像兄弟一樣航行

The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well.

老人覺得虛脫、想吐，眼睛也看不清楚。

But he cleared the harpoon line and let it run slowly through his raw hands and, when he could see, he saw the fish was on his back with his silver belly up.

可是他把魚叉的繩子理順，讓它慢慢從他血肉模糊的手裡滑出去；等他看得見了，他看見那條魚仰躺著，銀色的肚皮朝上。

The shaft of the harpoon was projecting at an angle from the fish's shoulder and the sea was discolouring with the red of the blood from his heart.

魚叉的柄斜斜地從那魚的肩上突出來，海水正被牠心臟流出的血染成紅色。

First it was dark as a shoal in the blue water that was more than a mile deep.

起先那片血暗得像一片暗礁，浮在深過一哩的藍水裡。

Then it spread like a cloud.

接著它像一朵雲那樣散開。

The fish was silvery and still and floated with the waves.

那魚銀亮亮地、一動不動地隨著浪漂著。

The old man looked carefully in the glimpse of vision that he had.

老人用他那點勉強看得見的視力仔細地看。

Then he took two turns of the harpoon line around the bitt in the bow and laid his head on his hands.

然後他把魚叉的繩子在船頭的繫纜樁上繞了兩圈，把頭擱在自己的手上。

"Keep my head clear," he said against the wood of the bow.

「讓我的腦子保持清楚，」他對著船頭的木板說。

"I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work."

「我是個累壞的老頭。可是我殺了這條魚——牠是我的兄弟——而現在我必須幹那些奴隸的活兒。」

Now I must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside, he thought.

現在我得把套索和繩子準備好，把牠綁在船邊，他想。

Even if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out, this skiff would never hold him.

就算我們有兩個人，把船灌滿水好把牠裝進來、再把水舀出去，這條小船也絕對裝不下牠。

I must prepare everything, then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home.

我得把一切準備好，然後把牠拉過來、好好綁牢，豎起桅杆，揚帆回家。

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.

他開始把那魚拉過來、拉到船邊，好把一條繩子穿過牠的鰓、從嘴裡出來，把牠的頭牢牢繫在船頭旁邊。

I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him.

我想看看牠，他想，摸摸牠，感覺牠。

He is my fortune, he thought.

牠是我的財富，他想。

But that is not why I wish to feel him.

可是我想摸牠，不是因為那個。

I think I felt his heart, he thought.

我想我摸到了牠的心臟，他想。

When I pushed on the harpoon shaft the second time.

在我第二次推那根魚叉柄的時候。

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.

現在把牠拉過來綁牢，一條套索套住牠的尾巴，再一條套住牠的腰身，把牠綁在小船上。

"Get to work, old man," he said.

「幹活吧，老頭子，」他說。

He took a very small drink of the water.

他喝了非常小的一口水。

"There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over."

「仗打完了，現在有非常多奴隸的活兒要幹。」

He looked up at the sky and then out to his fish.

他抬頭看天，再望向他那條魚。

He looked at the sun carefully.

他仔細地看了看太陽。

It is not much more than noon, he thought.

才剛過中午沒多久，他想。

And the trade wind is rising.

而信風正在起來。

The lines all mean nothing now.

那些線現在都無所謂了。

The boy and I will splice them when we are home.

等回到家，我和男孩會把它們接起來。

"Come on, fish," he said.

「過來吧，魚，」他說。

But the fish did not come.

可是那魚沒有過來。

Instead he lay there wallowing now in the seas and the old man pulled the skiff up onto him.

牠只是躺在那裡，在浪裡翻滾著；於是老人把小船拉過去靠上牠。

When he was even with him and had the fish's head against the bow he could not believe his size.

等他跟牠並齊、把魚頭靠上船頭時，他簡直不敢相信牠的大小。

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 the other gill, made another turn around the bill and knotted the double rope and made it fast to the bitt in the bow.

不過他還是把魚叉的繩子從繫纜樁上解開，穿過那魚的鰓、從牠的上下顎之間出來，在牠的劍上繞一圈，再把繩子穿過另一邊的鰓，又在那長吻上繞一圈，把雙股繩打了結，繫牢在船頭的繫纜樁上。

He cut the rope then and went astern to noose the tail.

然後他把繩子割斷，走到船尾去套牠的尾巴。

The fish had turned silver from his original purple and silver, and the stripes showed the same pale violet colour as his tail.

那魚已經從原本的紫與銀變成了銀色，身上的條紋顯出跟牠尾巴一樣的淡紫色。

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.

那些條紋比一個人張開手指的手掌還寬；而那魚的眼睛，看上去抽離得像潛望鏡裡的鏡片，又像遊行隊伍裡的一尊聖像。

"It was the only way to kill him," the old man said.

「那是殺牠的唯一辦法，」老人說。

He was feeling better since the water and he knew he would not go away and his head was clear.

喝了水以後他覺得好些了，而且他知道自己不會垮掉，腦子也清楚。

He's over fifteen hundred pounds the way he is, he thought.

就這樣牠也超過一千五百磅了，他想。

Maybe much more.

說不定還多得多。

If he dresses out two-thirds of that at thirty cents a pound?

要是處理過後剩三分之二，一磅三毛錢的話，那是多少？

"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."

「這我需要一支鉛筆，」他說。「我腦子還沒清楚到那個地步。不過我想，偉大的狄馬喬今天會以我為榮。我沒有骨刺。可是我的手和背是真的痛。」

I wonder what a bone spur is, he thought.

不知道骨刺到底是什麼東西，他想。

Maybe we have them without knowing of it.

說不定我們也有，只是自己不知道。

He made the fish fast to bow and stern and to the middle thwart.

他把那魚牢牢綁在船頭、船尾和中間的橫座板上。

He was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongside.

牠那麼大，簡直像在船邊綁了一條大得多的船。

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.

他割下一段線，把那魚的下顎綁在牠的長吻上，好讓牠的嘴不會張開，兩條船就能盡量乾淨俐落地走。

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.

接著他豎起桅杆，用那根當搭鉤用的棍子撐起帆桁；那面補丁的帆吃住了風，船動了起來，他半躺在船尾，朝西南方駛去。

He did not need a compass to tell him where south-west was.

他不需要羅盤來告訴他西南在哪裡。

He only needed the feel of the trade wind and the drawing of the sail.

他只需要信風的感覺，和帆吃風的樣子。

I better put a small line out with a spoon on it and try and get something to eat and drink for the moisture.

我最好放一條小線、掛個匙形假餌，試著弄點東西吃、弄點水分，他想。

But he could not find a spoon and his sardines were rotten.

可是他找不到假餌，沙丁魚也爛了。

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.

於是他趁經過的時候用搭鉤勾住一團漂過的黃色馬尾藻，抖了抖，藻裡的小蝦就掉在船板上。

There were more than a dozen of them and they jumped and kicked like sand fleas.

有十幾隻，牠們又跳又踢，像沙蚤一樣。

The old man pinched their heads off with his thumb and forefinger and ate them chewing up the shells and the tails.

老人用拇指和食指把牠們的頭掐掉，連殼帶尾一起嚼著吃了。

They were very tiny but he knew they were nourishing and they tasted good.

牠們非常小，可是他知道那有營養，而且味道不錯。

The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps.

老人瓶子裡還有兩口水，吃完蝦之後他用掉了其中半口。

The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm.

考慮到這些累贅，這條小船走得算好；他把舵柄夾在腋下掌舵。

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.

他看得見那條魚；而他只要看看自己的手、感覺一下抵著船尾的背，就知道這件事真的發生過，不是一場夢。

At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end, he had thought perhaps it was a dream.

到最後那段最難受的時候，他一度以為這說不定是場夢。

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.

後來他看見那魚出了水，在落下之前一動不動地懸在天上，他就確定這裡頭有某種巨大的奇異，反而不敢相信了。

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

接著他就看不清楚了，儘管現在他看得跟從前一樣好。

Now he knew there was the fish and his hands and back were no dream.

現在他知道那條魚是真的，他的手和他的背也不是夢。

The hands cure quickly, he thought.

手很快就會好，他想。

I bled them clean and the salt water will heal them.

我把它們的血放乾淨了，鹹水會治好它們。

The dark water of the true gulf is the greatest healer that there is.

真正的灣流那片黑水，是世上最好的療傷者。

All I must do is keep the head clear.

我要做的只有讓腦子保持清楚。

The hands have done their work and we sail well.

手已經做完了它們的工作，而我們走得很好。

With his mouth shut and his tail straight up and down we sail like brothers.

牠嘴閉著，尾巴直直地上下豎著，我們像兄弟一樣航行。

Then his head started to become a little unclear and he thought, is he bringing me in or am I bringing him in?

接著他的腦子又有點不清楚了，他想：是牠在把我帶回去，還是我在把牠帶回去？

If I were towing him behind there would be no question.

如果我是拖著牠走的，那就沒有疑問。

Nor if the fish were in the skiff, with all dignity gone, there would be no question either.

如果那魚躺在船裡、尊嚴全失，那也沒有疑問。

But they were sailing together lashed side by side and the old man thought, let him bring me in if it pleases him.

可是他們是綁在一起、並排航行的；老人想：那就讓牠把我帶回去吧，如果牠高興的話。

I am only better than him through trickery and he meant me no harm.

我只是靠詭計勝過牠，而牠對我從來沒有惡意。

They sailed well and the old man soaked his hands in the salt water and tried to keep his head clear.

他們走得很好；老人把手泡在鹹水裡，努力讓腦子保持清楚。

There were high cumulus clouds and enough cirrus above them so that the old man knew the breeze would last all night.

高處有積雲，上面還有夠多的卷雲，所以老人知道這陣風會吹一整夜。

The old man looked at the fish constantly to make sure it was true.

老人不斷地看著那條魚，好確定它是真的。

It was an hour before the first shark hit him.

一個鐘頭之後，第一條鯊魚撞上了牠。