登陆注册
724800000015

第15章 英文版 (5)

The boy had given him two fresh small tunas, or albacores, which hung on the two deepest lines like plummets and, on the others, he had a big blue runner and a yellow jack that had been used before; but they were in good condition still and had the excellent sardines to give them scent and attractiveness. Each line, as thick around as a big pencil, was looped onto a green-sapped stick so that any pull or touch on the bait would make the stick dip and each line had two forty-fathom coils which could be made fast to the other spare coils so that, if it was necessary, a fish could take out over three hundred fathoms of line.

Now the man watched the dip of the three sticks over the side of the skiff and rowed gently to keep the lines straight up and down and at their proper depths. It was quite light and any moment now the sun would rise.

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 straighter 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. Others let them drift with the current and sometimes they were at sixty fathoms when the fishermen thought they were at a hundred.

But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

The sun was two hours higher now and it did not hurt his eyes so much to look into the east. There were only three boats in sight now and they showed very low and far inshore.

All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful.

Just then he saw a man-of-war bird with his long black wings circling in the sky ahead of him. He made a quick drop, slanting down on his back-swept wings, and then circled again.

“He’s got something,” the old man said aloud. “He’s not just looking.”

He rowed slowly and steadily toward where the bird was circling. He did not hurry and he kept his lines straight up and down. But he crowded the current a little so that he was still fishing correctly though faster than he would have fished if he was not trying to use the bird.

The bird went higher in the air and circled again, his wings motionless. Then he dove suddenly and the old man saw flying fish spurt out of the water and sail desperately over the surface.

“Dolphin,” the old man said aloud. “Big dolphin.”

He shipped his oars and brought a small line from under the bow. It had a wire leader and a medium-sized hook and he baited it with one of the sardines. He let it go over the side and then made it fast to a ring bolt in the stern. Then he baited another line and left it coiled in the shade of the bow. He went back to rowing and to watching the long-winged black bird who was working,now, low over the water.

As he watched the bird dipped again slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and ineffectually as he followed the flying fish. The old man could see the slight bulge in the water that the big dolphin raised as they followed the escaping fish. The dolphin were cutting through the water below the flight of the fish and would be in the water, driving at speed, when the fish dropped. It is a big school of dolphin, he thought. They are widespread and the flying fish have little chance. The bird has no chance. The flying fish are too big for him and they go too fast.

He watched the flying fish burst out again and again and the ineffectual movements of the bird. That school has gotten away from me, he thought. They are moving out too fast and too far. But perhaps I will pick up a stray and perhaps my big fish is around them. My big fish must be somewhere.

The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray blue hills behind it. The water was a dark blue now, so dark that it was almost purple. As he looked down into it he saw the red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and the strange light the sun made now. He watched his lines to see them go straight down out of sight into the water and he was happy to see so much plankton because it meant fish. The strange light the sun made in the water, now that the sun was higher, meant good weather and so did the shape of the clouds over the land. But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war floating dose beside the boat. It turned on its side and then righted itself. It floated cheerfully as a bubble with its long deadly purple filaments trailing a yard behind it in the water.

“Agua mala,” the man said. “You whore.”

From where he swung lightly against his oars he looked down into the water and saw the tiny fish that were coloured like the trailing filaments and swam between them and under the small shade the bubble made as it drifted. They were immune to its poison. But men were not and when same of the filaments would catch on a line and rest there slimy and purple while the old man was working a fish, he would have welts and sores on his arms and hands of the sort that poison ivy or poison oak can give. But these poisonings from the agua mala came quickly and struck like a whiplash.

同类推荐
  • 江湖真实往事:苍狼黑道

    江湖真实往事:苍狼黑道

    ,只会打打杀杀,早已和哪些贪官公检法系统手握重权的大人物们称兄道弟,重演了一遍现代黑社会流氓团伙形式。在官场,商场,将年轻美貌的姐姐北大才女嫁给整合后的狱中第一霸主,利用各方面的黑社会势力,在出狱后,组建了名为天堂百货现代公司组织,如鱼得水,发展,发达的三个不同的发展阶段。刚纠集在一起的地痞流氓,为了占地盘敛财,在社会上更是呼风唤雨,已经有了固定地盘,收入可观的黑社会团伙,开始收买三教九流迅速扩充自己的实力而羽翼丰满,具有相当经济实力的黑社会,灯红酒绿的大都市,打成一遍,他们瞒天过海,胆大妄为,本书讲叙一个因过失杀人的当代大学生作为各方黑社会势力的“特使”,就是他们的天堂
  • 字母的童话

    字母的童话

    本书把26个字母的关系用爱情的方式演绎出来,环环相扣,形成一个神奇、美好、纯真的童话世界。26个字母,它们既是全文的章节名称,却又是26个故事的主人公,每个字母代表一个渴望恋爱的孩子,用自己凌厉却悲哀的眼神谱写出一曲惟有恋人才听得懂的灵魂乐。一曲惟有恋人才听得见的灵魂乐,一部26个字母荡气回肠的爱情圣经。
  • 人间(下)

    人间(下)

    “我若能说万人的方言,并天使的话语,却没有爱,我就成了鸣的锣、响的钹一般。我若有先知讲道之能,也明白各样的奧秘,各样的知识,而且有全备的信,叫我能够移山,却没有爱,我就算不得什么。我若将所有的周济穷人,又舍己叫人焚烧,却没有爱,仍然与我无益。爱是恒久忍耐,又有恩慈;爱是不嫉妒,爱是不自夸,不张狂,不做害羞的事,不求自己的益处,不轻易发怒,不计算人的恶,不喜欢不义,只喜欢真理;凡事包容,凡事相信,凡事盼望,凡事忍耐,爱是永不止息……”
  • 浪荡公子和平胸妹

    浪荡公子和平胸妹

    不管你的条件有多差,总会有个人在爱你;不管你的条件有多好,也总有个人不爱你……
  • 风起陇西

    风起陇西

    从汉中到整个雍凉大地,魏蜀两国之间的灼热战火绵延于秦岭两侧。金戈铁马,风起云涌,这是个英雄辈出的年代。然而战争不仅有刀光剑影,亦不只是血肉搏杀。围绕着蜀汉新型弩机的诞生,一场无声的战争爆发于不为人知的角落。他们战斗在敌人腹心,活跃于危机四伏的暗面,或者蛰伏在己方内部,从事清道夫的工作。史书不会记录这些事件,也不会留下他们的名字,甚至同时代的人都不会觉察到这些人的存在,但他们确实在悄然推动着历史,并且不可或缺,因为这是涌动于时代阴影中的壮阔波澜,三国时代秘密情报战线上的生死角逐。这是一场无声的战争。
热门推荐
  • 傻子王爷无情妃

    傻子王爷无情妃

    一只毒蝎子,彻底断送了她年轻的生命!别人只知道,那个软弱没主见的女人被迫嫁给一个痴傻呆闷的七皇子。殊不知,她早已不再是“她”!面对痴傻只会憨笑的美男,她气愤难填!你傻,本美女就医好你,谁知医好后,遭到嫌弃,却换来一纸休书,气愤之下,她恨不得与他同归于尽……
  • 独家珍藏:前夫你认错人了

    独家珍藏:前夫你认错人了

    “别逼我再动手打你!我唐傲伦虽然很不屑对女人动手,但对你这样不顺从的女人,我还是不会手软的!”他扼住她的脖子恐吓。“手软?呵呵……”她冷笑了一声,他这个杀人不眨眼的大魔头比死神还残暴的人也会手软吗?如果他真的会手软不轻易对女人动手的话为什么他打她的次数已经多的让她数不清了?这个男人说话可真是矛盾的讽刺明明一边非人的欺负她,一面却在霸道的干涉别的男人接近她,将她死死的扣在身边,他到底想干什么!
  • 成功做人智慧做事细节全集

    成功做人智慧做事细节全集

    懂得成功做人、智慧做事的人,其步履必然积极而阔大,其事业必然顺理而成章,其人生必然恢宏而壮丽。拥有成功做人的箴言,掌握智慧做事的方略,我们便能获得一片广阔的天地,成就一份完美的事业,更重要的是,我们能赢得一个涵蕴厚重、丰富充沛的人生。
  • 傲世毒妃:凤弑天下

    傲世毒妃:凤弑天下

    一场阴谋,她断命悬崖,再次睁眼,她已不是原来的她!昔日的废物破茧而出,风云变色,威慑天下!她是来自二十一世纪的天才神医,一朝穿越,竟成了废物!就算被测出是天赋值为0又如何,但凭一双妙手也能闯荡天涯,扬名立万。他是一个强大而冷酷的男人,身份尊贵,令人难以企及,可这样的他,却将一个世人认定的废物放在心上,成了心中最柔软的部分。他立于山川五岳之巅,向世人宣告:席诺影是我至爱的妻!
  • 末世之渡劫飞升

    末世之渡劫飞升

    唐唐新书:《星际大佬的掉马生活》谢谢小可爱们来支持来阅读。这是一个末日的世界,和平已不复存在,丧尸横行,人心险恶。末世爆发的第三年,伴随着人类的是无数的战争、死亡,杀劫抢掠无时无刻不在发生着。在这个丧尸横行,人心难测的地方,唐清越为了救堂妹却被堂妹亲手推进丧尸群,大难不死,重生到末日前十天,随身空间让她发现了修仙者这个秘密,从此走上强者的逆袭之路。【喜欢唐唐的读者,请加群:209147284】
  • 周易与人生

    周易与人生

    《周易》是中国古代一部重要的哲学典籍,由《易经》和《易传》两部分组成,其中的《易经》约成书于殷周之际,《易传》约成书于战国时期。汉代立经学博士,《周易》被奉为经书。此后的两千余年间,它一直稳居封建时代主流学术的核心地位,对于中国传统文化的发展产生了无与伦比的影响。
  • 汉末浮生记

    汉末浮生记

    因为一个机器人和一次事故,郁郁不得志的颜鹰奇异地回到了古代,从此开始了新的人生。但背叛、责难、攻击,重重阴影围绕在他的身边,他被迫为生活而努力,为生存而战斗。经过不懈的努力,他终于冲破了重重迷障,在昏乱的汉末,成为一颗冉冉升起的明星……
  • 嫡女棣王妃

    嫡女棣王妃

    “姨娘,夫人似乎断气了~”“哼!这么一碗药都下去了,难道她还能活着不成?”“那这······”一个年纪稍长的人朝着这位称作姨娘的人示意了一下自己手中的婴儿,似乎有些犹豫,“这好歹是个男孩,现在夫人已经死了,如果姨娘把他占为己有,然后得了这府中的中馈······”“嬷嬷?!”女子也不等她的话说完,就打断了她,“你记住了,我恨死了这个女人,她的儿子,只能随着她去,我就是以后自己生不出儿子,抱养别人的,也不会要她的。把他给我扔马桶里面溺了,对外就说一出生就死了!”猩红的嘴唇,吐出来的话却是格外的渗人。嬷嬷还想说什么,动了动嘴,却是一句话也没有说,转身朝着后面放着马桶的地方走去。却是没有发现旁边地上一个穿着有些破旧的衣服的小女孩此刻正瞪大了眼睛看着她们两。这是什么情况?自己不是被炸死了吗?怎么会······于此同时,脑中不断有记忆闪现出来,她们是自己的母亲和刚出生的弟弟啊?!不行,先救人。转头看见旁边谁绣花留下的针线跟剪刀,想到自己前世的身手,拿起一根绣花针就朝着那个嬷嬷飞了过去,却在半路上掉落下来,暗骂一声,这人是什么破身体。却引得那两个人听见动静看了过来。女人阴狠的盯着她,“你居然没有死?”微微眯起眼睛,自己的前身也是被她们弄死的了,看样子她们谁也不会放过,抓起旁边的剪刀就冲了过去。随着几声惨叫声,从此以后,府中府外都传遍了她的“美名”——凤家大小姐心肠歹毒,刺伤了府中无数的人,宛如一个疯子。
  • 黑羽女煞

    黑羽女煞

    与李雅洁相依为命的哥哥李子天被杀,一身好武功的雅洁为报兄仇,深入敌穴,与敌人展开一场激烈的战斗,可惜最终难逃死神之手,却阴错阳差的穿越了。熟知杀兄仇人竟然也跟着一起穿越到这个时空来了。复仇之路危险重重,等待着雅洁的将会是怎样的命运?悲惨!?幸福!?
  • 鸿蒙邪君

    鸿蒙邪君

    吞噬天地灵丹,修成霸世魔体,秒杀荒古魔兽,挑战远古众神。废柴大少郭慕受尽嘲讽,一次机缘唤醒神秘血脉,从而一飞冲天!杀贵族,灭强者,纵横天下莫敢不从!调戏调戏诱惑妖姬,勾搭勾搭豪门圣女,推倒众多绝色佳丽,祸害万千清纯少女!