العجوز و البحر – ص16

قال العجوز:”لم لا؟فهذا شئ يمكن للصيادين فعله معاً”.
جلسا على المقهي وكان العددي من الصيادين يسخرون من العجوز ولكنه لم يكن غاضباً،فيما كان آخرون-من بين الصيادين الأكبر سناً-ينظرون إليه بأعين تلؤها الحزن،ولكنهم لم يظهروا هذا وتحدثوا بأدب عن التيار والأعماق التي القوا أحبالهم بها والمناخ المستقر الجيد وما رأوه.والصيادون الذي حالفهم الحظ في ذلك اليوم كانوا موجودين بالفعل،وقد وضعوا أسماك الرلين طولياً على لوحين من الخشب وراء كل منهما رجلات يترنحان نحو مخزن الأسماك حيث كانوا في انتظار شاحنة الثلج لتحمل الأسماك إى السةق في هافنانا. أما هؤلاء الذي اصطادوا قروشاً،فأخذوها لكصنع القروس على الجانب الآخر من الخليج حيث كانت تنشر وتنتزع أكبادها وتقطع زعانفها وتنزع جلودها وتقطع لحومها إلى شرائح ليتم تمليحها.
عندما كانت الرياح تهب ناحية الشرق،تملأ أجواء المدينة برائحة ىتية من مصنع القروش ولكن اليوم كانت الرئحة خفيفة للغاية لأن الرياح
Santiago,” the boy said to him as the climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. “I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.”
The old man had taught the boy to fish and the loved him.
“No, ‘the old man said. ’You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”
“But remember how you went eighty_ seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.”
“I remember, ‘the old man said. ‘I know you did not leave me because you doubted.”
“It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him.”
“I know, ‘ the old man said. ‘ It is quite normal.”
“He hasn’t much faith.”
“No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven’t we?”
“Yes,” the boy said. Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace and then we’ll take the stuff home.”
“Why not?” the old man said. “Between fishermen.”
They sat on the Terrace and many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not angry. Others, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it and they spoke politely about the current and the depths they had drifted their lines at and the steady good weather and of what they had seen. The successful fishermen of that day were already in and had butchered their marlin out and carried them laid full length across two plank, with two men staggeringat the end of each plank, to thee to the fish house where they waited for the ice truck to carry them to the market in Havana. Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the shark factory on the other side of the cove where they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned out and their flesh cut into strips for salting.
When the wind was in the eat a smell come across the harbor from the shark factory; but today there was only the faint edge of the odour because the wind had backed into the