The old man wiped the blade of his knife and laid down the oar. Then he found the sheet and the sail filled and he brought the skiff onto her course

"They must have taken a quarter of him and of the best meat," he said aloud. "I wish it were a dream and that I had never hooked him. I'm sorry about it, fish. It makes everything wrong." He stopped and he did not want to look at the fish now. Drained of blood and awash he looked the colour of the silver backing of a mirror and his stripes still showed.

"I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish," he said. "Neither for you nor for me. I'm sorry, fish."

Now, he said to himself. Look to the lashing on the knife (проверь: «посмотри», как привязан нож) and see if it has been cut (не перерезаны ли веревки). Then get your hand in order (затем приведи в порядок руку) because there still is more to come (потому что придут еще /акулы/).

"I wish I had a stone for the knife (жаль, что у меня нет точила для ножа)," the old man said after he had checked the lashing on the oar butt (после того, как проверил веревки на рукоятке весла). "I should have brought a stone (следовало взять с собой точило)." You should have brought many things (тебе следовало взять: «принести» много вещей), he thought. But you did not bring them, old man (но ты не взял их, старик). Now is no time to think of what you do not have (сейчас не время думать о том, чего у тебя нет). Think of what you can do with what there is (думай о том, что ты можешь сделать тем, что есть).

"You give me much good counsel (ты даешь мне слишком много хороших советов; counsel — совет, наставление)," he said aloud. "I'm tired of it (я устал от этого/это мне надоело)."

He held the tiller under his arm (он сунул румпель под мышку) and soaked both his hands in the water (и окунул обе руки в воду) as the skiff drove forward (в то время как лодка плыла вперед).

"God knows how much that last one took (один только Бог знает, сколько забрала = сожрала последняя /акула/)," he said.

"But she's much lighter now (но она теперь гораздо легче)." He did not want to think of the mutilated under-side of the fish (он не хотел думать, насколько изуродована нижняя часть рыбы). He knew that each of the jerking bumps of the shark had been meat torn away (он знал, что каждый толчок акулы об лодку означал кусок оторванного мяса) and that the fish now made a trail for all sharks as wide as a highway through the sea (и что рыба теперь оставляет в море след для всех акул, широкий, как шоссейная дорога).