He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. "Santiago," the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. "I could go with you again. We've made some money."

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●skiff [n.] 輕舟；小艇 ● stream [n.] 溪，小河 ● definitely [adv.] 明確地；確定地 ●gaunt [adj.] 憔悴的；骨瘦如柴的 ● benevolent [adj.] 仁慈的，慈善的

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他的左手還在抽筋，不過他慢慢地把它伸展開來。

我最恨抽筋了，他想。這簡直就是身體的反叛。因食物中毒而在他人面前上吐下瀉是很丟臉的事，而抽筋就是丟自己的臉，尤其是單獨一人的時候。

如果那孩子在這裡，他就會幫我揉一揉，從前臂往下按摩，他想。不過它會自己放鬆的。

這時，還沒看到釣索在水中的斜度有改變，他的右手就感覺到拉力有些不同了。接著，就在他彎身去支撐釣索，左手用力在大腿上拍打時，他看到傾斜的釣索緩慢地往前升起。

「牠要上來了，」他說，「手啊，快點好起來，拜託好起來。」

釣索緩慢而穩定地上升，船頭的水面波濤洶湧，那條魚現身了。牠不停地冒上來，水從牠的兩旁傾瀉而下。在太陽下，牠是那麼的耀眼，牠的頭和背是深紫色的，兩側的寬紋在陽光下呈現淡紫。牠的尖嘴有一根棒球棍那麼長，尖得像一把劍。牠全身都浮上水面了，然後又輕巧地潛入水中，有如潛水伕。老人看到牠巨大的鐮刀狀尾巴沒入水中，釣索也跟著奔向前去。

「牠比這艘小船還長兩呎。」老人說。釣索飛快而穩定地滑出去，那條魚一點都不驚慌。老人在不使釣索扯斷的範圍內，用雙手極力握住釣索。他知道如果他用穩固的壓力把魚拉住，牠會拖走所有的釣索，並把它扯斷。

牠是條大魚，我一定要制服牠，他想。我絕不能讓牠知道牠的力量有多大，也不能讓牠知道該怎麼逃跑。如果我是牠，我現在就會拚命地跑，直到把釣索扯斷為止。可是，謝謝老天爺，牠們不如我們這些殺手聰明，儘管牠們比我們更高貴，也更有能耐。

老人見過許多大魚，其中有很多都超過一千磅重，而他這輩子也曾捕獲兩條那麼重的，但是那時候他並不是單獨一人。現在他單獨一人，遠離陸地，和一條他從沒見過也從沒聽說過的最大的魚在一起，而他的左手仍然和繃緊的鷹爪一樣僵硬。

它會停止抽筋的，他心想。當然它要停止抽筋，才能去幫助右手。這裡有三樣東西是親兄弟：那條魚和我的兩隻手。抽筋一定要停止。手一抽筋就沒有用了。那條魚又再度慢下來，照著牠之前的速度前進。

不知道為什麼牠要跳起來，老人心想。他跳起來好像是為了向我顯示牠有多麼巨大。不管怎樣，我現在知道了，他想。真希望我可以讓牠知道我是個怎麼樣的人，可是那樣牠就會看到我抽筋的手了。讓牠把我想得比我本身還強健吧，到時候我也真會如牠所想地那樣強壯。他想，真希望我是那條魚，可以用所有的一切來對付我，而我只不過是有一點意志力和腦力罷了。

他舒服地靠在木板上，咬著牙承受不時發作的痛楚。那條魚穩定地游動，小船緩慢滑過黝黑的海水。從東方吹來的風掀起微波，到了中午，老人的手就不再抽筋了。

「魚啊，這對你是個壞消息，」他說，把釣索從披在肩膀上的麻袋移開。

雖然覺得很舒服，他卻一直感到疼痛，儘管他不願承認有疼痛這回事。

「我不是很虔誠，」他說，「可是只要能抓到這條魚，我願意唸十遍天主經和十遍聖母經。我也發誓，如果逮到牠，我就去柯布雷的聖母堂那裡朝聖。我發誓。」

他開始機械式地唸起禱告文。有時他疲倦得記不起經文，就快速地唸過去，讓經文自己跑出來。聖母經比天主經好唸多了，他想。

「萬福瑪利亞，妳充滿聖寵，主與妳同在，妳在婦女中受讚頌，妳的親子耶穌同受讚頌。天主聖母瑪利亞，求妳現在和我們臨終時，為我們罪人祈求天主。阿門。」他又加了一句：「萬福聖母，求您賜這條魚死，雖然牠很了不起。」

說完了祈禱文，他覺得好多了，可是疼痛並沒有減輕，也許還更劇烈了些。他倚靠在船頭的木板上，開始下意識地活動左手的指頭。

這時太陽已經很酷熱了，雖然有微風輕輕吹起。

「我最好還是把船尾那根細釣線重新裝上魚餌，」他說，「如果那條魚還要再堅持一個晚上，我就要再吃點東西，而且水瓶裡的水也剩下不多了。我想，這裡除了海豚什麼也釣不到，不過如果能趁新鮮時吃，海豚的味道並不差。

希望今天晚上會有隻飛魚跳上船，可是我沒有燈光去引誘牠們。飛魚生吃是再好不過的，而且不需要用刀子切。我現在必須盡量節省體力。天啊，我沒有料到牠是這麼的龐大。」

「可是，我會宰了牠的，」他說，「不管牠有多麼龐大，有多麼壯觀。」

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff...