阳升起前的第一道曙光。