老人與海|The old man and the sea(28)

04-13

"Dont think, old man," he said aloud. "Sail on this course and take it when it comes." But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have like 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 great 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.

「老頭子，不要想了，」他大聲地說：「朝著這條航線航行吧！一切順天由人好了。」他想，但是我必須要思考，我所剩下來的就是思考了。除了會思考外也只有棒球了。不曉得偉大的狄瑪基歐會不會喜歡我刺中它頭腦的這一擊。這沒什麼了不起，他想。任何人都做得到的。但是，你有沒有想過，我這一雙手就如你身上的骨刺一樣，是多大的障礙嗎？我實在不了解，我的腳後跟就從來沒出過毛病，除了有一次游泳的時候，不小心踩到一條海鰩魚，腳後跟被刺了一下後，整條小腿都麻痹了，痛得不能忍受。

"Think about something cheerful, old man," he said. "Every minute now you are closer to home. You sail lighter for the loss of forty pounds." He knew quite well the pattern of what could happen when he reached the inner part of the current. But there was nothing to be done now. "Yes, there is," he said aloud. "I can lash my knife to the butt of one of the oars." So he did that with the tiller under his arm and the sheet of the sail under his foot. "Now," he said. "I am still an old man. But I am not unarmed."

「老頭子啊！想點愉快的事吧，」他說。「從現在起的每一分鐘，你會離家更近的。因為少了四十磅的肉，所以你航行起來就輕快多了。」他很清楚當他航行到浪潮裡面時，會發生什麼事情。可是現在已經沒辦法預先作準備了。「有了，有辦法了，」他大聲地說：「我可以把我的刀子綁在一支槳的柄上。」所以他把舵夾在腋下，把帆腳索踩在腳下，他就這麼做了。「現在，」他說：「雖然我是個老人，但我並不是手無寸鐵。」

The breeze was fresh now and he sailed on well. He watched only the forward part of the fish and some of his hope returned. It is silly not to hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it. I have no understanding of it and I am not sure that I believe in it. Perhaps it was a sin to kill the fish. I suppose it was even though I did it to keep me alive and feed many people. But then everything is a sin.

微風涼爽地吹著，他航行得很順利。他只注視著魚的前半部，因此又尋回一些希望。不存希望的人太愚蠢了，他想。而且我相信，那是一種罪惡。不要想著罪惡，他想。此刻沒有罪惡，問題就已經夠多了，而且我怎麼也搞不懂這些罪惡啊。我不懂罪惡，而且也不能確定我相信罪惡。也許殺害這條大魚本身就是罪惡。我想，應該是的，即使我殺它是為了生存，而且也為了讓許多人有魚肉吃。但是這樣說的話，任何事都是罪惡了。

Do not think about sin. It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it. Let them think about it. You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was born to be a fish. San Pedro was a fisherman as was the father of the great DiMaggio. But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in and since there was nothing to read and he did not have a radio, he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin. You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought.

不要想罪惡，現在想已為時太晚，而且有些人就是專靠這個吃飯的。讓那些人去想吧。你生來就是一個漁夫，就像大魚生來就是一條魚一樣，桑匹德羅是個漁夫，就像狄瑪基歐的父親一樣也是個漁夫。他喜歡去思索所有與他有關聯的事物，既然沒有東西閱讀，也沒有收音機，他便想得很多，而不斷地在思索罪惡。你殺這一條魚並不完全是為了自己的生存，也不是為了要賣出換取食物，他想。

You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more? "You think too much, old man," he said aloud. But you enjoyed killing the dentuso, he thought. He lives on the live fish as you do. He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything. "I killed him in self-defense," the old man said aloud. "And I killed him well."

你殺它完全是為了個人的驕傲，而且也因為你是一個漁夫。當它活著的時候，你愛它，當它死了以後，你還愛它。如果你愛它，殺了它就不是一種罪惡，或者罪惡更深？他大聲說：「老頭子，你想得太多了。」但是你殺死那隻惡魔鯊魚，感覺就很痛快。他想。它也靠捕食活魚維生，和你一樣。它也不吃腐肉，也不像其它鯊魚一樣，游到那兒，吃到那兒，它美麗又高貴，對什麼都不懼怕。「我殺它是為了自衛。」老人大聲地說。「而且殺得很高明。」

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much. He leaned over the side and pulled loose a piece of the meat of the fish where the shark had cut him. He chewed it and noted its quality and its good taste. It was firm and juicy, like meat, but it was not red. There was no stringiness in it and he knew that it would bring the highest price in the market.

此外他想，總是一物剋一物，只是方式不同而已。捕魚生涯害了我，但是同樣地維持了我的生命。是那男孩延續了我的生命，他想。我千萬不可太過份地欺騙自己啊。他倚靠在船邊，從大魚被鯊魚咬破的地方撕下一塊肉，放在嘴裡嚼一嚼，品嘗肉的品質和它的美味，它的肉堅實又多汁，就像其它肉類一樣，就差不是紅色的。魚肉里也沒有筋，他曉得這拿到市場去可以賣到最好的價錢。

But there was no way to keep its scent out of the water and the old man knew that a very bad time was coming. The breeze was steady. It had backed a little further into the northeast and he knew that meant that it would not fall off. The old man looked ahead of him but he could see no sails nor could he see the hull nor the smoke of any ship. There were only the flying fish that went up from his bow sailing away to either side and he yellow patches of Gulf weed. He could not even see a bird.

但是此刻，他沒有辦法避免魚肉的血腥味散溢到水中，老人知道，惡劣的時刻即將來臨。微風穩定地吹著，並且更略為吹向東北方了，他知道這表示風不會平息。老人朝前望去，他看不見任何帆影，也看不見任何一艘船，更看不見船上所冒的煙，只有飛魚從船頭的兩邊掠過，以及一片片黃色的墨西哥灣海草。他甚至看不見一隻鳥兒。

He had sailed for two hours, resting in the stern and sometimes chewing a bit of the meat from the marlin, trying to rest and to be strong, when he saw the first of the two sharks. "Ay," he said aloud. There is no translation for this world and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood. "Galanos," he said aloud. He had seen the second fin now coming up behind the first and had identified them as shovel-nosed sharks by the brown, triangular fin and the sweeping movements of the tail.

他已經航行兩個小時了，這期間他靠在船尾歇息，有時從馬林魚身上撕下一片肉放在口中嚼，他正想休息一會兒，以便養精蓄銳時，有兩條鯊魚游來，他看見其中的第一條。「唉呀，」他用墨西哥土語大聲喊道。這個字是無法被精確地翻譯出來的，也許當一個人的手被釘子穿過，釘到木頭上的時候，便會不由自主地發出這種聲音。「虎鯊，」他用墨西哥土語大聲地喊著。此刻在第一條鯊魚鰭的後面，他看到了第二條鰭，根據那三角形的棕色背鰭和尾巴搖擺的動作，他可以斷定這兩條鯊魚是鏟形鼻頭的虎鯊。

They had the scent and were excited and in the stupidity of their great hunger they were losing and finding the scent in their excitement. But they were closing all the time. The old man made the sheet fast and jammed the tiller. Then he took up the oar with the knife lashed to it. He lifted it as lightly as he could because his hands rebelled at the pain. Then he opened and closed them on it lightly to loosen them. He closed them firmly so they would take the pain now and would not flinch and watched the sharks come.

魚的血腥味讓它們興奮了起來。在過度的飢餓和興奮之下，它們一會兒跟丟了香味，一會兒又找到了香味。可是它們終究正不斷地逼近了。老人把帆索栓緊，再把舵柄夾緊，然後拿起綁有刀子的槳柄，由於他的手痛得不聽指揮，他儘可能地輕輕舉起槳。他的兩隻手先在槳柄上張開又握住，以便鬆弛一下筋骨。然後，他緊緊地握住槳柄，他的手已經可以承受得住疼痛，而不至於畏縮了。他全神貫注地觀察著鯊魚的來臨。

He could see their wide, flattened, shovel-pointed heads now and their white-tipped wide pectoral fins. They were hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as killers, and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat. It was these sharks that would cut the turtles legs and flippers off when the turtles were asleep on the surface, and they would hit a man in the water, if they were hungry, even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime on him. "Ay," the old man said. "Galanos. Come on galanos."

他可以看到它們那寬大而扁平，如尖形鏟的頭部，和末端呈白色的寬闊胸鰭。它們是一種可恨的鯊魚，有惡臭味，吃腐爛的食物，也捕食活魚，當它們餓的時候，甚至連槳或者船的舵也會咬一口。就是這種鯊魚，會趁著烏龜在水面上熟睡的時候，咬斷烏龜的手腳，也會攻擊在水中的人類，當它們飢餓的時候，即使人身上沒有魚的血腥味，也沒有魚的黏液，都會遭到襲擊。老人說：「嘿，虎鯊，放馬過來吧！」

They came. But they did not come as the Mako had come. One turned and went out of sight under the skiff and the old man could feel the skiff shake as he jerked and pulled on the fish. The other watched the old man with his slotted yellow eyes and then came in fast with his half circle of jaws wide to hit the fish where he had already been bitten. The line showed clearly on the top of his brown head and back where the brain joined the spinal cord and the old man drove the knife on the oar into the juncture, withdrew it, and drove it in again into the sharks yellow cat-like eyes.

它們來了，但它們來的情形不像鰻口鯊一樣。其中一隻轉了一圈後，便跑到船底下，看不見了，當它撕拉魚肉時，老人可以感覺船在震動。另外一隻先是瞇著它黃色的細小眼睛望著老人，然後很快地衝上來，用它那幾乎是半圓形的下巴，咬住大魚已經被咬過的地方。它棕色的頭和背脊上的條線很清楚，明顯地指出大腦與脊髓交會的位置，老人便將那隻綁了刀的槳，刺進那交會點，抽回來，又往鯊魚貓似的黃色眼睛刺下去。

The shark let go of the fish and slid down, swallowing what he had taken as he died. The skiff was still shaking with the destruction the other shark was doing to the fish and the old man let go the sheet so that the skiff would swing broadside and bring the shark out from under. When he saw the shark he leaned over the side and punched at him. He hit only meat and the hide was set hard and he barely got the knife in. The blow hurt not only his hands but his shoulder too.

鯊魚對大魚總算鬆了口，然後溜下去，臨死時還把搶走的那塊魚肉硬吞下去。小船仍舊搖動著，因為另外一條鯊魚還在那兒搶食那條大魚，老人放鬆了帆索，讓小船打橫後，船底下的鯊魚便暴露出來。當他看見那條鯊魚的時候，就在船邊傾身，向它刺去。卻只打到它身上的肉，而鯊魚的皮很厚，他勉強地把刀子刺了進去。這麼一用力，不但手感到疼痛，肩膀也跟著痛了起來。

But the shark came up fast with his head out and the old man hit him squarely in the center of his flat-topped head as his nose came out of water and lay against the fish. The old man withdrew the blade and punched the shark exactly in the same spot again. He still hung to the fish with his jaws hooked and the old man stabbed him in his left eye. The shark still hung there. "No?" the old man said and he drove the blade between the vertebrae and the brain. It was an easy shot now and he felt the cartilage sever.

但是這條鯊魚很快地把頭露出水面，當它鼻子剛露出水面靠向大魚的時候，老人很準確地擊中它扁平頭部的中央。老人把刀子抽出來，然後又在同樣的位置刺了一下，但是它仍然用它寬闊的嘴巴，咬住大魚不放，老人往它左眼刺下去，鯊魚仍然沒有鬆開口。「你還不走？」老人說，並把刀刃刺向它的背脊骨與大腦之間。這次很容易就刺進去了，他感覺到鯊魚的軟骨被切斷了。