De cómo se suceden
los días de viaje, en medio del sol, con las costumbres de aislarse de los
nativos. Del original inglés Lord Jim
'Look at dese
cattle,' said the German skipper to his new chief mate.
An Arab, the
leader of that pious voyage, came last. He walked slowly aboard, handsome and
grave in his white gown and large turban. A string of servants followed, loaded
with his luggage; the Patna cast off and backed away from the wharf.
She was headed between
two small islets, crossed obliquely the anchoring-ground of sailing-ships,
swung through half a circle in the shadow of a hill, then ranged close to a ledge of foaming reefs.
The Arab,
standing up aft, recited aloud the prayer of travellers by sea. He invoked the
favour of the Most High upon that journey, implored His blessing on men's toil
and on the secret purposes of their hearts; the steamer pounded in the dusk the
calm water of the Strait; and far astern
of the pilgrim ship a screw-pile lighthouse, planted by unbelievers on a
treacherous shoal, seemed to wink at
her its eye of flame, as if in derision of her errand of faith.
She cleared the
Strait, crossed the bay, continued on her way through the 'One-degree' passage.
She held on straight for the Red Sea under a serene sky, under a sky scorching and unclouded, enveloped in a
fulgor of sunshine that killed all thought, oppressed the heart, withered all impulses of strength and
energy. And under the sinister splendour of that sky the sea, blue and
profound, remained still, without a stir, without a ripple, without a wrinkle—viscous,
stagnant, dead. The Patna, with a
slight hiss, passed over that plain, luminous and smooth, unrolled a black
ribbon of smoke across the sky, left behind her on the water a white ribbon of
foam that vanished at once, like the phantom of a track drawn upon a lifeless
sea by the phantom of a steamer.
Every morning
the sun, as if keeping pace in his revolutions with the progress of the
pilgrimage, emerged with a silent burst of light exactly at the same distance astern of the ship, caught up with her
at noon, pouring the concentrated fire of his rays on the pious purposes of the
men, glided past on his descent, and sank mysteriously into the sea evening
after evening, preserving the same distance ahead of her advancing bows. The
five whites on board lived amidships,
isolated from the human cargo. The awnings
covered the deck with a white roof from stem to stern, and a faint hum, a low
murmur of sad voices, alone revealed the presence of a crowd of people upon the
great blaze of the ocean. Such were the days, still, hot, heavy, disappearing
one by one into the past, as if falling into an abyss for ever open in the wake
of the ship; and the ship, lonely under a wisp
of smoke, held on her steadfast way
black and smouldering in a luminous
immensity, as if scorched by a flame flicked at her from a heaven without pity.
The nights
descended on her like a benediction.
A marvellous stillness pervaded the world, and the stars, together with the serenity of their rays, seemed to shed upon the earth the assurance of everlasting security. The young moon recurved, and shining low in the west, was like a slender shaving thrown up from a bar of gold, and the Arabian Sea, smooth and cool to the eye like a sheet of ice, extended its perfect level to the perfect circle of a dark horizon. The propeller turned without a check, as though its beat had been part of the scheme of a safe universe; and on each side of the Patna two deep folds of water, permanent and sombre on the unwrinkled shimmer, enclosed within their straight and diverging ridges a few white swirls of foam bursting in a low hiss, a few wavelets, a few ripples, a few undulations that, left behind, agitated the surface of the sea for an instant after the passage of the ship, subsided splashing gently, calmed down at last into the circular stillness of water and sky with the black speck of the moving hull remaining everlastingly in its centre.
Vocabulario
Skipper - Wharf – Ledge – Astern – Shoal – Scorching –
Withered – Ripple – Wrinkle -
Stagnant – Astern – Amidships – Awnings – Wisp – Steadfast
– Smouldering – Shimmer – Wavelets – Ripples – Speck - Hull
Síntesis
El barco sale
del puerto. Un árabe reza las oraciones pidiendo por la salvación de todos. El Patna
se dirige al mar Rojo en medio del calor, dejando su estela de humo y abriendo
surcos en el mar. Los cinco blancos vivían entre ellos, separados de la carga
que hacia escuchar sus voces en medio del sonido de las olas. Luego del sol del
día la noche llega como un bálsamo.
Las fuerzas de la naturaleza
Los sacrificios de los peregrinos
El desprecio del "hombre blanco"
Tópicos para discutir
Las fuerzas de la naturaleza
Los sacrificios de los peregrinos
El desprecio del "hombre blanco"
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