老人與海中英對照 Chapter 24

老人與海中英對照 Chapter 24

He started to pull the fish in to have him alongside so that he could pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast alongside the bow. I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him. He is my fortune, he thought. But that is not why I wish to feel him. I think I felt his heart, he thought. When I pushed on the harpoon shaft the second time. 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.

  他動手把魚拖到船邊,這樣可以用一根繩子穿進它的鰓,從嘴裡拉出來,把它的腦袋緊綁在船頭邊。我想看看它,他想,碰碰它,摸摸它。它是我的財產,他想。然而我想摸摸它倒不是為了這個。我以為剛才已經碰到了它的心臟,他想。那是在我第二次握著魚叉的柄扎進去的時候。現在得把它拖過來,牢牢綁住,用一根套索拴住它的尾巴,另一根拴住它的腰部,把它綁牢在這小船上。  

  "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."

  “動手幹活吧,老頭兒,”他說。他喝了很少的一口水。“戰鬥既然結束了,就有好多辛苦的活兒要幹呢。”  

  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.

  他抬頭望望天空,然後望望船外的魚。他仔細望望太陽。晌午才過了沒多少時候,他想。而貿易風颳起來了。這些釣索現在都用不著了。回家以後,那孩子和我要把它們捻接起來。  

  "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 t he other gill, made another turn around the bill and knotted the double rope and made it fast to the bitt in the bow. He cut the rope then and went astern to noose the tail. The fish had turned silver from his original purple and silver, and the stripes showed the same pale violet colour 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.

  “過來吧,魚,”他說。可是這魚不過來。它反而躺在海面上翻滾著,老人只得把小船駛到它的身邊。等他跟它併攏了,並把魚的頭靠在船頭邊,他簡直無法相信它竟這麼大。他從繫纜柱上解下魚叉柄上的繩子,穿進魚鰓,從嘴裡拉出來,在它那劍似的長上顎上繞了一圈,然後穿過另一個魚鰓,在劍嘴上繞了一圈,把這雙股繩子挽了個結,緊繫在船頭的繫纜柱上。然後他割下一截繩子,走到船梢去套住魚尾巴。魚已經從原來的紫銀兩色變成了純銀色,條紋和尾巴顯出同樣的淡紫色。這些條紋比一個人揸開五指的手更寬,它的眼睛看上去冷漠得象潛望鏡中的反射鏡,或者迎神行列中的聖徒像。  

  "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. 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?

  “要殺死它只有用這個辦法,”老人說。他喝了水,覺得好過些了,知道自己不會垮,頭腦很清醒。看樣子它不止一千五百磅重,他想。也許還要重得多。如果去掉了頭尾和下腳,肉有三分之二的重量,照三角錢一磅計算,該是多少?  

  "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.

  “我需要一支鉛筆來計算,”他說。“我的頭腦並不清醒到這個程度啊。不過,我想那了不起的迪馬吉奧今天會替我感到驕傲。我沒有長骨刺。可是雙手和背脊實在痛得厲害。”不知道骨刺是什麼玩意兒,他想。也許我們都長著它,自己不知道。  

  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. 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 south-west.

  他把魚緊繫在船頭、船梢和中央的座板上。它真大,簡直象在船邊綁上了另一隻大得多的船。他割下一段釣索,把魚的下頜和它的長上顎紮在一起,使它的嘴不能張開,船就可以儘可能乾淨利落地行駛了。然後他豎起桅杆,裝上那根當魚鉤用的棍子和下桁,張起帶補丁的帆,船開始移動,他半躺在船梢,向西南方駛去。  

  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. 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.

  他不需要羅盤來告訴他西南方在哪裡。他只消憑貿易風吹在身上的感覺和帆的動向就能知道。我還是放一根系著匙形假餌的細釣絲到水裡去,釣些什麼東西來吃吃吧,也可以潤潤嘴。可是他找不到匙形假餌,他的沙丁魚也都腐臭了。所以他趁船經過的時候用魚鉤鉤上了一簇黃色的馬尾藻,把它抖抖,使裡面的小蝦掉在小船船板上。  

  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.

  小蝦總共有一打以上,蹦跳著,甩著腳,象沙蚤一般。老人用拇指和食指掐去它們的頭,連殼帶尾巴嚼著吃下去。它們很小,可是他知道它們富有營養,而且味道也好。  

  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. Then he could not see well, although now he saw as well as ever.

  老人瓶中還有兩口水,他吃了蝦以後,喝了半口。考慮到這小船的不利條件,它行駛得可算好了,他把舵柄挾在胳肢窩裡,掌著舵。他看得見魚,他只消看看自己的雙手,感覺到背脊靠在船梢上,就能知道這是確實發生的事兒,不是一場夢。有一個時期,眼看事情要告吹了,他感到非常難受,以為這也許是一場夢。等他後來看到魚躍出水面,在落下前一動不動地懸在半空中的那一剎那,他確信此中準有什麼莫大的奧秘,使他無法相信。當時他看不大清楚,儘管眼下他又象往常那樣看得很清楚了。  

  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. 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.

  現在他知道這魚就在這裡,他的雙手和背脊都不是夢中的東西。這雙手很快就會痊癒的,他想。它們出血出得很多,海水會把它們治好的。這真正的海灣中的深暗的水是世上最佳的治療劑。我只消保持頭腦清醒就行。這兩隻手已經盡了自己的本份,我們航行得很好。魚閉著嘴,尾巴直上直下地豎著,我們象親兄弟一樣航行著。接著他的頭腦有點兒不清楚了,他竟然想起,是它在帶我回家,還是我在帶它回家呢?如果我把它拖在船後,那就毫無疑問了。如果這魚丟盡了面子,給放在這小船上,那麼也不會有什麼疑問。可是他們是並排地拴在一起航行的,所以老人想,只要它高興,讓它把我帶回家去得了。我不過靠了詭計才比它強的,可它對我並無惡意。


分享到:


相關文章: