夜闻悦读·《老人与海》17 中英对照

In the dark the old man could feel themorning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish leftthe water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared awayin the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principalfriends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicatedark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and hethought, the birds have a harder life than we do except for the robber birdsand the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine asthose sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and verybeautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds thatfly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicatelyfor the sea.

He always thought of the sea as la marwhich is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes thosewho love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she werea woman.

老人在黑暗中感觉到早晨在来临，他划着划着，听
见飞鱼出水时的颤抖声，还有它们在黑暗中凌空飞翔时
挺直的翅膀所发出的咝咝声。他非常喜爱飞鱼，拿它们
当作他在海洋上的主要朋友。他替鸟儿伤心，尤其是那
些柔弱的黑色小燕鸥，它们始终在飞翔，在找食，但几
乎从没找到过，于是他想，乌儿的生活过得比我们的还
要艰难，除了那些猛禽和强有力的大鸟。既然海洋这样
残暴，为什么象这些海燕那样的鸟儿生来就如此柔弱和
纤巧？海洋是仁慈并十分美丽的。然而她能变得这样残
暴，又是来得这样突然，而这些飞翔的鸟儿，从空中落
下觅食，发出细微的哀鸣，却生来就柔弱得不适宜在海
上生活。
他每想到海洋，老是称她为la mar，这是人们对海
洋抱着好感时用西班牙语对她的称呼。有时候，对海洋
抱着好感的人们也说她的坏话，不过说起来总是拿她当
女性看待的。