They sailed well and the old man soaked his hands in the salt water and tried to keep his head clear. 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.
他們航行得很好，老人把手浸在鹽水裡，努力保持頭腦清醒。積雲堆聚得很高，上空還有相當多的捲雲，因此老人看出這風將刮上整整一夜。老人時常對魚望望，好確定真有這麼回事。這時候是第一條鯊魚來襲擊它的前一個鐘點。
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. 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.
這條鯊魚的出現不是偶然的。當那一大片暗紅的血朝一英里深的海里下沉並擴散的時候，它從水底深處上來了。它竄上來得那麼快，全然不顧一切，竟然衝破了藍色的水面，來到了陽光裡。跟著它又掉回海里，嗅到了血腥氣的蹤跡，就順著小船和那魚所走的路線游去。
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 sword fish‘s and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a sword fish 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 t he fingers of the old man and they had razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides. 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.
有時候它迷失了那氣味。但是它總會重新嗅到，或者就嗅到那麼一點兒，它就飛快地使勁跟上。它是條很大的灰鯖鯊，生就一副好體格，能遊得跟海里最快的魚一般快，周身的一切都很美，除了它的上下顎。它的背部和劍魚的一般藍，肚子是銀色的，魚皮光滑而漂亮。它長得和劍魚一般，除了它那張正緊閉著的大嘴，它眼下就在水面下迅速地遊著，高聳的脊鰭象刀子般劃破水面，一點也不抖動。在這緊閉著的雙唇裡面，八排牙齒全都朝裡傾斜著。它們和大多數鯊魚的不同，不是一般的金字塔形的。它們象爪子般蜷曲起來的人的手指。它們幾乎跟這老人的手指一般長，兩邊都有刀片般鋒利的快口。這種魚生就拿海里所有的魚當食料，它們遊得那麼快，那麼壯健，武器齊備，以致所向無敵。它聞到了這新鮮的血腥氣，此刻正加快了速度，藍色的脊鰭劃破了水面。
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.
老人看見它在游來，看出這是條毫無畏懼而堅決為所欲為的鯊魚。他準備好了魚叉，繫緊了繩子，一面注視著鯊魚向前游來。繩子短了，缺了他割下用來綁魚的那一截。
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 can not keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him. Dentuso, he thought. Bad luck to your mother.
老人此刻頭腦清醒，正常，充滿了決心，但並不抱著多少希望。光景太好了，不可能持久的，他想。他注視著鯊魚在逼近，抽空朝那條大魚望上一眼。這簡直等於是一場夢，他想。我沒法阻止它來襲擊我，但是也許我能弄死它。登多索鯊，他想。你它媽交上壞運啦。
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. 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-swallowing jaws. But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it. He hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength. He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy.
鯊魚飛速地逼近船梢，它襲擊那魚的時候，老人看見它張開了嘴，看見它那雙奇異的眼睛，它咬住魚尾巴上面一點兒的地方，牙齒咬得嘎吱嘎吱地響。鯊魚的頭露出在水面上，背部正在出水，老人聽見那條大魚的皮肉被撕裂的聲音，這時候，他用魚叉朝下猛地扎進鯊魚的腦袋，正紮在它兩眼之間的那條線和從鼻子筆直通到腦後的那條線的交叉點上。這兩條線實在是並不存在的。只有那沉重、尖銳的藍色腦袋，兩隻大眼睛和那嘎吱作響、吞噬一切的突出的兩顎。可是那兒正是腦子的所在，老人直朝它扎去。他使出全身的力氣，用糊著鮮血的雙手，把一支好魚叉向它扎去。他扎它，並不抱著希望，但是帶著決心和十足的惡意。
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. The shark lay quietly for a little while on the surface and the old man watched him. Then he went down very slowly.
鯊魚翻了個身，老人看出它眼睛裡已經沒有生氣了，跟著它又翻了個身，自行纏上了兩道繩子。老人知道這鯊魚快死了，但它還是不肯認輸。它這時肚皮朝上，尾巴撲打著，兩顎嘎吱作響，象一條快艇般劃奇水面。它的尾巴把水拍打得泛出白色，四分之三的身體露出在水面上，這時繩子給繃緊了，抖了一下，啪地斷了。鯊魚在水面上靜靜地躺了片刻，老人緊盯著它。然後它慢慢地沉下去了。
"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.
“它吃掉了約莫四十磅肉，”老人說出聲來。它把我的魚叉也帶走了，還有那麼許多繩子，他想，而且現在我這條魚又在淌血，其他鯊魚也會來的。
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.
他不忍心再朝這死魚看上一眼，因為它已經被咬得殘缺不全了。魚捱到襲擊的時候，他感到就象自己捱到襲擊一樣。
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.
可是我殺死了這條襲擊我的魚的鯊魚，他想。而它是我見到過的最大的登多索鯊。天知道，我見過一些大的。
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.
光景太好了，不可能持久的，他想。但願這是一場夢，我根本沒有釣到這條魚，正獨自躺在床上鋪的舊報紙上。
"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 an d intelligent. But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better armed.
“不過人不是為失敗而生的，”他說。“一個人可以被毀滅，但不能給打敗。“不過我很痛心，把這魚給殺了，他想。現在倒黴的時刻要來了，可我連魚叉也沒有。這條登多索鯊是殘忍、能幹、強壯而聰明的。但是我比它更聰明。也許並不，他想。也許我僅僅是武器比它強。
"Don‘t think, old man," he said aloud. "Sail on this course and take it when it comes."
“別想啦，老傢伙，”他說出聲來。“順著這航線行駛，事到臨頭再對付吧。”
But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it. But do you think my hands were as grea t a handicap as the bone spurs? I cannot know. I never had anything wrong with my heel except the time the sting ray stung it when I stepped on him when swimming and paralyzed the lower leg and made the unbearable pain.
但是我一定要想，他想。因為我只剩下這個了。這個，還有棒球。不知道那了不起的迪馬吉奧可會喜歡我那樣擊中它的腦子？這不是什麼了不起的事兒，他想。任何人都做得到。但是，你可以為，我這雙受傷的手跟骨刺一樣是個很大的不利條件？我沒法知道。我的腳後跟從沒出過毛病，除了有一次在游水時踩著了一條海鰩魚，被它紮了一下，小腿麻痺了，痛得真受不了。
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