"I wish I had a stone for the knife," the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt. "I should have brought a stone." You should have brought many things, he thought. But you did not bring them, old man. Now is not time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is. "You give me much good counsel," he said aloud. "I'm tired of it." He held the tiller under his arm and soaked both his hands in the water as the skiff drove forward.

He stopped and he did not want to look at the fish now. Drained of blood and awash he looked the colour of the silver backing of a mirror and his stripes still showed. "I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish," he said. "Neither for you nor for me, I'm sorry, fish." Now, he said to himself. Look to the lashing on the knife and see if it had been cut. Then get your hand in order because there still is more to come.

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. "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."

Besides they do not bleed much. There is nothing but that means anything. The bleeding may keep the left from cramping. What can I think of now? He thought. Nothing. I must think of nothing and wait for the next ones. I wish it and really been a dream, he thought. But who knows It might have turned out well. The next shark that came was a single shovelnose. He came like a pig to the trough if a pig had a mouth so wide that you could put your head in it.

"God knows how much that last one took," he said. "But she's much lighter now." He did not want to think of the mutilated under-side of the fish. He knew that each of the jerking bumps of the shark had been meat torn away and that the fish now made a trail for all sharks as wide as a highway through the sea. He was a fish to keep a man all winter, he thought. Don't think of that. Just rest and try to get your hands in shape to defend what is left of him. The blood smell from my hands means nothing now with all that scent in the water.

The old man let him hit the fish and then drove the knife on the oar down into his brain. But the shark jerked backwards as the rolled and the knife blade snapped. The old man settled himself to steer. He did not even watch the big shark sinking slowly in the water, showing first life-size, then small, then tiny. That always fascinated the old man. But he did not even watch it now. "I have the gaff now," he said. "But it will do no good. I have the two oars and the tiller and the short club." 老人先让它咬住大鱼,然后用捆绑着刀的桨往它的脑部刺去.然而当鲨鱼扭转着身体猛然往后退时,刀叶突然间断了.老人坐定下来,把着舵.他完全没去注意水中慢慢往下沉的鲨鱼,当鲨鱼下沈时起先可以看到的是它身体实际的长度,然后慢慢变小了,最后变成一丁点.这种事情原本是很吸引老人的.但是,此刻他却连看都不愿意看一眼.「现在我还有鱼叉,」他说.「可是却没有什么用.不过我还有两把桨、舵柄和短棍.」

The old man saw the brown fins coming along the wide trail the fish must make in the water. They were not even quartering on the scent. They were headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side. He jammed the tiller, made the sheet fast and reached under the stern for the club. It was an oar handle from a broken oar sawed off to about two and a half feet in length. He could only use it effectively with one hand because of the grip of the handle and he took good hold of it with his right hand, flexing his hand on it, as he watched the sharks come. They were both galanos.

Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller. He put his hands in the water again to soak them. It was getting late in the afternoon and he saw nothing but the sea and the sky. There was more wind in the sky than there have been, and soon he hoped that he would see land. "You're tired, old man," he said. "You're tired inside." The sharks did not hit him again until just before sunset.

The other shark had been in and out and now came in again with his jaws wide. The old man could see pieces of the meat of the fish spilling white from the corner of his jaws as he bumped the fish and closed his jaws. He swung at him and hit only the head and the shark looked at him and wrenched the meat loose. The old man swung the club down on him again as he slipped away to swallow and hit only the heavy solid rubberiness. "Come on, galano," the old man said. "Come in again."

I must let the first one get a good hold and hit him on the point of the nose or straight across the top of the head, he thought. The two sharks closed together and as he saw the one nearest him open his jaws and sink them into the silver side of the fish, he raised the club high and brought it down heavy and slamming onto the top of the shark's broad head. He felt the rubbery solidity as the club came down. But he felt the rigidity of bone too and he struck the shark once more hard across the point of the nose as he slid down from the fish.

I could not expect to kill them, he thought. I could have in my time. But I have hurt them both badly and neither one can feel very good. If I could have used a bat with two hands I could have killed the first one surely. Even now, he thought. He did not want to look at the fish. He knew that half of him had been destroyed. The sun had gone down while he had been in the fight with the sharks. "It will be dark soon," he said. "Then I should see the glow of Havana. If I am too far to the eastward I will see the lights of one of the new beaches."

I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fishermen will worry. Many others too, he thought. I live in a good town. He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly. Then something came into his head. "Half fish," he said. "Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others.

The shark came in a rush and the old man hit him as he shut his jaws. He hit him solidly and from as high up as he could raise the club. This time he felt the bone at the base of the brain and he hit him again in the same place while the shark tore the meat loose sluggishly and slid down from the fish. The old man watched for him to come again but neither shark showed. Then he saw one on the surface swimming in circles. He did not see the fin of the other.

How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing." He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free. I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with, he thought. But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife. But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together. What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do? "Fight them," he said. "I'll fight them until I die."

But in the dark now and no glow showing and no lights and only the wind and the steady pull of the sail he felt that perhaps he was already dead. He put his two hands together and felt the palms. They were not dead and he could bring the pain of life by simply opening and closing them. He leaned his back against the stern and knew he was not dead. His shoulders told him. I have all those prayers I promised if I caught the fish, he thought. But I am too tired to say them now. I better get the sack and put it over my shoulders.

He lay in the stern and steered and watched for the glow to come in the sky. I have half of him, he thought. Maybe I'll have the luck to bring the forward half in. I should have some luck. No, he said. You violated your luck when you went too far outside. "Don't be silly," he said aloud. "And keep awake and steer. You may have much luck yet." "I'd like to buy some if there's any place they sell it," he said. What could I by it with? he asked himself. Could I buy it with a lost harpoon and a broken knife and two bad hands? "You might," he said.