The boy went out. They had eaten with no light on the table and the old an took off his trousers and went to bed in the dark. He rolled his trousers up to make a pillow, putting the newspaper inside them. He rolled himself in the blanket and slept on the other old newspapers that covered the springs of the bed. He was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains.
男孩走了。他们在没有灯光的桌子上吃完了晚餐之后，老人便脱下了长裤，在黑暗中上了床。他把裤子卷起来，再塞些报纸进去便成了枕头。然后，他把自己也卷进毛毯里，睡在另一张由旧报纸覆盖着的弹簧床上。他很快地就睡着了，他梦见了非洲，梦中他还是个小孩，他梦见那绵延的金色海滩和那白得刺眼的海岸，也梦见那高耸的海岬和棕色的山脉。
He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through it. He smelled the tar and oakum of the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning. Usually when he smelled the land breeze he woke up and dressed to go and wake the boy. But tonight the smell of the land breeze came very early and he knew it was too early in his dream and went on dreaming to see the white peaks of the Islands rising from the sea and then he dreamed of the different harbors and roadsteads of the Canary Islands.
现在生活中，他每晚总免不了梦见那海岸，梦中他可以听见海涛呼啸的声音，看见土人的船只乘风破浪地驶来。睡梦中，他闻到船上的焦油味及填塞船缝的麻絮味，还嗅到了晨间的微风吹过非洲大地的气息。通常他一嗅到这陆上吹来的微风就会醒过来，马上穿上衣服，去叫醒小男孩。但是今晚大地上微风的气息吹来得很早，梦中的他也知道太早了，而继续沈浸在梦乡，接着他梦见海岛上白色的峰顶从海面上浮起，而后他又梦见卡那瑞群岛上的各个港口与碇泊处。
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on. He urinated outside the shack and then went up the road to wake the boy.
他早已不再梦见暴风雨，也不再梦见女人，或发生过的大事，不再梦见大鱼，与人打架、比力道，也不再梦见亡妻了。如今他只梦见各种不同的地方以及海滩上的狮子。狮子们像小猫似地在暮霭中嬉戏，他喜爱它们，正如他喜爱那男孩一样，但他却从来没有梦见过男孩。他就这么醒来了，往敞开的门外望了一下月亮，然后把卷着的裤子解开来穿上。他到小屋外边小解后，就上路走去叫醒小男孩。
He was shivering with the morning cold. But he knew he would shiver himself warm and that soon he would be rowing. The door of the house where the boy lived was unlocked and he opened it and walked in quietly with his bare feet. The boy was asleep on a cot in the first room and the old man could see him clearly with the light that came in from the dying moon. He took hold of one foot gently and held it until the boy woke and turned and looked at him. The old man nodded and the boy took his trousers from the chair by the bed and, sitting on the bed, pulled them on.
他在清晨寒冷的空气中发着抖，但他晓得多发抖个几下，便可以让自己暖和起来，而且马上就要划动船桨了。男孩的房门没上锁，他开了门，蹑手蹑脚轻轻地走进去。男孩就睡在第一个房间的小床上，借着外面即将消沉的月光，老人可以很清楚地看见男孩。他轻柔地握住男孩的一只脚，直到男孩醒来转身望着他。老人对他点点头，男孩从床边椅子上拿起裤子，坐在床边把它穿上。
The old man went out the door and the boy came after him. He was sleepy and the old man put his arm across his shoulders and said, "I am sorry." "Que'va," the boy said. "It is what a man must do." They walked down the road to the old man's shack and all along the road, in the dark, barefoot men were moving, carrying the masts of their boats. When they reached the old man's shack the boy took the rolls of line in the basket and the harpoon and gaff and the old man carried the mast with the furled sail on his shoulder.
老人走出门外后，男孩跟着出来，他还很想打瞌睡，老人把手臂搭在他的肩膀上说：「很抱歉。」「怎么会！」男孩说：「这是男子汉应该做的事。」他们沿着路往下走，来到老人的小屋。黑暗中，许多扛着船桅、赤着脚的身影晃动着。他们一来到老人的小屋，男孩便拿起篮中成卷的绳索、鱼叉和鱼钩，老人把卷着帆的桅杆扛在肩上。
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