Moby Dick

HermanMelvilleMoby DickCzytamy w oryginale

Moby Dick

SeriaCzytamy w oryginale to atrakcyjna pomoc dla uczących się języka angielskiego. Śledząc losy bohaterów powieści możemy na bieżąco porównywać tekst angielski i polski, ucząc się na podstawie wielkiej literatury. Adaptacja została przygotowana z myślą o czytelnikach średniozaawansowanych, jednak dzięki wersji polskiej z książki korzystać mogą również początkujący.

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Zapraszamy na www.44.pl gdzie dostępne są dodatkowe pomoce do samodzielnej nauki: angielska wersja audio (format mp3) oraz zeszyt ćwiczeń z kluczem odpowiedzi.

Moby DickI. CALL ME ISHMAEL

[ 1 ] Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – how long is not important – I found myself with no money, and
nothing to interest me on land. Whenever I feel depressed like this,
I know it is time to go to sea. However, I never go as a passenger,
I never have the money to pay. And why should I pay? I always go to
sea as a simple sailor, to get paid, to get exercise and to breathe
the pure sea air.

[ 2 ] I had never been on a whaling ship before,
I normally sail on ships that take spices and treasure from one part
of the world to another. But this time I decided that I wanted to sail
in the hunt for whales, those great monsters of the deep seas.

[ 3 ] So I travelled to a town called New Bedford,
and on my arrival I found that I had to wait a night and a day for
a ship to take me to Nantucket. At the time this was the most famous
whaling port in the whole world. After walking the streets for some time
I arrived at a place called “The Spouter Inn” – I decided to
go in.

[ 4 ] There were no free beds in the inn, but the
owner told me there was a large bed that I could share with a harpooner
from a whaling ship. He told me the man was out, walking around the
town trying to sell some human heads. I was not sure I wanted to share
a bed, even a large one, with another man, especially a man trying to
sell human heads. However, the only alternative was to sleep on a table
in the bar, so I asked the owner to show me the room. When I arrived
it was empty, so I got into the bed and quickly went to sleep.

[ 5 ] Later on that night I was woken up by a man
entering the room holding a candle in one hand and a human head in the
other. He didn’t see me, and I was able to watch him in the candle
light. He was a huge man, with a shaved head and the whole of his body
was covered in tattoos. He was clearly from the south sea islands and
I wondered if he was even a cannibal. At that moment I was as scared
of him as I am scared of the devil.

[ 6 ] He looked into a bag he had and took out
a wooden idol in the shape of a small baby. For perhaps a minute he
whispered some prayers to this tiny god. Then he put out his candle and
jumped into bed. He was very surprised to see me.

[ 7 ] „Who-e you? I kill-e,” shouted the cannibal
as he jumped back out of bed.

[ 8 ] „Landlord!” I screamed.

[ 9 ] Thankfully the landlord came quickly to the
room holding a candle.

[ 10 ] „Don’t be afraid of Queequeg, he wouldn’t
harm a hair on your head,” the landlord said with a big smile on
his face.

[ 11 ] „Why didn’t you tell me he was
a cannibal?”

[ 12 ] „I thought you would know, I did tell
you he was out selling heads. Queequeg, this man sleep-e you – you
sabbee?”

[ 13 ] „Me sabbee a lot,” said Queequeg in
a low voice.

[ 14 ] For a moment I was able to have a good look
at the savage. He was generally quite clean and friendly looking. So
I decided that it was better to sleep with a sober savage than
a drunken Christian.

[ 15 ] When I woke up the next day, my new friend was
shaving with his harpoon, which must have been incredibly sharp. I spent
some time with Queequeg during the day and he told me about his life. He
was from the South Seas and his home was 20 000 miles away. That evening
we ate supper together and then smoked some of Queequeg’s tobacco. He
told me that I was a great friend and gave me the human head he had
been trying to sell.

[ 16 ] The next day we decided to sail to Nantucket
together and look for a whaling ship we could work on. During the journey
I noticed that the crew were making a joke of Queequeg. While he walked
around the ship they would follow him and mimic his walk.

[ 17 ] Queequeg saw one of them doing this and quite
calmly dropped his bag and harpoon, picked the man up and threw him
across the deck.

[ 18 ] „Captain! Captain! It’s the devil,” the
man cried.

[ 19 ] „Hey you! You could have killed that man,”
the Captain shouted.

[ 20 ] „What him say?” he asked me.

[ 21 ] „Him say you near kill-e that man there,”
I said, trying to speak in his strange way so he could understand me
easily.

[ 22 ] „Him? No, him small fish. Queequeg no kill-e
him, Queequeg kill-e big whale.”

[ 23 ] When we arrived in Nantucket there were three
whaling ships in the harbour. Queequeg told me, he had been talking
with his little god, Yojo, and that I should decide which boat to
take. I walked to where the ships were, and had a look around. It
seemed there were three ships, the Devil-Dam, the Tit-bit and the
Pequod. The Pequod is the name of a famous tribe of American Indians,
now extinct. I decided that this was the ship that Queequeg and I would
travel on.

[ 24 ] On the deck of the ship there was a strange
tent, in the shape of a wigwam. I could just see that an old man was
sitting inside. I walked over to him and asked in a loud voice:

[ 25 ] „Are you the Captain of the ship?”

[ 26 ] „What if I am? What do you want?” came the
reply. I could see his face better now, he had skin like leather. Later
on, I found out this was Captain Peleg, one of the owners of the
Pequod.

[ 27 ] „I want to sail on this ship.”

[ 28 ] „And what do you know about whaling?”

[ 29 ] „I’ve been a sailor and…”

[ 30 ] „I asked what you knew about whaling,
not sailing,” interrupted the old man.

[ 31 ] „Well, I want to see the world and I want
to see what whaling is.”

[ 32 ] „You want to see what whaling is? Well,
just look at Captain Ahab.”

[ 33 ] „Who?”

[ 34 ] „He’s the one legged captain of this
ship.”

[ 35 ] „What happened to his other leg? Was it lost
to a whale?”

[ 36 ] „Lost to a whale? It was bitten off and
chewed up by a monster of a whale. So if you want to see whaling,
look for the Captain and if you want to see the world, look over that
side of the ship.”

[ 37 ] I looked over and saw nothing but the endless
ocean.

[ 38 ] „What do you have to say?”

[ 39 ] „Not much, nothing but water and a few
clouds,” I replied.

[ 40 ] „So what do you think of the world? Do you
wish to see any more of it?”

[ 41 ] I didn’t know what to say. But the old man
helped me.

[ 42 ] „I’ll take you, you can sign up
now.”

[ 43 ] After signing my papers, I left, but on the
walk back to the inn I began to think about Ahab. It was always a good
idea, before sailing on a ship to meet it’s captain. Turning back
I walked up to Captain Peleg and asked him where I could find Captain
Ahab.

[ 44 ] „And what do you want of the Captain?”
asked Peleg.

[ 45 ] „I would like to speak to him,”
I replied.

[ 46 ] „He isn’t available at the moment, I think
he’s a little sick. He’s a strange man, Ahab, but a good one,
doesn’t speak much, but when he does speak, you should listen. Anyway,
I always say – it’s better to sail with a moody good captain than
a laughing bad one.”

[ 47 ] Hearing this I left the ship and went to meet
Queequeg.