The sun was on the old man's left arm and shoulder and on his back. So he knew the fish had turned east of north. Now that he had seen him once, he could picture the fish swimming in the water with his purple pectoral fins set wide as wings and the great erect tail slicing through the dark. I wonder how much he sees at that depth, the old man thought. His eye is huge and a horse, with much less eye, can see in the dark. Once I could see quite well in the dark. Not in the absolute dark. But almost as a cat sees.
太陽曬在老人左臂、左肩和背上，所以他曉得魚已經轉向東北方了。既然他曾經看過這條魚一眼，他可以想像魚將它紫色的胸鰭如翅般展開，豎起的尾巴劃破黑暗，在水中遊動的樣子。我懷疑在這麼深的地方，它的視線能有多遠，老人想。魚的眼睛和馬眼比起來大多了，卻和馬一樣，可以在黑暗中保持視線。從前我在黑暗中也可以看得很清楚的，當然並不是在完全漆黑的狀況下，但是幾乎和一隻貓的視線差不多了。
The sun and his steady movement of his fingers had uncramped his left hand now completely and he began to shift more of the strain to it and he shrugged the muscles of his back to shift the hurt of the cord a little. "If you're not tired, fish," he said aloud, "you must be very strange." He felt very tired now and he knew the night would come soon and he tired to think of other things. He thought of the Big Leagues, to him they were the Gran Ligas, and he knew that the Yankees of New York were playing the Tires of Detroit.
陽光再加上手指不停地運動，他的左手已經不抽筋了，他又開始讓左手分擔更多的重量，他聳聳肩活動一下肩膀上的肌肉，讓繩索的勒痕稍微移動一下位置。他很大聲地：「魚啊！如果你到現在還不疲累的話，你一定是無比神勇啊。」他感覺非常疲倦，他也曉得黑夜，將很快的來臨，他儘量讓自己想一想別的事情，譬如職棒大聯盟，他說職棒大聯盟的時候總用西班牙文發音。他知道紐約的洋基隊正在和底特律的老虎隊比賽。
This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel. What is a bone spur? He asked himself. Un espuela de hueso. We do not have them. can it be as painful as the spur of a fighting cock in one's heel? I do not think I could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks do. Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts.
這已經是第二天了，真不知道這場比賽的結局是怎麼樣？他想。但是，我必須要有信心，我必須肯定狄瑪基歐，即使忍著後腳跟上骨刺的疼痛，他做起任何事情來都還是那麼地完美。骨刺是什麼？他問他自己，「雞眼」他用西班牙文說，我們都沒有長過。會不會像安在鬥雞腳上的鐵刺刺入人的腳跟一樣痛？我想我不能像鬥雞一樣忍受那種痛苦，我也不認為自己能夠忍受被啄瞎了，還得繼續戰鬥。人是不能和偉大的鳥獸相比的。
Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea. "Unless sharks come," he said aloud. "If sharks come, god pity him and me." Do you believe the great DiMaggio would stay with a fish as long as I will stay with this one? He thought, I am sure he would and more since he is young and strong. Also his father was a fisherman. But would the bone spur hurt him too much? "I do not know," he said aloud. "I never had a bone spur."
不過，我還是寧願作那頭潛在海洋的黑暗之心的野獸。「我會一直待在海上，除非是鯊魚來了，」他大聲地說。「如果鯊魚來了的話，請上帝憐憫它，也憐憫我吧。」你認為偉大的狄瑪基歐，會像我現在跟這條魚糾纏一樣，和一條魚糾纏那麼久嗎？他想。我相信他會的，而且還有可能更久，因為他年輕力壯，而且他父親是個漁夫。但骨刺會不會很困擾他呢？「我不知道啊，」他大聲地說。「我從來沒有長過骨刺。」
As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks. They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. Each one was trying to force the other's hand down onto the table. There was much betting and people went in and out of the room under the kerosene lights and he had looked at the arm and hand of the negro and at the negro's face.
太陽下山了，為了要鼓舞自己的信心，他回想起有一次在卡薩布蘭卡的一個酒店裡，他和一個從西安弗埃荷斯來的黑奴比手勁，他是這個碼頭上最強壯的人。足足一天一夜的時間，他倆將手肘放在桌上粉筆畫的在線，手臂直立著、手掌握得緊緊的，彼此都卯足了勁想把對方的手壓倒在桌面上。周圍有很多人紛紛下注打賭，而儘管煤油燈下屋子裡人來人往，他始終瞪著黑奴的手臂、手掌和鼻子。
They changed the referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep. Blood came out form under the fingernails of both his and the negro's hands and they looked each other in the eye and at their hands and forearms and the bettors went in and out of the room and sat on high chairs against the wall all watched. The walls were painted bright blue and were of wood and the lamps threw their shadows against them. The negro's shadow was huge and it moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps.
八個小時過去後，他們的裁判開始每四個小時換一次班，好能夠睡覺。血從他和黑鬼子的指甲裡滲了出來，他們互相瞪著對方的眼睛、手和胳膊，打賭的人在屋裡進進出出的，或坐在靠牆的高椅子上觀察這場比賽。牆是木板釘成的，燈光將他們的影子投射在漆成淺藍色的木牆上。隨著微風吹動那盞燈，黑奴龐大的身影也在上搖晃著。
The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him. Then the negro, after the rum, would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago El Champion, nearly three inches off balance. But the old man had raised his hand up to dead even again. He was sure then that the had the negro, who was a fine man and a great athlete, beaten.
整夜裡，他們一直都平分秋色，他們給黑鬼子喝萊姆酒，又為老人點菸。黑鬼子喝了萊姆酒之後，又使出了更驚人的力氣，幾乎把老人的手臂板離中線三吋。那時候老人還不是個老人，而是冠軍山帝亞哥。老人拼命地舉起手，使得比賽又回到平分的狀態。那時他就很確定自己會打垮那個黑人，即使他是一個好人，也是很了不起的運動員。
And at daylight when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head, he had unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood. The match had started on a Sunday morning and ended on a Monday morning. Many of the bettors had asked for a draw because they had to go to work on the docks loading sacks of sugar or at the Havana Coal Company. Otherwise everyone would have wanted it to go to a finish. But he had finished it anyway and before anyone had to go to work.
破曉了，下注的人都說，就算平手結束比賽吧，裁判也直搖頭，老人於是使出他所有的力量，將黑奴的手一點一點地往下壓，直到把他的手壓倒在木桌上，比賽從星期天早晨開始，一直到星期一早晨才結束。之前很多下注的人都要求算平手，因為他們得回到碼頭裝運砂糖，另外有些人則是替哈瓦那煤礦公司工作。要不是這樣，每一個人都會希望這場比賽比出勝負為止。不過，他總算在大家得趕回去工作之前把比賽給結束了。