人能忍受什麼

With his prayers said, and feeling much better, but suffering exactly as much, and perhaps a little more, he leaned against the wood of the bow and began, mechanically, to work the fingers of his left hand.

禱詞念完了，他覺得好多了，可是受的苦一分不減，說不定還多了一點；他靠在船頭的木板上，機械地活動起左手的手指。

The sun was hot now although the breeze was rising gently.

太陽這會兒很烈，雖然微風正輕輕地起來。

"I had better re-bait that little line out over the stern," he said.

「我最好把船尾外面那條小線重新掛上餌，」他說。

"If the fish decides to stay another night I will need to eat again and the water is low in the bottle.

「要是那魚決定再撐一夜，我就得再吃一頓，而瓶子裡的水不多了。

I don't think I can get anything but a dolphin here.

在這裡除了鬼頭刀，我大概什麼也弄不到。

But if I eat him fresh enough he won't be bad.

不過只要夠新鮮就吃，牠也不難吃。

I wish a flying fish would come on board tonight.

但願今晚有條飛魚跳上船來。

But I have no light to attract them.

可是我沒有燈可以引牠們過來。

A flying fish is excellent to eat raw and I would not have to cut him up.

飛魚生吃極好，而且我不必動刀切牠。

I must save all my strength now.

現在我得省下全部的力氣。

Christ, I did not know he was so big."

天哪，我沒想到牠那麼大。」

"I'll kill him though," he said. "In all his greatness and his glory."

「不過我還是要殺牠，」他說。「連同牠所有的偉大與榮耀。」

Although it is unjust, he thought.

雖然這不公平，他想。

But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures.

可是我要讓牠看看一個人能做什麼，一個人能忍受什麼。

"I told the boy I was a strange old man," he said. "Now is when I must prove it."

「我跟男孩說過我是個怪老頭，」他說。「現在正是我必須證明它的時候。」

The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing.

他證明過的那一千次，一點也不算數。

Now he was proving it again.

現在他又在證明一次。

Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.

每一次都是新的一次，而他做的時候，從來不去想過去。

I wish he'd sleep and I could sleep and dream about the lions, he thought.

但願牠睡一睡，好讓我也睡一睡、夢見那些獅子，他想。

Why are the lions the main thing that is left?

為什麼剩下來最主要的東西，偏偏是獅子？

Don't think, old man, he said to himself.

別想了，老頭子，他對自己說。

Rest gently now against the wood and think of nothing.

現在好好靠著木頭歇著，什麼都別想。

He is working. Work as little as you can.

牠在幹活。你盡量少幹一點。

It was getting into the afternoon and the boat still moved slowly and steadily.

時候進入下午了，船還是慢慢地、穩穩地走。

But there was an added drag now from the easterly breeze and the old man rode gently with the small sea and the hurt of the cord across his back came to him easily and smoothly.

不過東邊的微風添了些阻力；老人隨著微微起伏的海面輕輕晃著，那條橫在背上的線帶來的疼，就這樣輕柔平順地送到他身上。

Once in the afternoon the line started to rise again.

下午有一回，那條線又開始往上升。

But the fish only continued to swim at a slightly higher level.

可是那魚只是繼續在稍微淺一點的地方游。

The sun was on the old man's left arm and shoulder and on his back.

太陽曬在老人的左臂、左肩和背上。

So he knew the fish had turned east of north.

所以他知道那魚已經轉到偏北略東的方向了。

Now that he had seen him once, he could picture the fish swimming in the water with his purple pectoral fins set wide as wings and the great erect tail slicing through the dark.

如今他見過牠一次了，就能想像牠在水裡游的樣子：紫色的胸鰭像翅膀一樣張得大開，那條又大又直的尾巴切開黑暗。

I wonder how much he sees at that depth, the old man thought.

不知道在那個深度牠看得見多少，老人想。

His eye is huge and a horse, with much less eye, can see in the dark.

牠的眼睛很大，而馬的眼睛比牠小得多，卻能在黑暗裡看見東西。

Once I could see quite well in the dark.

我從前在黑暗裡也看得相當清楚。

Not in the absolute dark. But almost as a cat sees.

不是全黑的時候。可是幾乎像貓那樣看得見。

The sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramped his left hand now completely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little.

太陽和他不斷活動手指的動作，已經讓左手完全不抽筋了；他開始把更多的力道挪到它身上，又聳了聳背上的肌肉，好把線帶來的疼稍微挪個位置。

"If you're not tired, fish," he said aloud, "you must be very strange."

「魚啊，你要是還不累，」他出聲說，「那你一定非常怪。」

He felt very tired now and he knew the night would come soon and he tried to think of other things.

他這會兒覺得非常累，知道夜快來了，就試著想些別的事。

He thought of the Big Leagues, to him they were the Gran Ligas, and he knew that the Yankees of New York were playing the Tigres of Detroit.

他想起大聯盟——在他心裡那是 Gran Ligas——他知道紐約洋基正在跟底特律老虎（Tigres）比賽。

This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought.

這已經是第二天我不知道那些比賽（juegos）的結果了，他想。

But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.

可是我得有信心，我得配得上偉大的狄馬喬——他就算腳跟長了骨刺、忍著痛，每件事還是做得完美無缺。

What is a bone spur? he asked himself.

骨刺是什麼東西？他問自己。

Un espuela de hueso.

Un espuela de hueso（一根骨頭的距）。

We do not have them.

這種東西我們沒有。

Can it be as painful as the spur of a fighting cock in one's heel?

會像鬥雞的距扎進人的腳跟那麼痛嗎？

I do not think I could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks do.

我想我受不了那個，也受不了瞎掉一隻眼、甚至兩隻眼，還像鬥雞那樣繼續打下去。

Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts.

人跟那些偉大的鳥獸比起來，算不了什麼。

Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea.

不過我還是寧可當下面黑暗海水裡的那頭畜生。

"Unless sharks come," he said aloud. "If sharks come, God pity him and me."

「除非鯊魚來，」他出聲說。「要是鯊魚來了，願上帝可憐牠，也可憐我。」

Do you believe the great DiMaggio would stay with a fish as long as I will stay with this one? he thought.

你相信偉大的狄馬喬會像我陪這條魚一樣，陪一條魚耗這麼久嗎？他想。

I am sure he would and more since he is young and strong.

我確定他會，而且會更久，因為他年輕又強壯。

Also his father was a fisherman.

何況他父親也是個漁夫。

But would the bone spur hurt him too much?

不過那根骨刺會不會讓他太痛？

"I do not know," he said aloud. "I never had a bone spur."

「我不知道，」他出聲說。「我從來沒長過骨刺。」

As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks.

太陽下山的時候，為了給自己多一點信心，他想起在卡薩布蘭卡那家酒館裡，跟西恩富戈斯來的那個大個子黑人比腕力的那一回——那人是碼頭上最強壯的男人。

They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight.

他們比了一天一夜，兩人的手肘壓在桌上一道粉筆線上，前臂直直立著，兩隻手緊緊扣在一起。

Each one was trying to force the other's hand down onto the table.

兩個人都在使勁把對方的手壓到桌面上去。

There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro's face.

下注的人很多，人們在煤油燈下進進出出；他看著那黑人的手臂和手，也看著他的臉。

They changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep.

頭八個鐘頭之後，他們每四個鐘頭換一次裁判，好讓裁判能睡覺。

Blood came out from under the fingernails of both his and the negro's hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall and watched.

他和那黑人兩人的指甲底下都滲出血來；他們互相看著對方的眼睛，也看著彼此的手和前臂；賭客們進進出出，坐在靠牆的高椅子上看。

The walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their shadows against them.

牆是木頭的，漆成鮮亮的藍色，燈把他們的影子投在上面。

The negro's shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps.

那黑人的影子很大，隨著風吹動燈火，在牆上晃動。

The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him.

賠率整夜來回變動，他們餵那黑人喝蘭姆酒，替他點菸。

Then the negro, after the rum, would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago El Campeon, nearly three inches off balance.

喝了蘭姆酒之後，那黑人會使出一次驚人的猛勁；有一回他把老人——那時他還不是老人，而是聖狄雅哥·El Campeón（冠軍）——壓得差不多歪了三英寸。

But the old man had raised his hand up to dead even again.

可是老人把手又抬回了正中。

He was sure then that he had the negro, who was a fine man and a great athlete, beaten.

那時候他就確定，自己贏定了那個黑人——那是個好漢，也是個了不起的運動員。

And at daylight when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head, he had unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood.

天亮的時候，賭客們要求算平手，裁判直搖頭；就在那時他放開了全力，把那黑人的手一寸一寸壓下去，壓到貼在木頭上。

The match had started on a Sunday morning and ended on a Monday morning.

比賽是星期天早上開始的，星期一早上結束。

Many of the bettors had asked for a draw because they had to go to work on the docks loading sacks of sugar or at the Havana Coal Company.

好些賭客要求算平手，因為他們得去碼頭上工扛糖包，或者去哈瓦那煤炭公司上班。

Otherwise everyone would have wanted it to go to a finish.

要不是這樣，大家都會希望比到分出勝負為止。

But he had finished it anyway and before anyone had to go to work.

可是他反正把它比完了，而且趕在任何人得去上工之前。

For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion and there had been a return match in the spring.

那之後很長一段時間，大家都叫他「冠軍」；到了春天還有過一場複賽。

But not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from Cienfuegos in the first match.

可是下注的錢不多，而他贏得相當輕鬆，因為第一場他已經把那個西恩富戈斯黑人的信心打垮了。

After that he had a few matches and then no more.

之後他又比了幾場，然後就沒有了。

He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing.

他斷定只要自己夠想贏，就贏得了任何人；他也斷定這對他打魚用的右手不好。

He had tried a few practice matches with his left hand.

他試過用左手練幾場。

But his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it.

可是他的左手一向是個叛徒，不肯照他的吩咐做事，他信不過它。