The boy had given him two fresh small tunas, or albacores, which hung on the two deepest lines like plummets and, on the others, he had a big blue runner and a yellow jack that had been used before; but they were in good condition still and had the excellent sardines to give them scent and attractiveness.
男孩给了他两条新鲜的小鲔鱼，或叫青花鱼，现在它们都像铅垂似的挂在两条垂得最深的在线，其它的鱼在线挂的是一条蓝色大鱼和一条黄花鱼，这两个鱼饵虽然已经用过了，但是倒还很完整，而且再加上新鲜的沙丁鱼后，也同样鲜美诱人。
Each line, as thick around as a big pencil, was looped onto a green-sapped stick so that any pull or touch on the bait would make the stick dip and each line had two forty-fathom coils which could be made fast to the other spare coils so that, if it were necessary, a fish could take out over three hundred fathoms of line. Now the man watched the dip of the three sticks over the side of the skiff and rowed gently to keep the lines straight up and down and at their proper depths. It was quite light and any moment now the sun would rise. The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see the other boats, low on the water and well in toward the shore, spread out across the current.
每一条鱼线大概都像一枝船笔那么粗，上面还捆了一个用树脂做的小杆子，只要鱼饵一被拉动或碰触，小杆子便会往沈。另外每一条线随时都还可以连接两卷四十噚长的预备线，必要时，一条鱼最长可以拖出三百噚长的线。现在，老人守着小船旁的三根小木棍，等待看到它们往下沉，他慢慢地划着，使鱼线随时保持垂直并垂到应有的深度。天色已十分亮了，太阳马上就会升起来了。太阳微微地从海面升起，老人看见了水平线另一边的其它船只，朝着海岸，在水流之上散布开来。
Then the sun was brighter and the glare came on the water and then, as it rose clear, the flat sea sent it back at his eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rowed without looking into it. He looked down into the water and watched the lines that went straight down into the dark of the water. He kept them straighter than anyone did, so that at each level in the darkness of the stream there would be a bait waiting exactly where he wished it to be for any fish that swam there. Others let them drift with the current and sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred. But, he thought, I keep them with precision.
天空越来越亮，水面上闪烁着耀眼的阳光，当太阳完全升起来的时候，海面上静止不动的海水将阳光反射到他眼中，他感觉非常刺眼，刺眼得让他只得避开直视阳光而划开去。他望进水里，全神贯注地看着一直垂进水中黑暗之处的鱼线。他比任何人都细心地将鱼线保持垂直，好让每个不同深浅程度的海流中，都如他所愿的有一个鱼饵在那里等着游近的鱼前来上钩。其它人则是让鱼饵随波逐流，以致于有时当鱼饵只有六十噚深，他们却以为是一百噚。然而他却认为，我就是要保持精确。
Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready. The sun was two hours higher now and it did not hurt his eyes so much to look into the east. There were only three boats in sight now and they showed very low and far inshore. All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful.
只可惜我的运气不再了。可是，谁知道呢？也许就是今天了，每一天都是一个新的开始。幸运当然是最好，不过我还是宁愿准确，这样，当机运来临时，你已经准备好了。太阳已经升起两个小时了，这个时候往东边望去，不再像刚才那样刺眼了，现在在他视线之内只剩下三条船，彷佛低于海平面之下，远在海岸边。他心想，在我一生中，清早的阳光总是刺痛我的双眼，然而它们依然还很好。我可以在黄昏时定眼望着太阳而不致眼前发黑。其实黄昏的阳光更强，但是早晨的阳光就是那么伤人。
Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him. He made a quick drop, slanting down on his back-swept wings, and then circled again. "He's got something," the old man said aloud. "He's not just looking." He rowed slowly and steadily toward where the bird was circling. He did not hurry and he kept his lines straight up and down. But he crowded the current a little so that he was still fishing correctly though faster than he would have fished if he was not trying to use the bird.
就在这个时候，他看见一只军舰鸟，展开那长长的黑色翅膀，在他前方的天空中盘旋，突然之间，它将翅膀向后一收，倾身直往下伏冲，然后又开始盘旋。「它一定是抓到什么了，」老人大声地说：「它并不光是看看而已。」他缓慢而稳定地划向鸟儿盘旋的地点，他一点也不匆忙，仍旧保持他的鱼线垂直朝下。但是他稍微设法排挤水流，以便保持正常的捕鱼作业，不过他的船速是比往常捕鱼时快了一些，若不是为了要利用这只鸟，他不会这么做的。
The bird went higher in the air and circled again, his wings motionless. Then be dove suddenly and the old man saw flying fish spurt out of the water and sail desperately over the surface. "Dolphin," the old man said aloud. "Big dolphin." He shipped his oars and brought a small line from under the bow. It had a wire leader and a medium-sized hook and he baited it with one of the sardines. He let it go over the side and then made it fast to a ring bolt in the stern. Then he baited another line and left it coiled in the shade of the bow.
鸟儿往空中飞高了些，并且再度盘旋，它的翅膀一动也没动。然后它突然间往下伏冲，老人看见飞鱼从水中跳出来，拼命地掠过水面。「海豚，」老人大声叫着：「大海豚。」他搁下桨，由船头下拿一条小鱼线，上面有一段铁丝线和一个中型鱼钩，他把它装上沙丁鱼的鱼饵，然后把它从船边放下去，再固定在船尾的环状螺钉上，接着，他装上另外一条鱼线的饵，把线卷好放在船头的阴影处。
He went back to rowing and to watching the long-winged black bird who was working, now, low over the water. As he watched the bird dipped again slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and ineffectually as he followed the flying fish. The old man could see the slight bulge in the water that the big dolphin raised as they followed the escaping fish. The dolphins were cutting through the water below the flight of the fish and would be in the water, driving at speed, when the fish dropped.
他又回过头来划船，并注意看着那只长翅膀的黑鸟，现在，它正低低地飞在水面上准备觅食。
正当他目不转睛地看着的时候，那鸟倾斜着翅膀，再度伏冲下来，然后猛烈却徒劳无益地拍打着翅膀，追逐着飞鱼。老人看见大海豚凸出的身躯惊鸿一瞥地在水中升起，紧追着逃跑的飞鱼。海豚在飞鱼飞跃的水面之下一路游过来，当鱼潜入水中时，海豚正好可以在那儿加速追赶。
It is a big school of dolphin, he thought. They are widespread and the flying fish have little chance. The bird has no chance. The flying fish are too big for him and they go too fast. He watched the flying fish burst out again and again and the ineffectual movements of the bird. That school has gotten away from me, he thought. They are moving out too fast and too far. But perhaps I will pick up a stray and perhaps my big fish is around them. My big fish must be somewhere.
这是好大一群海豚啊，他想。它们散布地太广，飞鱼几乎没有逃命的机会，就连鸟儿也没有捕食的机会了。飞鱼的身躯太大，速度也太快了。他眼看着飞鱼一次又一次地从水面跳起来，以及鸟徒劳无功的行动。老人想，那群海豚已经离我远去了，它们实在游动得太快也太远了。但是，也许我能抓到一条落单的，也或许我要的大鱼就在它们里面。我的大鱼一定在某个地方。
The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray blue hills behind it. The water was a dark blue now, so dark that it was almost purple. As he looked down into it he saw the red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and the strange light the sun made now. He watched his lines to see them go straight down out of sight into the water and he was happy to see so much plankton because it meant fish.
陆地上的云像山峦一样地升起了，海岸变成了一条长长的绿线，后面衬着灰蓝色的小山丘。此刻海水是深蓝色的，深得几乎发紫。他往水中望去，看见红色的浮游生物在深色水中飘浮着，以及此刻阳光照在水中所呈现的奇异色彩。他注视着鱼线，看着它们笔直地垂在水中，直到消失在视线中。他很高兴看见有这么多浮游生物，因为这就表示附近有鱼。
The strange light the sun made in the water, now that the sun was higher, meant good weather and so did the shape of the clouds over the land. But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man of war floating close beside the boat. It turned on its side and then righted itself. It floated cheerfully as a bubble with its long deadly purple filaments trailing a yard behind it in the water.
由于太阳又升高了些，阳光照射在水中所呈现的奇异色彩和陆上云朵的形状一样都暗示着好天气。但是，现在那鸟几乎已射下已经褪色的黄色马尾藻，和一只紫色有毒的水母了。它伸张着须夷，凝胶状的气囊飘浮到船边，翻了个身，然后又复原，在水面上彷佛一个气泡一样好轻松愉快地飘浮着，身后拖着一条有毒的紫色细丝，在水里漂着有一码长的距离。