老人与海

Bring him in now and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around his middle to bind him to the skiff. "Get to work, old man," he said. He took a very small drink of the water. "There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over." He looked up at the sky and then out to his fish. He looked at the sun carefully. It is not much more than noon, he thought. And the trade wind is rising. The lines all mean nothing now. The boy and I will splice them when we are home.

现在把它拖过来，紧紧捆住，并用绳套各别套住它的尾巴和身体的中央，好把它捆在小船上。「快干活吧！老头，」他说着并喝了一小口水。「即然战斗已经结束，还有很多苦差事等要做呢。」他仰望天空，然后又往外向他的鱼瞧了瞧，再小心地对着太阳看，他想中午才刚过不久，而贸易风已经吹起。此刻这条鱼线已经毫无意义了，等回到家后，小男孩和我会把这些线绳再编结起来。

"Come on, fish," he said. But the fish did not come. Instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up-onto him. When he was even with him and had the fish's head against the bow he could not believe his size. But he untied the harpoon rope from the bitt, passed it through the fish's gills and out his jaws, made a turn around his sword then passed the rope through the other gill, made another turn around the bill and knotted the double rope and made it fast to the bitt in the bow.

「过来呀，鱼啊！」他说。但是鱼并没过来，它只是杵在那里，在海中打滚，老人只有把小船拉向鱼。当他与鱼并排，且将鱼头拉近船头时，他几乎不能相信它竟是如此的巨大。他把鱼叉的绳索从木栓上解开，让它穿过鱼鳃，从嘴巴抽出来，然后在鱼的尖嘴上绕了一圈，再把绳穿过另一边的鳃，又在尖嘴上转了一圈，把双股绳子打了一个结，而后紧紧地捆在船头木栓上。

He cut the rope then and went astern to noose the tail. The fist had turned silver from his original purple and silver, and the strips showed the same pale violet color as his tail. They were wider than a man's hand with his fingers spread and the fish's eye looked as detached as the mirrors in a periscope or as a saint in a procession. "It was the only way to kill him," the old man said. He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear.

接着，他把多余的绳子切断，然后到船尾用绳套套住鱼的尾巴。鱼已经由原来的银紫色变成银白色了，它身上的条纹，如同尾巴一样，露出苍白的紫色，那些斑纹比人把五指张开的宽度还要宽，鱼的眼睛看上去好像是潜水镜的镜面，或是像迎神游行里的圣徒那么冷漠。「这是唯一杀死它的方法，」老人说。喝了点水之后他感觉好多了，他晓得他不会再晕眩了，他的头脑已经清醒了。

He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is, he thought. Maybe much more. If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound? "I need a pencil for that," he said. "My head is not that clear. But I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today. I had no bone spurs. But the hands and the back hurt truly." I wonder what a bone spur is, he thought. Maybe we have them without knowing of it. He made the fish fast to bow and stern and to the middle thwart. He was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongside.

由这条鱼的样子看起来，它至少有一千五百磅重，他想。也许更重。如果剖腹处理以后，还剩下三分之二来说，而每一磅卖三十分钱的话？「我需要用只船笔来算才行，」他说。「我的头脑没那么清楚。但是我想伟大的狄玛基欧今天一定会为我感到骄傲。我并没有长骨刺，但是，我的手和背脊却疼痛不堪。」我不晓得骨刺到底是什么，他想。也许我们都有，只是自己不知道而已。他把鱼紧紧地捆在船头、船尾和船中央的坐板位置，这条鱼如此庞大，捆绑起来就像是把另一艘更大的船捆在小船旁边一样。

He cut a piece of line and tied the fish's lower jaw against his bill so his mouth would not open and they would sail as cleanly as possible. Then he stepped the mast and, with the stick that was his gaff and with his boom rigged, the patched sail drew, the boat began to move, and half lying in the stern he sailed southwest. He did not need a compass to tell him where southwest was. He only needed the feel of the trade wind and the drawing of the sail. I better put a small line out with a spoon on it and try and get something to eat and drink for the moisture.

他割了一段绳子，把鱼的下巴和尖嘴捆起来，这样它的嘴巴就不致张开来而使航行受到阻碍。然后他装上桅杆，用鱼叉的杆子与帆下面的木桁，升起补钉累累的帆，船要开始移动了，他于是半躺在船尾，朝西南方航行。他不需要罗盘针来告诉他西南方在哪里，而只要靠着贸易风吹来时的感觉，以及风帆被吹动时摇曳的情形就知道了。我最好用汤匙在它身上划开一条线，再弄点东西吃，并喝点什么，以保持水份。

But he could not find a spoon and his sardines were rotten. So he hooked a patch of yellow Gulf weed with the gaff as they passed and shook it so that the small shrimps that were in it fell onto the planking of the skiff. There were more than a dozen of them and they jumped and kicked like sand fleas. The old man pinched their heads off with his thumb and forefinger and ate them chewing up the shells and the tails. They were very tiny but he knew they were nourishing and they tasted good.

但是他找不到汤匙，而他的沙丁鱼又已经腐坏了。于是当船经过一堆墨西哥湾黄色海草时，他用鱼叉钩住海草并使力摇晃，把里面的小虾都震落在船板上。超过十多只的小虾像沙蚤似的在上面乱跳乱跳。老人用拇指和食指捏掉它们的头，然后连壳带尾地放在嘴里一起咀嚼。虽然这虾很小，但他知道它们营养很丰富，而且尝起来味道鲜美。

The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps. The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm. He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream. At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end, he had thought perhaps it was a dream. Then when he had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky before he fell, he was sure there was some great strangeness and he could not believe it.

老人瓶子里的水还剩下两口，吃完了小虾子，他喝了半口水。以船现在的负荷量来说，它在海中航行得还算蛮顺利的，他将舵柄挟在手臂下操作着小船，他看得见鱼，而且只要再看看他的双手，感觉一下靠在船尾的鱼背，就知道这一切都是实实在在发生过的，而不是一个幻梦。在这场战斗快结束之前，曾经有一段时间他感到非常难受，他曾经想，也许这是一个梦吧。然后，当他看见鱼冲出水面，在还没落下之前，停留于空中的静止状态时，他才确定一件神奇的事已经发生了，他之前几乎不能相信。

Then he could not see well, although now he saw as well as ever. Now he knew there was the fish and his hands and back were no dream. The hands cure quickly, he thought. I bled them clean and the salt water will heal them. The dark water of the true gulf is the greatest healer that there is. All I must do is keep the head clear. The hands have done their work and we sail well. With his mouth shut and his tail straight up and down we sail like brothers.

当时他怎么也看不清楚，然而现在却看得如往常一样清楚。现在他知道那条鱼是存在的，而他双手和背上的痛楚都不是在作梦。手很快就会复元的，他想。血已经流干了，海水中的盐份会把这些伤口治疗好的。墨西哥湾深色的海水是最好的治疗药物。我所应该做的就是保持头脑清醒。手该做的工作都已经完成了，我们航行得很顺利。那条鱼的嘴巴紧闭，尾巴直直竖立着，随海波上下起伏，我们像兄弟一般并肩航行。

Then his head started to become a little unclear and he thought, is he bringing me in or am I bringing him in? If I were towing him behind there would be no question. Nor if the fish were in the skiff, with all dignity gone, there would be no question either. But they were sailing together lashed side by side and the old man thought, let him bring me in if it pleases him. I am only better than him through trickery and he meant me no harm. They sailed well and the old man soaked his hands in the salt water and tried to keep his head clear.

接着，他的头脑又开始有点不清楚了，他在想，到底是它在拖着我走，还是我在拖着它走，假使我把它拖在后面的话，那就毫无疑问了，或者鱼丧尽尊严地被我载在小船上，那也同样地无庸置疑。但是他们却互相捆在一起并排航行，老人想，只要能让它高兴，就让它拖着我回去吧。我只是耍了一些诡计才胜过它的，而它却对我毫无恶意。他们顺利地航行着，老人把双手浸在温水里，想保持头脑清醒。

There were high cumulus clouds and enough cirrus above them so that the old man knew the breeze would last all night. The old man looked at the fish constantly to make sure it was true. It was an hour before the first shark hit him. The shark was not an accident. He had come up from deep down in the water as the dark cloud of blood had settled and dispersed in the mile deep sea. He had come up so fast and absolutely without caution that he broke the surface of the blue water and was in the sun.

云堆积得很高，上面还有许多卷云，老人知道微风将会彻夜地吹着。老人的目光一直没有离开过鱼，来确定这是真的。一个小时过去之后，第一条鲨鱼开始袭击他。鲨鱼来袭是意料中的事。鱼深暗色的血在一哩深的海里，像云朵般地扩散开来，鲨鱼闻到血腥味便由深水中游过来。它来得这么快，这么莽撞，倏地冲破了蓝色水面，出现在阳光下。

Then he fell back into the sea and picked up the scent and started swimming on the course the skiff and the fish had taken. Sometimes he lost the scent. But he would pick it up again, or have just a trace of it, and he swam fast and hard on the course. He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws. His back was as blue as a swordfish's and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome.

然后又沉回海中，循着血腥味，在小船和鱼游过的航线上一路尾随。有时候鲨鱼会把血腥味给跟丢了，但它总会重新找到，或仅靠着一丝丝气味，拼命而飞快地在这条血腥的航道中游过来。这是一条十分巨大的鳗口鲨，它的体型天生就是被造来游得很快的，是大海中最矫捷的鱼。它全身各处除了嘴巴以外都美极了，它的背脊就像剑鱼的背脊一般蓝，腹部则呈银色，它的皮滑嫩洁净。

He was built as a swordfish except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of teeth were slanted inwards. They were not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks. They were shaped like a man's fingers when they are crisped like claws. They were nearly as long as the fingers of the old man and they had razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides.

除了一张大嘴巴外，它的体型像极了剑鱼。它游很快，嘴巴紧紧地闭着。它就在水面下用如刀似的背鳍迅速利落地划开水面。在它紧闭着的双唇嘴里，八排牙齿都朝内倾斜，而不像大多数鲨鱼的牙齿，呈尖尖的金字塔状。它的牙齿有如人类手指卷曲起来时，像爪子一般，长度就像老人手指那么长，牙齿两边像剃刀那么锐利。

This was a fish built to feed on all the fishes in the sea, that were so fast and strong and well armed that they had no other enemy. Now he speeded up as he smelled the fresher scent and his blue dorsal fin cut the water. When the old man saw him coming he knew that this was a shark that had no fear at all and would do exactly what he wished. He prepared the harpoon and made the rope fast while he watched the shark come on. The rope was short as it lacked what he had cut away to lash the fish.

这种鱼生来就是要称霸海洋，捕食所有的鱼类，它们的速度、健壮的体型和全身武装齐备，使得它们所向无敌。那条鲨鱼闻到了新鲜的血腥味，正加速航行，蓝色的背鳍在水中划过。当老人看见它游过来的样子，就知道它是一条毫无畏惧的鲨鱼，它想怎么样，就会怎么做。他一边目不转睛地注视着鲨鱼游过来，一边准备好鱼叉，把绳索绑紧。绳索少了被切去捆那条大鱼的一段，所以现在已经很短了。

The old man's head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope. It was too good to last, he thought. He took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in. It might as well have been a dream, he thought. I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him. Dentuso, he thought. Bad luck to your mother. The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail.

老人头脑很清醒，也很灵光，他意志坚决，但是希望渺茫。美好的事情总是无法持久，他想。当他看见鲨鱼接近时，他往这条硕壮的大鱼望了一眼，他想，这可能原本就是梦，我没办法阻止它不攻击我，但也许我可以制服它，恶魔，他想。算你娘倒霉！鲨鱼快速地接近船尾，当它咬住大鱼的时候，老人看见它张开的嘴巴以及异样的眼神，当它朝大鱼的尾部扑上去时，满嘴的牙齿都卡嗒卡嗒地响着。

The shark's head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark's head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose. There were no such lines. There was only the heavy sharp blue head and the big eyes and the clicking, thrusting all-wallowing jaws. But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it. He hit it with his blood-mashed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength.

鲨鱼的头出现在水面外，背脊也浮出了水面，老人可以听见大鱼的皮肉被撕开的声音，此刻老人用力将鱼叉刺进鲨鱼头部，刺入的点就在鲨鱼两眼之间的横线，和由鼻子往后直划一条线的交叉点上。而事实上鱼的身上当然并没有这些线。在它身上只能看到沉重的蓝色尖头和大大的眼睛，及卡嗒一声使能将一切吞食的大嘴巴。那交叉点就是它的脑的所在位置，老人用他血肉模糊的手，和一根完好的鱼叉，使尽全力朝它刺去。

He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy. The shark swung over and the old man saw his eye was not alive and then he swung over once again, wrapping himself in two loops of the rope. The old man knew that he was dead but the shark would not accept it. Then, on his back, with his tail lashing and his jaws clicking, the shark plowed over the water as a speedboat does. The water was white where his tail beat it and three quarters of his body was clear above the water when the rope came taut, shivered, and then snapped.

他不抱任何希望，却充满了决心和敌意地刺下去。鲨鱼翻了一个身，老人看见鱼眼中所透出的目光已是一片死寂，它又翻了个身把绳索卷了两圈。老人晓得它已经死了，但鲨鱼可不愿承认这件事实。它背朝下躺着，尾巴不停地摆动，大嘴巴一直在那里卡嗒作响。鲨鱼像快艇似地在水上划游，它的尾巴打起白色的水花，这时绳索一紧，先颤了一下便断了，它的身体的四分之三露出了水面。

The shark lay quietly for a little while on the surface and the old man watched him. Then he went down very slowly. "He took about forty pounds," the old man said aloud. He took my harpoon too and all the rope, he thought, and now my fish bleeds again and there will be others. He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated. When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit. But I killed the shark that hit my fish, he thought. And he was the biggest dentuso that I have ever seen. And God knows that I have seen big ones.

鲨鱼很安静地在水面上躺了一会儿，老人注视着它，然后鲨鱼就慢慢地沉下去了。「它抢了大约四十磅的肉。」老人大声地说。它也把我的鱼叉带走了，还有我所有的绳索，老人想，现在我的鱼又流血了，将会有其它的鲨鱼再过来的。鱼已经残缺不全了，老人不想多再看它一眼，当大鱼被攻击的时候，他感觉有如自己被攻击一般。但是我已经杀死了攻击大鱼的那条鲨鱼，它是我看过最大的恶魔，上帝知道，我可看多了大鲨鱼。

It was too good to last, he thought. I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never hooked the fish and was alone in bed on the newspapers. "But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he thought. Now the bad time is coming and I do not even have the harpoon. The dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better armed.

他想，美好的事物总是那么短暂。现在，真希望一切都是梦，希望我没有钓到这条鱼，希望我独自一个人躺在铺着报纸的床上。「但人并不是为失败而生的，」他说。「一个人可以被毁灭，但是永远不能够被打败。」杀了这条大鱼，我感到很难过，他想。现在恶劣的时刻即将来临，而我却连鱼叉都没了。那恶魔如此残酷、神勇、又聪明。但是，我比它更聪明，也许我没有，他想。也许，只不过是我的武装比它要好。