The old man and the sea(9)
一片漆黑中，老人可以感觉黎明将近。当他在划船时，可以听见飞鱼跃出水面的剎那间轻微的颤抖声，以及他们在黑暗中飞掠时，坚硬的翅膀所发出的嘶嘶声。他非常喜欢飞鱼，因为他们是他在海洋中主要的朋友。鸟儿则令他怜惜，特别是那些纤小黝黑、终日飞翔、寻寻觅觅却几乎从未有所收获的燕鸥。他常想，除了那些专靠掠夺维生的鸟类以及那些体型壮硕的鸟类之外，鸟的生活是比人类更为艰辛啊。
Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea. He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say had things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman.
何以造物者将鸟类如海燕般都创造得如此纤弱，而海洋却是如此的残酷？海洋是慈悲而且美丽的，然而它却同时可以那么残酷，转变得那么突然；那些飞着的鸟，不时还得潜入水中捕食，它们弱小的哀鸣声，在这浩瀚的海洋里，实在是太渺小，太纤弱了。他总是把海洋称为「海娘子」，这是热爱海洋的西班人称呼她的方式。有时候，喜欢她的人也会咒骂她，他们总把它比作是一个妇人。
Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.
一些用浮标作鱼线浮子、驾着马达汽船的年轻渔夫，每当鲨鱼肝为他们赚进大笔金钱时，就会将她当作男性，称它为「海郎」。他们说到她的时候总是把她当成一个竞争的对手，或是一个地方，甚至一个仇敌。可是，老人总认为海洋是女性，有时带来恩惠，有时带来恶运，而当海洋变得蛮横狂暴或是邪恶时，那是因为她没有办法控制。他认为，月亮对于海洋的影响，正如月亮对于妇人的影响一样。
He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept well within his speed and the surface of the ocean was flat except for the occasional swirls of the current. He was letting the current do a third of the work and as it started to be light he saw he was already further out than he had hoped to be at this hour. I worked the deep wells for a week and did nothing, he thought. Today I'll work out where the schools of bonito and albacore are and maybe there will be a big one with them. Before it was really light he had his baits out and was drifting with the current.
他轻松而稳定地划着船，因为他把速度控制得很好，而且这时除了偶尔有些小漩涡外，海洋是一片平静。他借浪潮之助节省了三分之一的力量。这一天刚破晓时，他发现自己已经划得比他预期此时所在的位置还要远了。他心想，我在「深井」已经将近一个星期了，但却一无所获。今天我就到成群鲣鱼和青花鱼出没的地去，也许在它们之中有一条大鱼呢。在天还没有完全亮以前，他已经把鱼饵都放下水了，随着水流漂浮。
One bait was down forty fathoms. The second was at seventy-five and the third and fourth were down in the blue water at one hundred and one hundred and twenty-five fathoms. Each bait hung head down with the shank of the hook inside the bait fish, tied and sewed solid and all the projecting part of the hook, the curve and the point, was covered with fresh sardines. Each sardine was hooked through both eyes so that they made a half-gar-land on the projecting steel. There was no part of the hook that a great fish could fell which was not sweet smelling and good tasting.
其中一个鱼饵垂到大约四十啊深的地方，另一个大约垂到七十五啊的地方，其它分别垂在一百啊及一百二十五啊深蓝色的海水中。每一个鱼饵的头都是朝下的，钩子上端则完全藏在鱼饵的身体里，并且被捆得紧紧的，钩子突出的弯曲部份以及顶端，都被新鲜的沙丁鱼掩藏起来。每一条沙丁鱼的双眼都被钩子穿过去，而鱼身沿着钩子突出部分弯出一个半圆形，像个花环。如此一来，大鱼接近时候会以为整个鱼钩既鲜美又可口。