"He's found fish," he said aloud. No flying fish broke the surface and there was no scattering of bait fish. But as the old man watched, a small tuna rose in the air, turned and dropped head first into the water. The tuna shone silver in the sun and after he had dropped back into the water another and another rose and they were jumping in all directions, churning the water and leaping in long jumps after the bait. They were circling it and driving it.
If they don't travel too fast I will get into them (если они не поплывут слишком быстро, я догоню их), the old man thought, and he watched the school working the water white (и он наблюдал, как стая взбивает воду до белизны) and the bird now dropping and dipping into the bait fish that were forced to the surface in their panic (и как птица, пикируя и ныряя, охотится на мелкую рыбешку, которая была вынуждена подняться на поверхность в панике;
"The bird is a great help (птица сильно помогает)," the old man said. Just then the stern line came taut under his foot (как раз в этот момент кормовая леса натянулась под его ногой;
taut [tLt], haul [hLl], compact [kqm'pxkt]
If they don't travel too fast I will get into them, the old man thought, and he watched the school working the water white and the bird now dropping and dipping into the bait fish that were forced to the surface in their panic.
"The bird is a great help," the old man said. Just then the stern line came taut under his foot, where he had kept a loop of the line, and he dropped his oars and felt tile weight of the small tuna's shivering pull as he held the line firm and commenced to haul it in. The shivering increased as he pulled in and he could see the blue back of the fish in the water and the gold of his sides before he swung him over the side and into the boat. He lay in the stern in the sun, compact and bullet shaped, his big, unintelligent eyes staring as he thumped his life out against the planking of the boat with the quick shivering strokes of his neat, fast-moving tail. The old man hit him on the head for kindness and kicked him, his body still shuddering, under the shade of the stern.
"Albacore," be said aloud. "He'll make a beautiful bait (из него выйдет отличная наживка). He'll weigh ten pounds (он, должно быть, весит десять фунтов)."