厦门论文翻译-英版《老人与海》捕鱼兜圈的哲学

 

我从来没有这样疲乏过，他想，而现在刮起贸易风来了。但是正好靠它来把这鱼拖回去。我多需要这风啊。“等它下一趟朝外兜圈子的时候，我要歇一下，”他说。“我觉得好过多了。再兜两三圈，我就能逮住它。”他的草帽被推到后脑勺上去了，他感到鱼在转身，随着钓索一扯，他在船头上一起股坐下了。

You work now, fish, he thought. I‘ll take you at the turn. The sea had risen considerably. But it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get home.

你现在忙你的吧，鱼啊，他想。你转身时我再来对付你。海浪大了不少。不过这是晴天吹的微风，他得靠它才能回去。

"I‘ll just steer south and west," he said. "A man is never lost at sea and it is a long island." It was on the third turn that he saw the fish first. “我只消朝西南航行就成，”他说。“人在海上是决不会迷路的，何况这是个长长的岛屿。”鱼兜到第三圈，他才第一次看见它。

He saw him first as a dark shadow that took so long to pass under the boat that he could not believe its length.

他起先看见的是一个黑乎乎的影子，它需要那么长的时间从船底下经过，他简直不相信它有这么长。厦门论文翻译-英版《老人与海》捕鱼兜圈的哲学。

"No," he said. "He can‘t be that big."“不能，”他说。“它哪能这么大啊。”

　　

But he was that big and at the end of this circle he came to the surface only thirty yards away and the man saw his tail out of water. It was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water. It raked back and as the fish swam just below the surface the old man could see his huge bulk and the purple stripes that banded him. His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.

但是它当真有这么大，这一圈兜到末了，它冒出水来，只有三十码远，老人看见它的尾巴露出在水面上。这尾巴比一把大镰刀的刀刃更高，是极淡的浅紫色，竖在深蓝色的海面上。它朝后倾斜着，鱼在水面下游的时候，老人看得见它庞大的身躯和周身的紫色条纹。它的脊鳍朝下耷拉着，巨大的胸鳍大张着。

　　

On this circle the old man could see the fish‘s eye and the two gray sucking fish that swam around him. Sometimes they attached themselves to him. Sometimes they darted off. Sometimes they would swim easily in his shadow. They were each over three feet long and when they swam fast they lashed their whole bodies like eels.

这回鱼兜圈子回来时，老人看见它的眼睛和绕着它游的两条灰色的乳鱼。它们有时候依附在它身上。有时候倏地游开去。有时候会在它的阴影里自在地游着。它们每条都有三英尺多长，游得快时全身猛烈地甩动着，象鳗鱼一般。

　　

The old man was sweating now but from something else besides the sun. On each calm placid turn the fish made he was gaining line and he was sure that in two turns more he would have a chance to get the harpoon in.

老人这时在冒汗，但不光是因为晒了太阳，还有别的原因。鱼每回沉着、平静地拐回来时，他总收回一点钓索，所以他确信再兜上两个圈子，就能有机会把鱼叉扎进去了。

But I must get him close, close, close, he thought. I mustn‘t try for the head. I must get the heart.

可是我必须把它拉得极近，极近，极近，他想。我千万不能扎它的脑袋。我该扎进它的心脏。

"Be calm and strong, old man," he said.“要沉着，要有力，老头儿，”他说。

　　

On the next circle the fish‘s back was out but he was a little too far from the boat. On the next circle he was still too far away but he was higher out of water and the old man was sure that by gaining some more line he could have him alongside.

又兜了一圈，鱼的背脊露出来了，不过它离小船还是太远了一点。再兜了一圈，还是太远，但是它露出在水面上比较高些了，老人深信，再收回一些钓索，就可以把它拉到船边来。

He had rigged his harpoon long before and its coil of light rope was in a round basket and the end was made fast to the bitt in the bow.

他早就把鱼叉准备停当，叉上的那卷细绳子给搁在一只圆筐内，一端紧系在船头的系缆柱上。

　　

The fish was coming in on his circle now calm and beautiful looking and only his great tail moving. The old man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closer. For just a moment the fish turned a little on his side. Then he straightened himself and began another circle.

这时鱼正兜了一个圈子回来，既沉着又美丽，只有它的大尾巴在动。老人竭尽全力把它拉得近些。有那么一会儿，鱼的身子倾斜了一点儿。然后它竖直了身子，又兜起圈子来。

"I moved him," the old man said. "I moved him then."“我把它拉动了，”老人说。“我刚才把它拉动了。”

He felt faint again now but he held on the great fish all the strain that he could. I moved him, he thought. Maybe this time I can get him over. Pull, hands, he thought. Hold up, legs. Last for me, head. Last for me. You never went. This time I‘ll pull him over.

他又感到头晕，可是他竭尽全力拽住了那条大鱼。我把它拉动了，他想。也许这一回我能把它拉过来。拉呀，手啊，他想。站稳了，腿儿。为了我熬下去吧，头。为了我熬下去吧。你从没晕倒过。这一回我要把它拉过来。

　　

But when he put all of his effort on, starting it well out before the fish came alongside and pulling with all his strength, the fish pulled part way over and then righted himself and swam away.

但是，等他把浑身的力气都使出来，趁鱼还没来到船边，还很远时就动手，使出全力拉着，那鱼却侧过一半身子，然后竖直了身子游开去。

　　

"Fish," the old man said. "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?"

“鱼啊，”老人说。“鱼，你反正是死定了。难道你非得把我也害死吗？”

　　

That way nothing is accomplished, he thought. His mouth was too dry to speak but he could not reach for the water now. I must get him alongside this time, he thought. I am not good for many more turns. Yes you are, he told himself. You‘re good for ever. 

照这样下去是会一事无成的，他想。他嘴里干得说不出话来，但是此刻他不能伸手去拿水来喝。我这一回必须把它拉到船边来，他想。它再多兜几圈，我就不行了。不，你是行的，他对自己说。你永远行的。

On the next turn, he nearly had him. But again the fish righted himself and swam slowly away.

在兜下一圈时，他差一点把它拉了过来。可是这鱼又竖直了身子，慢慢地游走了。

　　

You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.

你要把我害死啦，鱼啊，老人想。不过你有权利这样做。我从没见过比你更庞大、更美丽、更沉着或更崇高的东西，老弟。来，把我害死吧。我不在乎谁害死谁。厦门论文翻译-英版《老人与海》捕鱼兜圈的哲学。

　　

Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.

你现在头脑糊涂起来啦，他想。你必须保持头脑清醒。保持头脑清醒，要象个男子汉，懂得怎样忍受痛苦。或者象一条鱼那样，他想。

　　

"Clear up, head," he said in a voice he could hardly hear. "Clear up." Twice more it was the same on the turns. I do not know, the old man thought. He had been on the point of feeling himself go each time. I do not know. But I will try it once more.

“清醒过来吧，头，”他用自己也简直听不见的声音说。“清醒过来吧。”鱼又兜了两圈，还是老样子。我弄不懂，老人想。每一回他都觉得自己快要垮了。我弄不懂。但我还要试一下。

　　

He tried it once more and he felt himself going when he turned the fish. The fish righted himself and swam off again slowly with the great tail weaving in the air. I‘ll try it again, the old man promised, although his hands were mushy now and he could only see well in flashes.

 

他又试了一下，等他把鱼拉得转过来时，他感到自己要垮了。那鱼竖直了身子，又慢慢地游开去，大尾巴在海面上摇摆着。我还要试一下，老人对自己许愿，尽管他的双手这时已经软弱无力，眼睛也不好使，只看得见间歇的一起。

 

He took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the fish‘s agony and the fish came over onto his side and swam gently on his side, his bill almost touching the planking of the skiff and started to pass the boat, long, deep, wide, silver and barred with purple and interminable in the water.

他忍住了一切痛楚，拿出剩余的力气和丧失已久的自傲，用来对付这鱼的痛苦挣扎，于是它游到了他的身边，在他身边斯文地游着，它的嘴几乎碰着了小船的船壳板，它开始在船边游过去，身子又长，又高，又宽，银色底上有着紫色条纹，在水里看来长得无穷无尽。

　　

The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength, and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish‘s side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man‘s chest. He felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it.

老人放下钓索，一脚踩住了，把鱼叉举得尽可能地高，使出全身的力气，加上他刚才鼓起的力气，把它朝下直扎进鱼身的一边，就在大胸鳍后面一点儿的地方，这胸鳍高高地竖立着，高齐老人的胸膛。他感到那铁叉扎了进去，就把身子倚在上面，把它扎得更深一点，再用全身的重量把它压下去。

　　

Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great beauty. He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.

于是那鱼闹腾起来，尽管死到临头了，它仍从水中高高跳起，把它那惊人的长度和宽度，它的力量和美，全都暴露无遗。它仿佛悬在空中，就在小船中老人的头顶上空。然后，它砰的一声掉在水里，浪花溅了老人一身，溅了一船。

　　

The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well. 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. The shaft of the harpoon was projectin g at an angle from the fish‘s shoulder and the sea was discolouring with the red of the blood from his heart. First it was dark as a shoal in the blue water that was more than a mile deep. Then it spread like a cloud. The fish was silvery and still and floated with the waves.

老人感到头晕，恶心，看不大清楚东西。然而他放松了鱼叉上的绳子，让它从他划破了皮的双手之间慢慢地溜出去，等他的眼睛好使了，他看见那鱼仰天躺着，银色的肚皮朝上。鱼叉的柄从鱼的肩部斜截出来，海水被它心脏里流出的鲜血染红了。起先，这摊血黑魆魆的，如同这一英里多深的蓝色海水中的一块礁石。然后它象云彩般扩散开来。那鱼是银色的，一动不动地随着波浪浮动着。

The old man looked carefully in the glimpse of vision that he had. Then he took two turns of the harpoon line around the bitt in the bow and laid his head on his hands.

老人用他偶尔着得清的眼睛仔细望着。接着他把鱼叉上的绳子在船头的系缆柱上绕了两圈，然后把脑袋搁在双手上。

Now I must prepare the nooses and the rope to lash him alongside, he thought. Even if we were two and swamped her to load him and bailed her out, this skiff would never hold him. I must prepare everything, then bring him in and lash him well and step the mast and set sail for home.

现在我得准备好套索和绳子，把它绑在船边，他想。即使我这里有两个人，把船装满了水来把它拉上船，然后把水舀掉，这条小船也绝对容不下它。我得做好一切准备，然后把拖过来，好好绑住，竖起桅杆，张起帆驶回去。

　　

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.

他动手把鱼拖到船边，这样可以用一根绳子穿进它的鳃，从嘴里拉出来，把它的脑袋紧绑在船头边。我想看看它，他想，碰碰它，摸摸它。它是我的财产，他想。然而我想摸摸它倒不是为了这个。我以为刚才已经碰到了它的心脏，他想。那是在我第二次握着鱼叉的柄扎进去的时候。现在得把它拖过来，牢牢绑住，用一根套索拴住它的尾巴，另一根拴住它的腰部，把它绑牢在这小船上。

"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.

“过来吧，鱼，”他说。可是这鱼不过来。它反而躺在海面上翻滚着，老人只得把小船驶到它的身边。等他跟它并拢了，并把鱼的头靠在船头边，他简直无法相信它竟这么大。他从系缆柱上解下鱼叉柄上的绳子，穿进鱼鳃，从嘴里拉出来，在它那剑似的长上颚上绕了一圈，然后穿过另一个鱼鳃，在剑嘴上绕了一圈，把这双股绳子挽了个结，紧系在船头的系缆柱上。然后他割下一截绳子，走到船梢去套住鱼尾巴。鱼已经从原来的紫银两色变成了纯银色，条纹和尾巴显出同样的淡紫色。这些条纹比一个人揸开五指的手更宽，它的眼睛看上去冷漠得象潜望镜中的反射镜，或者迎神行列中的圣徒像。厦门论文翻译-英版《老人与海》捕鱼兜圈的哲学。

　　

"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?

“要杀死它只有用这个办法，”老人说。他喝了水，觉得好过些了，知道自己不会垮，头脑很清醒。看样子它不止一千五百磅重，他想。也许还要重得多。如果去掉了头尾和下脚，肉有三分之二的重量，照三角钱一磅计算，该是多少？

　　

"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.

“我需要一支铅笔来计算，”他说。“我的头脑并不清醒到这个程度啊。不过，我想那了不起的迪马吉奥今天会替我感到骄傲。我没有长骨刺。可是双手和背脊实在痛得厉害。”不知道骨刺是什么玩意儿，他想。也许我们都长着它，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.

他把鱼紧系在船头、船梢和中央的座板上。它真大，简直象在船边绑上了另一只大得多的船。他割下一段钓索，把鱼的下颌和它的长上颚扎在一起，使它的嘴不能张开，船就可以尽可能干净利落地行驶了。然后他竖起桅杆，装上那根当鱼钩用的棍子和下桁，张起带补丁的帆，船开始移动，他半躺在船梢，向西南方驶去。

 

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.

老人瓶中还有两口水，他吃了虾以后，喝了半口。考虑到这小船的不利条件，它行驶得可算好了，他把舵柄挟在胳肢窝里，掌着舵。他看得见鱼，他只消看看自己的双手，感觉到背脊靠在船梢上，就能知道这是确实发生的事儿，不是一场梦。有一个时期，眼看事情要告吹了，他感到非常难受，以为这也许是一场梦。等他后来看到鱼跃出水面，在落下前一动不动地悬在半空中的那一刹那，他确信此中准有什么莫大的奥秘，使他无法相信。当时他看不大清楚，尽管眼下他又象往常那样看得很清楚了。厦门论文翻译-英版《老人与海》捕鱼兜圈的哲学。

 

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.

他们航行得很好，老人把手浸在盐水里，努力保持头脑清醒。积云堆聚得很高，上空还有相当多的卷云，因此老人看出这风将刮上整整一夜。老人时常对鱼望望，好确定真有这么回事。这时候是第一条鲨鱼来袭击它的前一个钟点。