The Old Man and the Sea.

Chapter 1 The Elderly and the Child (Part II)

"Hmm." The old man responded a little absently. He was holding a glass, reminiscing about years ago.

"I'll go out and get some sardines so you can use it tomorrow, how do you see?"

"No, you go play your baseball." I'm OK with rowing, and Rogelho will help me cast the net. ”

"I'd love to go. Since you can't go fishing with you, you should always do something else for you. ”

"You invited me to a beer," said the old man, "and you are already a full man." ”

"When you first took me on board, how old was I?" The child suddenly remembered and asked.

"Five years old, and I almost killed you that day." I dragged a fish onto the boat, and the fish jumped around alive and almost smashed the boat to pieces. Do you remember? ”

"I remember the fish's tail thumping, the ship's seat board broken, and the sound of you fishing with a stick. I remember you shoving me toward the bow of the boat, where there was a roll of wet fishing line, and I felt the whole boat trembling violently, and I heard you fishing with a stick like cutting down a tree. I still remember the smell of blood all over my body. ”

"Do you really remember that, or did I tell you when we were chatting not long ago?" The old man listened to the child speak so carefully and asked a little suspiciously.

"From the first time we fished together, I remember everything clearly." The old man looked at him with his confident and loving eyes, burned by the sun.

"If you were my child, I would take you out on an adventure," he said, "but you are your parents' child, and you are in a lucky boat." ”

"Shall I go get sardines?" I also know where to get four baits. ”

"I have some bait left today, and I've salted them in a box."

"Let me get you four fresh ones."

"Just one." The old man said. He never lost hope and confidence. And now it was as if a breeze had blown, and his hopes and confidence had been lifted.

"Two." The child said.

"Let's have two." The old man agreed.

After a while, the child came back with a few sardines bouncing and rushing back.

"You didn't steal it, did you?" The old man said jokingly.

"I'd like to steal," said the boy, "but I bought them." ”

"Thank you." The old man said.

The old man's heart is simple, and he does not think about when he became humble. But he knew he had become humble, and he knew that it was not humiliating, nor had it made him lose his true self-esteem.

"Look at this current, tomorrow will be a good day." He said. "Where are you going?" The child asked.

"Far away, wait until the wind turns and come back. I want to go to sea before dawn (even when I'm older, old people still have a young heart for adventure). ”

"I'm going to try to get the owner of my boat to sail far away," said the boy, "so that if you catch a very big fellow, we can rush to help you." ”

"He wouldn't want to go very far."

"Well," said the boy, "but I'll see something he can't see, like a bird circling in the air and trying to catch fish, and I'll tell him to chase after the loach (fresh loach: fishermen used to call it a 'shady fish,' and it had the nickname of the "underwater fox," and liked to swim silently in the water or quietly hide under the floating objects on the surface of the sea. It is more than 1 meter long and weighs about 10 kilograms, which can be described as a large and fierce body. The pitch-black ridge is covered with glittering spots, the dorsal fin is wide and long, connected from head to tail, like a horse's mane; the snout is round, the sharp teeth are exposed, and the appearance is quite fierce. In addition, its swimming speed is very fast, generally up to 30 to 50 kilometers per hour). ”

"Are his eyes that bad?"

"Almost completely blind."

"That's strange," said the old man, "that he hasn't caught a turtle, and that's what hurts his eyes the most." ”

"You've been hunting turtles for years outside the Coast of Moskito (the eastern part of Nicaraguan in Central America, a low-lying coastal strip on the Gulf of Mexico, overgrown with bushes, inhabited by the Moskitos among the Indians), and your eyes are still very good."

"I'm an unusual old man, aren't I?" The old man said playfully.

"But do you still have the strength to deal with a really big fish?" I'm talking about a really big fish! ”

"I think there are, and I know a lot of tricks."

"Let's move these things home." The child said, "So I can catch sardines with my net." ”

They took a piece of equipment from the boat. The old man carried the mast on his shoulder, and the child held a wooden box containing a roll of tightly woven brown fishing line, as well as a hand hook and a harpoon with a handle. The bait box was hidden under the tip of the boat, and next to it was a wooden stick that was used to subdue the big fish that got to the side of the boat. No one would steal the old man's things, but the sails and the heavy fishing line would be better off taking home, because the dew was very damaging to these things. Although the old man was convinced that no one would come to steal his things, he thought that leaving the hook and harpoon on the boat was an unnecessary temptation.

Together, the two walked down the road to the old man's shack and walked in through the open door (a description of the old man's living environment, showing the harshness of the environment). The old man leaned the mast wrapped in sail against the wall, and the child laid down the wooden box and fishing gear next to it. The mast was almost as long as this single-room shack. The shacks are made of tough bracts of king brown, known locally as palms. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and a mud floor for cooking with charcoal on fire. The brown walls were made of palm-strong fibrous leaves, which were flattened and stacked on top of each other. There are two paintings on the walls, the colourful "Sacred Heart of Jesus" ("Sacred Heart of Jesus": the French nun Margaret Marie Alacock initiated the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in the 17th century, which was widely spread in the countries where God is believed), and the other painting is the "Diagram of the Virgin of Cobrai" ("Our Lady of Cobrai": Cobre is a small town in southeastern Cuba, and there is a shrine of Our Lady of Cobb on a hill south of the town, which is a pilgrimage day every September 8), both of which are relics of his wife.

Originally, there was a colored picture of his wife hanging on the wall, but because he saw it and remembered that he was alone, he took it down and placed it on a shelf in the corner, under a clean shirt.

"What's there to eat?" The boy walked into the shack, looked around, and asked.

"There is a pot of fish to cook yellow rice, do you want to eat some?"

"No, I'm going home to eat, and you want me to make you a fire?"

"No, I'll be born myself after a while, or I'll be able to eat cold rice."

"Shall I bring the fishing net?"

"Of course you can."

There was actually no net, and the children remembered when they sold it. There is no fish to cook yellow rice, and the children know this, but they have to talk so blindly every day, which is a little spice for the lives of the grandfather and son.

"Eighty-five is an auspicious number," said the old man, "do you want to see me catch a fish with a net weight of more than a thousand pounds (pounds: a unit of weight, 1 pound equals about 453.6 grams)?" ”

"I took the net and went to catch the sardines. Are you sitting in the doorway basking in the sun? ”

"All right. I have yesterday's newspaper, just in time to see the baseball news. ”

The child does not know whether the newspaper of yesterday, which the old man said, is also a figment. But this time the old man really pulled out an old newspaper from under the bed.

"This was given to me by Perico in the grocery store." He explained.

"I got the sardines and came back. I'm going to ice your fish with mine, and I'll be able to use it tomorrow morning. You look closely at the newspaper, and when I come back, you tell me the news about baseball. ”

"The Yankees (Yankees: the strongest team in the U.S. professional baseball world, belonging to New York) will not lose."

"But I'm afraid the Cleveland Indians will win."

"Have faith in the Yankees, good boy. Don't forget that their team has that great di Maggio (Di Maggio: Joe Di Maggio joined the Yankees in 1936 and is known for scoring goals. Farewell to the baseball season in 1951). ”

"I'm worried about the Detroit Tigers, and I'm worried about the Cleveland Indians."

"Watch out, or you'll have to worry about the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox."

"Read the newspaper and tell me when I get back."

"Do you think we should go buy a lottery ticket with 85 at the end of the double digits?" Tomorrow is the eighty-fifth day. ”

"It's okay to do that," said the child, "but what about your great record of eighty-seven days?" ”

"There can't be a second time in this matter, can you see a lottery ticket with eighty-five at the end?"

"I can go and order one."

"One sheet costs two pieces of five." To whom do we borrow this money? ”

"This one is easy. I can always borrow two dollars and five. ”

"I think I might be able to borrow it, but I don't want to borrow money." Borrow money once, and ask for food the second time. ”