The old man and the sea(28)
"Don't think, old man," he said aloud. "Sail on this course and take it when it comes." But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have like the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it. But do you think my hands were as great a handicap as the bone spurs? I cannot know. I never had anything wrong with my heel except the time the sting ray stung it when I stepped on him when swimming and paralyzed the lower leg and made the unbearable pain.
「老头子，不要想了，」他大声地说：「朝着这条航线航行吧！一切顺天由人好了。」他想，但是我必须要思考，我所剩下来的就是思考了。除了会思考外也只有棒球了。不晓得伟大的狄玛基欧会不会喜欢我刺中它头脑的这一击。这没什么了不起，他想。任何人都做得到的。但是，你有没有想过，我这一双手就如你身上的骨刺一样，是多大的障碍吗？我实在不了解，我的脚后跟就从来没出过毛病，除了有一次游泳的时候，不小心踩到一条海鳐鱼，脚后跟被刺了一下后，整条小腿都麻痹了，痛得不能忍受。
"Think about something cheerful, old man," he said. "Every minute now you are closer to home. You sail lighter for the loss of forty pounds." He knew quite well the pattern of what could happen when he reached the inner part of the current. But there was nothing to be done now. "Yes, there is," he said aloud. "I can lash my knife to the butt of one of the oars." So he did that with the tiller under his arm and the sheet of the sail under his foot. "Now," he said. "I am still an old man. But I am not unarmed."
「老头子啊！想点愉快的事吧，」他说。「从现在起的每一分钟，你会离家更近的。因为少了四十磅的肉，所以你航行起来就轻快多了。」他很清楚当他航行到浪潮里面时，会发生什么事情。可是现在已经没办法预先作准备了。「有了，有办法了，」他大声地说：「我可以把我的刀子绑在一支桨的柄上。」所以他把舵夹在腋下，把帆脚索踩在脚下，他就这么做了。「现在，」他说：「虽然我是个老人，但我并不是手无寸铁。」
The breeze was fresh now and he sailed on well. He watched only the forward part of the fish and some of his hope returned. It is silly not to hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it. I have no understanding of it and I am not sure that I believe in it. Perhaps it was a sin to kill the fish. I suppose it was even though I did it to keep me alive and feed many people. But then everything is a sin.
微风凉爽地吹着，他航行得很顺利。他只注视着鱼的前半部，因此又寻回一些希望。不存希望的人太愚蠢了，他想。而且我相信，那是一种罪恶。不要想着罪恶，他想。此刻没有罪恶，问题就已经够多了，而且我怎么也搞不懂这些罪恶啊。我不懂罪恶，而且也不能确定我相信罪恶。也许杀害这条大鱼本身就是罪恶。我想，应该是的，即使我杀它是为了生存，而且也为了让许多人有鱼肉吃。但是这样说的话，任何事都是罪恶了。
Do not think about sin. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it. Let them think about it. You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was born to be a fish. San Pedro was a fisherman as was the father of the great DiMaggio. But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in and since there was nothing to read and he did not have a radio, he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin. You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought.
不要想罪恶，现在想已为时太晚，而且有些人就是专靠这个吃饭的。让那些人去想吧。你生来就是一个渔夫，就像大鱼生来就是一条鱼一样，桑匹德罗是个渔夫，就像狄玛基欧的父亲一样也是个渔夫。他喜欢去思索所有与他有关联的事物，既然没有东西阅读，也没有收音机，他便想得很多，而不断地在思索罪恶。你杀这一条鱼并不完全是为了自己的生存，也不是为了要卖出换取食物，他想。
You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more? "You think too much, old man," he said aloud. But you enjoyed killing the dentuso, he thought. He lives on the live fish as you do. He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything. "I killed him in self-defense," the old man said aloud. "And I killed him well."
你杀它完全是为了个人的骄傲，而且也因为你是一个渔夫。当它活着的时候，你爱它，当它死了以后，你还爱它。如果你爱它，杀了它就不是一种罪恶，或者罪恶更深？他大声说：「老头子，你想得太多了。」但是你杀死那只恶魔鲨鱼，感觉就很痛快。他想。它也靠捕食活鱼维生，和你一样。它也不吃腐肉，也不像其它鲨鱼一样，游到那儿，吃到那儿，它美丽又高贵，对什么都不惧怕。「我杀它是为了自卫。」老人大声地说。「而且杀得很高明。」
Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much. He leaned over the side and pulled loose a piece of the meat of the fish where the shark had cut him. He chewed it and noted its quality and its good taste. It was firm and juicy, like meat, but it was not red. There was no stringiness in it and he knew that it would bring the highest price in the market.
此外他想，总是一物克一物，只是方式不同而已。捕鱼生涯害了我，但是同样地维持了我的生命。是那男孩延续了我的生命，他想。我千万不可太过份地欺骗自己啊。他倚靠在船边，从大鱼被鲨鱼咬破的地方撕下一块肉，放在嘴里嚼一嚼，品尝肉的品质和它的美味，它的肉坚实又多汁，就像其它肉类一样，就差不是红色的。鱼肉里也没有筋，他晓得这拿到市场去可以卖到最好的价钱。
But there was no way to keep its scent out of the water and the old man knew that a very bad time was coming. The breeze was steady. It had backed a little further into the northeast and he knew that meant that it would not fall off. The old man looked ahead of him but he could see no sails nor could he see the hull nor the smoke of any ship. There were only the flying fish that went up from his bow sailing away to either side and he yellow patches of Gulf weed. He could not even see a bird.
但是此刻，他没有办法避免鱼肉的血腥味散溢到水中，老人知道，恶劣的时刻即将来临。微风稳定地吹着，并且更略为吹向东北方了，他知道这表示风不会平息。老人朝前望去，他看不见任何帆影，也看不见任何一艘船，更看不见船上所冒的烟，只有飞鱼从船头的两边掠过，以及一片片黄色的墨西哥湾海草。他甚至看不见一只鸟儿。
He had sailed for two hours, resting in the stern and sometimes chewing a bit of the meat from the marlin, trying to rest and to be strong, when he saw the first of the two sharks. "Ay," he said aloud. There is no translation for this world and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood. "Galanos," he said aloud. He had seen the second fin now coming up behind the first and had identified them as shovel-nosed sharks by the brown, triangular fin and the sweeping movements of the tail.
他已经航行两个小时了，这期间他靠在船尾歇息，有时从马林鱼身上撕下一片肉放在口中嚼，他正想休息一会儿，以便养精蓄锐时，有两条鲨鱼游来，他看见其中的第一条。「唉呀，」他用墨西哥土语大声喊道。这个字是无法被精确地翻译出来的，也许当一个人的手被钉子穿过，钉到木头上的时候，便会不由自主地发出这种声音。「虎鲨，」他用墨西哥土语大声地喊着。此刻在第一条鲨鱼鳍的后面，他看到了第二条鳍，根据那三角形的棕色背鳍和尾巴摇摆的动作，他可以断定这两条鲨鱼是铲形鼻头的虎鲨。
They had the scent and were excited and in the stupidity of their great hunger they were losing and finding the scent in their excitement. But they were closing all the time. The old man made the sheet fast and jammed the tiller. Then he took up the oar with the knife lashed to it. He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain. Then he opened and closed them on it lightly to loosen them. He closed them firmly so they would take the pain now and would not flinch and watched the sharks come.
鱼的血腥味让它们兴奋了起来。在过度的饥饿和兴奋之下，它们一会儿跟丢了香味，一会儿又找到了香味。可是它们终究正不断地逼近了。老人把帆索栓紧，再把舵柄夹紧，然后拿起绑有刀子的桨柄，由于他的手痛得不听指挥，他尽可能地轻轻举起桨。他的两只手先在桨柄上张开又握住，以便松弛一下筋骨。然后，他紧紧地握住桨柄，他的手已经可以承受得住疼痛，而不至于畏缩了。他全神贯注地观察着鲨鱼的来临。
He could see their wide, flattened, shovel-pointed heads now and their white-tipped wide pectoral fins. They were hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as killers, and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat. It was these sharks that would cut the turtles' legs and flippers off when the turtles were asleep on the surface, and they would hit a man in the water, if they were hungry, even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime on him. "Ay," the old man said. "Galanos. Come on galanos."
他可以看到它们那宽大而扁平，如尖形铲的头部，和末端呈白色的宽阔胸鳍。它们是一种可恨的鲨鱼，有恶臭味，吃腐烂的食物，也捕食活鱼，当它们饿的时候，甚至连桨或者船的舵也会咬一口。就是这种鲨鱼，会趁着乌龟在水面上熟睡的时候，咬断乌龟的手脚，也会攻击在水中的人类，当它们饥饿的时候，即使人身上没有鱼的血腥味，也没有鱼的黏液，都会遭到袭击。老人说：「嘿，虎鲨，放马过来吧！」
They came. But they did not come as the Mako had come. One turned and went out of sight under the skiff and the old man could feel the skiff shake as he jerked and pulled on the fish. The other watched the old man with his slotted yellow eyes and then came in fast with his half circle of jaws wide to hit the fish where he had already been bitten. The line showed clearly on the top of his brown head and back where the brain joined the spinal cord and the old man drove the knife on the oar into the juncture, withdrew it, and drove it in again into the shark's yellow cat-like eyes.
它们来了，但它们来的情形不像鳗口鲨一样。其中一只转了一圈后，便跑到船底下，看不见了，当它撕拉鱼肉时，老人可以感觉船在震动。另外一只先是瞇着它黄色的细小眼睛望着老人，然后很快地冲上来，用它那几乎是半圆形的下巴，咬住大鱼已经被咬过的地方。它棕色的头和背脊上的条线很清楚，明显地指出大脑与脊髓交会的位置，老人便将那只绑了刀的桨，刺进那交会点，抽回来，又往鲨鱼猫似的黄色眼睛刺下去。
The shark let go of the fish and slid down, swallowing what he had taken as he died. The skiff was still shaking with the destruction the other shark was doing to the fish and the old man let go the sheet so that the skiff would swing broadside and bring the shark out from under. When he saw the shark he leaned over the side and punched at him. He hit only meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in. The blow hurt not only his hands but his shoulder too.
鲨鱼对大鱼总算松了口，然后溜下去，临死时还把抢走的那块鱼肉硬吞下去。小船仍旧摇动着，因为另外一条鲨鱼还在那儿抢食那条大鱼，老人放松了帆索，让小船打横后，船底下的鲨鱼便暴露出来。当他看见那条鲨鱼的时候，就在船边倾身，向它刺去。却只打到它身上的肉，而鲨鱼的皮很厚，他勉强地把刀子刺了进去。这么一用力，不但手感到疼痛，肩膀也跟着痛了起来。
But the shark came up fast with his head out and the old man hit him squarely in the center of his flat-topped head as his nose came out of water and lay against the fish. The old man withdrew the blade and punched the shark exactly in the same spot again. He still hung to the fish with his jaws hooked and the old man stabbed him in his left eye. The shark still hung there. "No?" the old man said and he drove the blade between the vertebrae and the brain. It was an easy shot now and he felt the cartilage sever.
但是这条鲨鱼很快地把头露出水面，当它鼻子刚露出水面靠向大鱼的时候，老人很准确地击中它扁平头部的中央。老人把刀子抽出来，然后又在同样的位置刺了一下，但是它仍然用它宽阔的嘴巴，咬住大鱼不放，老人往它左眼刺下去，鲨鱼仍然没有松开口。「你还不走？」老人说，并把刀刃刺向它的背脊骨与大脑之间。这次很容易就刺进去了，他感觉到鲨鱼的软骨被切断了。