The old man and the sea(22)
I know now, anyway, he thought. I wish I could show him what sort of man I am. But then he would see the cramped hand. Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so. I wish I were the fish, he thought, with everything he has against only my will and my intelligence. He settled comfortably against the wood and took his suffering as it came and the fist swam steadily and the boat moved slowly through the dark water. There was a small sea rising with the wind coming up from the east and at noon the old man's left hand was uncramped.
无论如何，我现在总算明白了，他想，希望我也能够让它看看我是怎样的一个人。不过，如果是如此的话，它就会看到这只抽筋的手了，还是，让它把我当作一个很强健的男子吧，那么我就会如此去做了。他想，我真希望我是那条鱼，用那么多的力量来对抗的仅是我的意志和智慧。他很舒服地靠在木头上，干瞪着眼忍受着痛苦，鱼依然稳定地游着，船也在黑暗的水中缓慢地移动。由东方吹来的风，掀起一阵阵轻微的浪潮。到了中午，老人的左手舒展开了。
"Band news for you, fish," he said and shifted the line over the sacks that covered his shoulders. He was comfortable but suffering, although he did not admit the suffering at all. "I am not religious," he said. "But I will say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys that I should catch this fish, and I promise to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Cobre if I catch him. That is a promise." He commenced to say his prayers mechanically. Sometimes he would be so tired that he could not remember the prayer and then he would say them fast so that they would come automatically.
「鱼啊！这对你而言是坏消息呀！」他说着，把垫在布袋上的线绳移了一下位置。他现在感觉舒适，但疼痛仍然折磨着他，只不过他丝毫不肯认罢了。「我没有什么宗教信仰，」他说道，「但是，如果让我抓到这条鱼，我愿意念十遍『天主经』、十遍『圣母经』，而且，我发誓到『考伯圣女』处朝圣。我发誓。」他开始机械似地念祈祷文，有时候因过度疲倦，竟连祈祷文都记不清楚了，于是他便以很快的速度含含糊糊念着，直到正确的词句自动回到他嘴上。
Hail Marys are easier to say than our Fathers, he thought. "Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." Then he added, "Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this fish. Wonderful though he is." With his prayers said, and feeling much better, but suffering exactly as much, and perhaps a little more, he leaned against the wood of the bow and began, mechanically, to work the fingers of his left hand.
他心想，念『圣母经』要比『天主经』容易多了。」「万福玛利亚，满被圣宠者，主与尔皆焉，女中尔为赞美，尔胎子耶稣，并为赞美，天主圣母玛利亚，为我等罪人，今祈天主，及我等死候，阿门。」然后他又补充道，「万福圣母，虽然这条鱼是这么地神勇，祈求你赐它死亡。」当他把祈祷词讲完以后，感觉舒服多了，但是痛苦丝毫没有减少，甚至还比刚才更痛了，又靠回船头的木头上，机械似地运动左手的手指。
The sun was hot now although the breeze was rising gently. "I had better re-bait that little line out over the stern," he said. "If the fish decides to stay another night I will need to eat again and the water is low in the bottle. I don't think I can get anything but a dolphin here. But if I eat him fresh enough he won't be bad. I wish a flying fish would come on board tonight. But I have no light to attract them. A flying fish is excellent to eat raw and I would not have to cut him up. I must save all my strength now. Christ, I did not know he was so big."
虽然微风正温和地吹起，但此刻的太阳非常酷热。「我最好还是把船尾的那条小鱼线，重新装上鱼饵，」他说：「如果这条鱼还要跟我耗上一夜的话，我得再吃些东西，而水瓶里的水所剩不多了。我想除了海豚外，我恐怕什么也抓不到了。不过，如果趁着新鲜吃的话，海豚的味道也还不坏。希望今天晚上会有一条飞鱼扑上船来。可是我没有灯来招引这些鱼。飞鱼生吃最好，而且也不需要切开。现在我一定要想办法节省体力。天啊！我还真没料到它有这么庞大。」
"I'll kill him though," he said. "In all his greatness and his glory." Although it is unjust, he thought. But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures. "I told the boy I was a strange old man," he said. "Now is when I must prove it." The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it. I wish he'd sleep and I could sleep and dream about the lions, he thought. Why are the lions the main thing that is left?
「不过，我会宰了它的，」他说：「纵然它是如此巨大、如此骄傲。」虽然这并不公平，他想。可是我会让它明白，究竟人类可以做什么，以及能够承担什么样的考验？「我告诉过那男孩我是一个奇怪的老人，」他说。「而现在我必须证明给它看。」以往他所证实过的一千次都不足以挂齿。现在他要再度证实自己的能力。每一次都是一个新的时机，每次到了这个时机，他绝不回想从前。他心想，真希望它睡着了，好让我也可以睡一会儿，再梦见狮子。为什么狮子变成了脑海中最重要的东西呢？
Don't think, old man, he said to himself. Rest gently now against the wood and think of nothing. He is working. Work as little as you can. It was getting into the afternoon and the boat still moved slowly and steadily. But there was a added drag now from the easterly breeze and the old man rode gently with the small sea and the hurt of the cord across his back came to him easily and smoothly. Once in the afternoon the line started to rise again. But the fish only continued to swim at a slightly higher level.
不要胡思乱想了，老头子，他对自己这么说。轻轻地靠在木头上休息，什么也别想了。它正在那里挣扎，而次要尽量少劳动为妙。时间已进入午后了，船仍缓慢而稳定地移动着。但是现在从东边吹来的微风逐渐增强，带来了更多的阻力。老人在微浪中平稳的划着船，横勒在背上的绳索令他隐隐作痛。到了下午，鱼线又开始上升。但是鱼只是在水面下高点的地方继续地游着。
The sun was on the old man's left arm and shoulder and on his back. So he knew the fish had turned east of north. Now that he had seen him once, he could picture the fish swimming in the water with his purple pectoral fins set wide as wings and the great erect tail slicing through the dark. I wonder how much he sees at that depth, the old man thought. His eye is huge and a horse, with much less eye, can see in the dark. Once I could see quite well in the dark. Not in the absolute dark. But almost as a cat sees.
太阳晒在老人左臂、左肩和背上，所以他晓得鱼已经转向东北方了。既然他曾经看过这条鱼一眼，他可以想象鱼将它紫色的胸鳍如翅般展开，竖起的尾巴划破黑暗，在水中游动的样子。我怀疑在这么深的地方，它的视线能有多远，老人想。鱼的眼睛和马眼比起来大多了，却和马一样，可以在黑暗中保持视线。从前我在黑暗中也可以看得很清楚的，当然并不是在完全漆黑的状况下，但是几乎和一只猫的视线差不多了。
The sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramped his left hand now completely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little. "If you're not tired, fish," he said aloud, "you must be very strange." He felt very tired now and he knew the night would come soon and he tired to think of other things. He thought of the Big Leagues, to him they were the Gran Ligas, and he knew that the Yankees of New York were playing the Tires of Detroit.
阳光再加上手指不停地运动，他的左手已经不抽筋了，他又开始让左手分担更多的重量，他耸耸肩活动一下肩膀上的肌肉，让绳索的勒痕稍微移动一下位置。他很大声地：「鱼啊！如果你到现在还不疲累的话，你一定是无比神勇啊。」他感觉非常疲倦，他也晓得黑夜，将很快的来临，他尽量让自己想一想别的事情，譬如职棒大联盟，他说职棒大联盟的时候总用西班牙文发音。他知道纽约的洋基队正在和底特律的老虎队比赛。
This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel. What is a bone spur? He asked himself. Un espuela de hueso. We do not have them. can it be as painful as the spur of a fighting cock in one's heel? I do not think I could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks do. Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts.
这已经是第二天了，真不知道这场比赛的结局是怎么样？他想。但是，我必须要有信心，我必须肯定狄玛基欧，即使忍着后脚跟上骨刺的疼痛，他做起任何事情来都还是那么地完美。骨刺是什么？他问他自己，「鸡眼」他用西班牙文说，我们都没有长过。会不会像安在斗鸡脚上的铁刺刺入人的脚跟一样痛？我想我不能像斗鸡一样忍受那种痛苦，我也不认为自己能够忍受被啄瞎了，还得继续战斗。人是不能和伟大的鸟兽相比的。
Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea. "Unless sharks come," he said aloud. "If sharks come, god pity him and me." Do you believe the great DiMaggio would stay with a fish as long as I will stay with this one? He thought, I am sure he would and more since he is young and strong. Also his father was a fisherman. But would the bone spur hurt him too much? "I do not know," he said aloud. "I never had a bone spur."
不过，我还是宁愿作那头潜在海洋的黑暗之心的野兽。「我会一直待在海上，除非是鲨鱼来了，」他大声地说。「如果鲨鱼来了的话，请上帝怜悯它，也怜悯我吧。」你认为伟大的狄玛基欧，会像我现在跟这条鱼纠缠一样，和一条鱼纠缠那么久吗？他想。我相信他会的，而且还有可能更久，因为他年轻力壮，而且他父亲是个渔夫。但骨刺会不会很困扰他呢？「我不知道啊，」他大声地说。「我从来没有长过骨刺。」
As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks. They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. Each one was trying to force the other's hand down onto the table. There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro's face.
太阳下山了，为了要鼓舞自己的信心，他回想起有一次在卡萨布兰卡的一个酒店里，他和一个从西安弗埃荷斯来的黑奴比手劲，他是这个码头上最强壮的人。足足一天一夜的时间，他俩将手肘放在桌上粉笔画的在线，手臂直立着、手掌握得紧紧的，彼此都卯足了劲想把对方的手压倒在桌面上。周围有很多人纷纷下注打赌，而尽管煤油灯下屋子里人来人往，他始终瞪着黑奴的手臂、手掌和鼻子。
They changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep. Blood came out form under the fingernails of both his and the negro's hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall all watched. The walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their shadows against them. The negro's shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps.
八个小时过去后，他们的裁判开始每四个小时换一次班，好能够睡觉。血从他和黑鬼子的指甲里渗了出来，他们互相瞪着对方的眼睛、手和胳膊，打赌的人在屋里进进出出的，或坐在靠墙的高椅子上观察这场比赛。墙是木板钉成的，灯光将他们的影子投射在漆成浅蓝色的木墙上。随着微风吹动那盏灯，黑奴庞大的身影也在上摇晃着。
The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him. Then the negro, after the rum, would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago El Champion, nearly three inches off balance. But the old man had raised his hand up to dead even again. He was sure then that the had the negro, who was a fine man and a great athlete, beaten.
整夜里，他们一直都平分秋色，他们给黑鬼子喝莱姆酒，又为老人点烟。黑鬼子喝了莱姆酒之后，又使出了更惊人的力气，几乎把老人的手臂板离中线三吋。那时候老人还不是个老人，而是冠军山帝亚哥。老人拼命地举起手，使得比赛又回到平分的状态。那时他就很确定自己会打垮那个黑人，即使他是一个好人，也是很了不起的运动员。
And at daylight when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head, he had unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood. The match had started on a Sunday morning and ended on a Monday morning. Many of the bettors had asked for a draw because they had to go to work on the docks loading sacks of sugar or at the Havana Coal Company. Otherwise everyone would have wanted it to go to a finish. But he had finished it anyway and before anyone had to go to work.
破晓了，下注的人都说，就算平手结束比赛吧，裁判也直摇头，老人于是使出他所有的力量，将黑奴的手一点一点地往下压，直到把他的手压倒在木桌上，比赛从星期天早晨开始，一直到星期一早晨才结束。之前很多下注的人都要求算平手，因为他们得回到码头装运砂糖，另外有些人则是替哈瓦那煤矿公司工作。要不是这样，每一个人都会希望这场比赛比出胜负为止。不过，他总算在大家得赶回去工作之前把比赛给结束了。