The Old Man and the Sea

Vocabulary

flinch 退缩，畏缩

He closed them firmly so they would take the pain now and would not flinch and watched the sharks come.

lunge v. 猛冲，扑

He heard the tiller break and he lunged at the shark with the splintered butt.

Expression

Sharks

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.

鲨鱼描写，生动。

The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail. The shark’s head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark’s head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose. There were no such lines. There was only the heavy sharp blue head and the big eyes and the clicking, thrusting all-swallowing jaws. But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it. He hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength. He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy.

But by midnight he fought and this time he knew the fight was useless. They came in a pack and he could only see the lines in the water that their fins made and their phosphorescence as they threw themselves on the fish. He clubbed at heads and heard the jaws chop and the shaking of the skiff as they took hold below. He clubbed desperately at what he could only feel and hear and he felt something seize the club and it was gone.

一次又一次地抗争，老人也累了。但他还是克服了内心深处的恐惧，以顽强的意志取得了胜利。

Thought

大鱼的血迹浸染了海面，引来了鲨鱼。

此时的老人已经筋疲力竭，但他努力地为自己鼓劲。

“Think about something cheerful, old man,” he said. “Every minute now you are closer to home. You sail lighter for the loss of forty pounds.”

It is silly not to hope, he thought.

和鲨鱼抗争时的他，把大鱼当成了朋友，诉自己的苦。

“They must have taken a quarter of him and of the best meat,” he said aloud. “I wish it were a dream and that I had never hooked him. I’m sorry about it, fish. It makes everything wrong.”

“I shouldn’t have gone out so far, fish,” he said. “Neither for you nor for me. I’m sorry, fish.”

“You give me much good counsel,” he said aloud. “I’m tired of it.”

巨大的无力感袭来，在鲨鱼面前，老人和鱼都是鱼肉。

但老人屈服了吗？

“Come on, galano,” the old man said. “Come in again.”

面对成群结队的鲨鱼群的围攻，疲惫不堪的老人却异常坚定，在几乎没有希望的情况下，他决定与鲨鱼拼个你死我活！

“Fight them,” he said. “I’ll fight them until I die.”

所以老人不惜拿出血本，动用手头所有的武器去敲打去揍死迎面而来的鲨鱼。

当凶狠贪婪的鲨鱼接二连三地来围攻大鱼时，本已精疲力竭的老人，为了保存自己的劳动果实，重新振作起来，奋不顾身地迎战鲨鱼。

他眼睁睁地看着大鱼的鱼肉被一波又一波的鲨鱼吞食，却一直没有停止反抗。

开始他用鱼叉对付，鱼叉被受了伤的鲨鱼带走了，他就用绑在桨上的刀一个一个地结果它们。鱼叉被带走了，刀子折断了，还有许多鲨鱼来围攻，老人仍然坚强不屈地支撑着。

He was stiff and sore now and his wounds and all of the strained parts of his body hurt with the cold of the night. I hope I do not have to fight again, he thought. I hope so much I do not have to fight again.

他在心里说:“只要我有桨，有短棍，有舵把，我一定要想办法去揍死它们”。

夜里大群鲨鱼又来纠缠，老人在没有锐利武器的情况下仍然奋力拼搏，他的大鱼虽然被吃光了，但鲨鱼被他打得不是死亡便是负伤逃窜。而老人终于也收获了平静，虽遍体鳞伤，但得以平安返航。

多么顽强的意志，多么傲人的勇气，多么勇敢的抗争，哪个读者读到老人平安返航时不会动容？