The Old Man and The Sea 老人与海-Part 8

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Part 8

Just then the stern line came taut under his foot, where he had kept a loop of the line, and he dropped his oars and felt the weight of the small tuna's shivering pull as he held the line firm and commenced to haul it in. The shivering increased as he pulled in and he could see the blue back of the fish in the water and the gold of his sides before he swung him over the side and into the boat.

正在这个时候,他脚下连着船尾那条鱼线的绳圈突然变 紧了。他马上放下了桨,紧握绳子准备把鱼拖上船,他感觉到小鲔鱼颤抖的拉力。当他将鱼 线向内施时,抖动的力量增大了,就在他把它甩过船边弄上船之前,他看见了水中那条鱼蓝 色的背脊和金黄色的两侧。

He lay in the stern in the sun, compact and bullet shaped, his big, unintelligent eyes staring as he thumped his life out against the planking of the boat with the quick shivering strokes of his neat, fast-moving tail. The old man hit him on the head for kindness and kicked him, his body still shuddering, under the shade of the stern. "Albacore," he said aloud. "He'll make a beautiful bait. He'll weigh ten pounds." He did not remember when he had first started to talk aloud when he was by himself.

它躺在阳光照耀着的船尾,长得像一颗子弹的身体十分结实。当它被重重的摔在船板上去,这条面临着死亡的鱼,睁着他那痴呆的大眼,精巧的尾巴急速地颤抖、拍打着。老人为了同 情它这般惨状,往它头上打了一下又踢了它几下,然而它的身体依然在船尾的阴影里中颤抖 着。「青花鱼,」他大声地说:「这条鱼可以做很好的鱼饵,它大概有十磅重。」他已经记 不得自己从什么时候开始,会在独自一人时,这样大声地自语自语。

He had sung when he was by himself in the old days and he had sung at night sometimes when he was alone steering on his watch in the smacks or in the turtle boats. He had probably stared to talk aloud, when alone, when the boy had left. But he did not remember. When he and the boy fished together they usually spoke only when it was necessary. They talked at night or when they were storm-bound by bad weather. It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea and the old man had always considered it so and respected it.

早年当他身旁没人时,总是喜欢唱唱歌。有时晚上在有蓄鱼槽船上、或是捕海龟的船上值班 时候他都会唱。可能是那小男孩离开他之后,他才开始会一个人自言自语。但是,他已记不 得了。当他和男孩一起捕鱼时,通常只有在必要时他们才说话。譬如在晚上或被暴风雨这样 的坏天气所困的时候他们才谈话。在海上不说废话被认为是一种美德,而老人也一直是这样 认为的,并且奉行这条美德。

But now he said his thoughts aloud many times since there was no one that they could annoy. "If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy," he said aloud. "But since I am not crazy, I do not care. And the rich have radios to talk to them in their boats and to bring them the baseball." Now is no time to think of baseball, he thought. Now is the time to think of only one thing. That which I was born for. There might be a big one around that school, he thought. I picked up only a straggler from the albacore that were feeding.

但是现在老人都时常把脑子里所想的事情很大声地说出来,反正,他再也不可能干扰到任何 人了。「如果别人听见我一个人这么大声地说话,他们一定会认为我是个疯子,」老人又大 声地说:「但是,就因为我不是疯子,所以我不在乎。有钱的人在船上有无线电和收音机对 他们讲话,报导棒球赛的消息啊。」他想,现在没有时间去想棒球。现在只能有时间想一件 事情,那就是我与生俱来的目标。他想,在那一群鱼中可能有一条大的。我只是从那一群捕 食的青花鱼中,抓到一条落单的而已。

But they are working far out and fast. Everything that shows on the surface today travels very fast and to the northeast. Can that be the time of day? Or is it some sign of weather that I do not know?

它们跑得好远好快。今天海面上的所有东西似乎都跑得非常快,而且朝东北方去。这是不是一个大好时光?或者是一种我不知道的 天气征候呢?