THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Close to nightfall a dolphin took the small hook he had rebaited. He lifted the fish aboard, careful not to jerk the line over his shoulder. After he had rested, he cut fillets from the dolphin and kept also the two flying fish he found in its maw. That night he slept. He awoke to feel the line running through his fingers as the fish jumped. Feeding line slowly, he tried to tire the marlin. After the fish slowed its run. he washed his cut hands in sea water and ate one of the flying fish. At sunrise the marlin began to circle. Faint and dizzy, he worked to bring the big fish nearer with each turn. Almost exhausted, he finally drew his catch alongside and drove in the harpoon. He drank a little water before he lashed the marlin to bow and stern of his skiff. The fish was two feet longer than the boat. No catch like it had ever been seen in Havana harbor. It would make his fortune, he thought, as he hoisted his patched sails and set his course toward the southwest.
An hour later he sighted the first shark. It was a fierce Mako, and it came in fast to slash with raking teeth at the dead marlin. With failing might the old man struck the shark with his harpoon. The Mako rolled and sank, carrying the harpoon with it and leaving the marlin mutilated and bloody. Santiago knew the scent would spread. Watching, he saw two shovel nosed sharks closing in. He struck at one with his knife lashed to the end of an oar and watched the scavenger sliding down into deep water. The other he killed while it tore at the flesh of the marlin. When the third appeared, he thrust at it with the knife, only to feel the blade snap as the fish rolled. The other sharks came at sunset. At first he tried to club them with the tiller from the skiff, but his hands were raw and bleeding and there were too many in the pack. In the darkness, as he steered toward the faint glow of Havana against the sky, he heard them hitting the carcass again and again. But the old man thought only of his steering and his great tiredness. He had gone out too far and the sharks had beaten him. He knew they would leave him nothing but the stripped skeleton of his great catch.
All lights were out when he sailed into the little harbor and beached his skiff. In the gloom he could just make out the white backbone and the upstanding tail of the fish. he started up the shore with the mast and furled sail of his boat. Once he fell under their weight and lay patiently until he could gather his strength. In his shack he fell on his bed and went to sleep.
There the boy found him later that morning. Meanwhile other fishermen, gathered about the skiff, marveled at the giant marlin, eighteen feet long from nose to tail. When Manolin returned to Santiago's shack with hot coffee, the old man awoke. The boy, he said, could have the spear of his fish. Manolin told him to rest, to make himself fit for the days of fishing they would have together. All that afternoon the old man slept, the boy sitting by his bed. Santiago was dreaming of lions.
— Excerpts from Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form
老 人 与 海
〔美〕海明威 杨枕旦 译注
《老人与海》完全可能成为当代一部名副其实的经典作品。厄纳斯特·海明威的这部短篇小说无疑具有以往许多巨著的共同特点： 在题材所限的范围内几乎达到形式上的完美无缺、处理方法谨严、注意时间和地点的统一，行文简洁而内涵很深。另外，和极大多数巨著一样，海明威的这篇小说读起来可有不止一层的意思。一方面，这是一个激动人心的带有悲剧性的冒险故事。故事讲到一个精神沮丧的老渔人，在他对职业的自豪感(他留下的唯一自豪感)的支持之下，冒险远航至墨西哥湾流并在那里钓住了一条该水域中从未见过的最大的马林鱼。故事接着说到他孤零零地、在因奋力叉住这条大鱼而耗尽了力气之后，被迫投入一场和一群海盗似的鲨鱼的绝望的搏斗之中，结果是那些鲨鱼只给他留下了猎获物的一具骨架。另一方面，这又是一个寓言，它描述了人所具有的不可征服的精神力量——一个人如何从灾难和实际失败的环境中攫取精神上的胜利。再一方面，这是带有宗教意义的一种隐喻，作者不引人注目地给这一主题添加了基督教的一些象征和比喻。和柯勒律治笔下的“老水手”一样，海明威笔下的古巴渔民是这样一个角色，他容许作者的想象力同时在两个领域中活动，这两个领域具有不同的意义和价值，一个注意写实，有着动人的情节；另一个则侧重道德说教，充满象征的意义。
桑提亚哥老人已经八十四天没有捕到一条鱼了。最初，一个年轻的孩子曼诺林和他一起分担恶运，但在过了四十天倒霉日子之后，孩子的爸爸让孩子到另一条船上干活去了。从那个时候起，桑提亚哥只是一个人干活。每天早晨他划着小船到有大鱼出没的墨西哥湾流去，每天晚上他总是两手空空地回来。
孩子喜欢并且可怜这个老渔人。曼诺林要是自己没有挣到钱，就会乞讨或偷窃以保证桑提亚哥有足够的食物和新鲜的鱼饵。老人谦卑地接受孩子的好意，谦卑中带有某种隐而不露的自豪感。晚餐时(吃的是大米饭和黑蚕豆)他们总会谈论在运气好的日子里一起捕获的大鱼，或是谈论美国的棒球赛和伟大的狄马吉奥。夜间桑提亚哥一个人躺在自己的小棚屋里，梦见非洲海滩上的狮子，几年前他航海去过那个地方。他不再梦见自己死去的老婆了。
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