La muerte de un capitán le ofrece la oportunidad a
Marlow de viajar a África. De la clásica novela Heart of Darkness, escrita por Joseph Conrad...
"It appears
the Company had received news that one of their captains had been killed in a
scuffle with the natives. This was my chance, and it made me the more anxious
to go. It was only months and months afterwards, when I made the attempt to
recover what was left of the body, that I heard the original quarrel arose from
a misunderstanding about some hens. Yes, two black hens.
Fresleven—that
was the fellow's name, a Dane—thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain,
so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick.
Oh, it didn't surprise me in the least to hear this, and at the same time to be
told that Fresleven was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two
legs. No doubt he was; but he had been a couple of years already out there
engaged in the noble cause, you know, and he probably felt the need at last of
asserting his self-respect in some way. Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people
watched him, thunderstruck, till some man,—I was told the chief's son,—in
desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at
the white man—and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades.
Then the whole
population cleared into the forest, expecting all kinds of calamities to
happen, while, on the other hand, the steamer Fresleven commanded left also in
a bad panic, in charge of the engineer, I believe. Afterwards nobody seemed to
trouble much about Fresleven's remains, till I got out and stepped into his
shoes.
I couldn't let
it rest, though; but when an opportunity offered at last to meet my
predecessor, the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to hide his
bones. They were all there. The supernatural being had not been touched after
he fell.
And the village
was deserted, the huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within the fallen enclosures. A calamity had come to it, sure
enough.
The people had vanished.
Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and
they had never returned. What became of the hens I don't know either. I should
think the cause of progress got them, anyhow. However, through this glorious
affair I got my appointment, before I had fairly begun to hope for it. . . . (Chapter
1 from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph
Conrad)
Vocabulario
Whack: To strike
(someone or something) with a sharp blow; slap.
Askew: to one side.
El
libro
Heart
of Darkness es una novela del autor polaco Joseph
Conrad, sobre un viaje por el río Congo, en el corazón de África. La historia
es narrada por Marlow. En este marco se desarrolla la historia de la obsesión
de Marlow con el traficante de marfil Kurtz, lo que le permite a Conrad trazar
un paralelo entre Londres y África como lugares oscuros. Fue publicada en 1899.
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De
la web
Heart of
Darkness, audiobook
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