In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do expect for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea.

  在黑暗中，老渔民感觉到了凌晨正在来临，他划着划着，听到飞鱼出水的颤抖声，还有它们在黑暗里凌空飞翔时笔直的翅膀所发出的嘶嘶声。他很喜欢飞鱼，把它们当做他在海洋上的主要朋友。他替鸟儿伤心，尤其是那些柔弱的黑色小燕鸥，它们始终在飞翔，在寻找食物，可又总是没发现什么。于是他想，这些海鸟们的生活比我们过得还要艰难，除了那些强有力的大鸟和猛禽。既然海洋这么残酷，为什么像海燕那样的鸟儿生来就如此柔弱和纤巧？海洋是仁慈并且十分美丽的。为什么会形成这些柔弱的海鸟一旦大海很残酷时。它们是弱小的和美丽的。但是它也会残酷的突然飞起，扎入水和猎取食物，同时还发出细微的悲鸣，却生下来就柔弱得无法与这大海较量。

  The sun rose thinly from the sea and the old man could see the other boats, low on the water and well in toward the shore, spread out across the current. Then the sun was brighter and the glare came on the water and then, as it rose clear, the flat sea sent it back at his eyes so that it hurt sharply and he rowed without looking into it. He looked down into the water and watched the lines that went straight down into the dark of the water. he kept them straither than anyone did, so that at each level in the darkness of the stream there would be a bait waiting exactly where he wished it to be for any fish that swam there. Other let them drift with the current and sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred.

  太阳渐渐的从海面上升起，老渔民可以看到了其他的渔船。在浅水的地方接近了海岸。与海流的方向垂直的展开着。这时太阳的逐渐的明亮起来且发出耀眼的光芒。照在海面上的光线刺伤了老渔民的眼睛。因此他不向太阳看，只顾划着。他俯看着水里，注视着那几根一直下垂到暗黑色深水处的钓鱼索。他把钓索垂的比任何人都直，这样，在深黑色的湾流深处的几个不同的深度，都会有一个鱼饵恰好在他所希望的地方等待着在那里游动的鱼来吃。别的渔夫让钓索随着海流漂去，有时钓索在60英尺的深处，可是渔民们却以为有上百尺的深度。

  待续