诅咒

有一次，一个海上老人对我说道："三十年以前，有个水手带着我的女儿逃跑了。我从心底里诅咒他们两人，因为世界上我最疼爱的仅仅是我的女儿。

"不久以后，那青年水手和他的船都沉到海底里去了，我也就丧失了同他在一起的、我那可爱的女儿。

"因此，现在你在我身上瞧得见一个谋杀这对青年和少女的凶手。毁灭他们两人的，就是我的诅咒。如今我在走向坟墓的路上寻求上帝的宽恕。"

老人说了这番话。然而在他的说话里有一种自吹自擂的口吻，仿佛他仍旧以他那诅咒的魔力自豪哩。

The Curse

And old man of the sea once said to me, "It was thirty years ago that a sailor ran away with my daughter. And I cursed them both in my heart, for of all the world I loved but my daughter.

"Not long after that, the sailor youth went down with his ship to the bottom of the sea, and with him my lovely daughter was lost unto me.

"Now therefore behold in me the murderer of a youth and a maid. It was my curse that destroyed them. And now on my way to the grave I seek Gods forgiveness."

This the old man said. But there was a tone of bragging in his words, and it seems that he is still proud of the power of his curse.