登陆注册
1191500000030

第30章 英文版 (20)

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. 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. 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.”

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. But there was no way to keep its scent out of the water and the old man knew that a very had time was coming.

The breeze was steady. It had backed a little further into the north-east 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 the yellow patches of Gulf weed. He could not even see a bird.

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 word 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. 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. 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.”

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 slitted 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 shark’s yellow cat-like eyes. 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. 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. The old man reversed the oar and put the blade between the shark’s jaws to open them. He twisted the blade and as the shark slid loose he said, “Go on, galano. Slide down a mile deep. Go see your friend, or maybe it’s your mother.”

The old man wiped the blade of his knife and laid down the oar. Then he found the sheet and the sail filled and he brought the skiff onto her course.

同类推荐
  • 万寿寺

    万寿寺

    王小波的作品一直盛行不衰,王小波的小说在世界文学之林中创造出属于他的美,这美就像一束强光,刺穿了时间的阻隔,启迪了一代又一代刚刚开始识字读书的青年的心灵。其次,这个现象也表明,王小波批评的对象有些还活得好好的。而到今天,这些话语、这些思想仍是我们的社会所需要的。
  • 看破官红颜:裙带当风

    看破官红颜:裙带当风

    她们背后,到底有着怎样的力量?雷区遍布的官场,到底谁是中心?谁是关键?山雨欲来风满楼,裙带关系正如蜘蛛网般四处辐射……一起来翻阅《裙带当风》吧!
  • 墨系0607班

    墨系0607班

    本书讲述了主人公“我”在收到了一位自称是“靡费斯特”的面具列车员,交给“我”的具有神秘力量的神奇钢笔后,“我”的世界开始发生了奇妙巨变的故事。一年之内,我加入了神秘组织“墨守七处”,并在导师与伙伴们的“胁迫”下,卷入了一系列“惊吓事件”。主人公“我”始终扮演着“悲情角色”,苦寻平静的“彼岸”。
  • 永不回头

    永不回头

    这是一个关于负罪与自我救赎的真实故事,主要描述刑满释放人员这一边缘人群回归社会,重新直面现实,直面亲情、友情和爱情的生活全景,真实再现这一社会弱势人群所面临的种种困惑、消沉、自立、感恩以及获得新生的快乐。这些被忽视的人群不但有理想有抱负,还能用爱回报别人,回报社会,他们可以用自己的勤劳和智慧创造美好的生活。
  • 进步

    进步

    小说以“机关小人物”丁四喜人生命运的顺逆起伏为主线,将其面对生存、职业、事业、权力、名位、美女、情感、家庭、金钱的种种压力、挑战、诱惑与考验所表现出来的喜怒悲欢、矛盾困惑展现的淋漓尽致。
热门推荐
  • TFBOYS之霸道易少盛夏初恋

    TFBOYS之霸道易少盛夏初恋

    安沫可是安氏的千金大小姐。她在第一眼见到王俊凯的时候,就知道非追他不可了。但是,在与王俊凯的交往中,易烊千玺居然…。他和安沫可会怎样?
  • 重生之定武皇后

    重生之定武皇后

    她本为嫡女,却被姨娘陷害逐出家门她本有良缘,但为庶妹所夺声名狼藉为了唯一的弟弟,她放弃一切尊严,当熊熊烈火漫上她的身躯,她双目泣血立下毒誓:如有来生,定要他们血债血偿但是她没想到的是,当她再次睁开眼睛,已是另一番天地只是多了一个亦正亦邪的他,站在复仇的业火中向她伸出了手
  • 销售细节全书

    销售细节全书

    销售精英的成功秘诀:把销售过程中每一个微小的细节放大,把所有的细节做到位。在销售工作中,如何要想做到出类拔萃,就必须要在细节上下功夫。销售员只有把工作中的每一个细节都做深做透,才能取得最终的胜利。本书就是为现阶段,在销售行业上无人拓展,无法大施拳脚的销售新人和在自己的工作岗位上已经取得一些业绩,希望自己得到进一步提升的销售员朋友们度身定做的。全书攫取的大量的具有说服力的经典实例,融入了销售行业成功人士多年销售经验的精华。对销售工作的整个过程进行全面细致的剖析,在方法和技巧上,作出了详细的阐述。全书脉络清晰,语言通俗易懂,方法技巧实用,能够切实地解决读者朋友的实际困难和工作疑惑。
  • 五行组,出击!

    五行组,出击!

    面对黑暗魔王的压迫,除了抗争之外,没有第二条路可以选择。哪里有压迫,哪里就有反抗,看我们兄弟五人并肩战斗,让阴霾笼罩的大陆上重现光明!我们同生共死,因为我们是兄弟!我们不畏强权,因为我们有着坚定的信仰!我们不怕磨难,因为我们有着坚强的意志!看,前方有邪恶势力在做嵩,五行组,出击!是我们大显身手的时候了!!
  • 金粉世家(全二册)

    金粉世家(全二册)

    北洋军阀国务总理的小儿子金燕西,迷恋上贫家女学生冷清秋,一段悲欣交集的爱情故事就此展开。巧遇、穷追、订情、结婚、婚变、出走,平民女子与世家公子的爱情悲剧,影射出一部豪门贵族飘摇岁月中的兴衰史。
  • 与尸同眠

    与尸同眠

    最近谈了一个漂亮女朋友,竟然在我熟睡后,爬到我的身上……我本来以为是恶搞,但是我从知道我被偷拍开始,一切都变了,我看到在我睡着之后,我女朋友诡异的行为……深扒你熟睡之后,你亲密的人会对你做什么诡异的事情?
  • 孤世争霸

    孤世争霸

    一个人的力量,一个人的世界,承载着不同责任与斗争!这个世界,隐藏着许多的未知和诱惑,不同的事物,不同的角度,渐渐向世人解析……是斗争?是阴谋?那么需要降临与体验……
  • 重生之废材九小姐的逆袭

    重生之废材九小姐的逆袭

    她是20世纪的天之骄子,美貌与智慧并存!却因为一次事故穿越到另一个空间!而且还成为一个被人鄙视的废材!这让万千宠爱集与一身的她怎么承受。不行她要改变自己!
  • 寻归之路

    寻归之路

    昔日张扬的少年重新回到了那个危险而刺激的世界
  • 苏丝黄的世界

    苏丝黄的世界

    Susie wong(苏丝黄)这个笔名和1960年那部美国烂片没有关系。它只是一时心血来潮时的随口一说,和这个专栏的诞生一样匆忙草率。当时,我醉心于让自己的名字填满整个报纸,从第一版到最后一版。而且最后一版编辑们是那么纵容和善良,不仅忍受我的涂鸦,而且在我的再三恳求下,尽可能地在生活上教我腐化堕落。