第8章 The Sharks Attack[第1页/共15页]

When the old man saw him coming he knew that this was a shark that had no fear at all and would do exactly what he wished.He prepared the harpoon and made the rope fast while he watched the shark come on.The rope was short as it lacked what he had cut away to lash the fish.

“Ay,”he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily,feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.

The old man still had two drinks of water in the bottle and he used half of one after he had eaten the shrimps.The skiff was sailing well considering the handicaps and he steered with the tiller under his arm.He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream. At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end,he had thought perhaps it was a dream.Then when he had seen the fish come out of the water and hang motionless in the sky before he fell,he was sure there was some great strangeness and he could not believe it. Then he could not see well, although now he saw as well as ever.

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