bilingües
Stevenson
bilingües
Stevenson
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Treasure Island
PART ONE The Old Buccaneer 1. The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow |
L’Illa del Tresor
1a part EL VELL BUCANER 1. El vell llop de mar de 1’Almirall Benbow |
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SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having
asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from
the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the
island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I
take up my pen in the year of grace 17__ and go back to the time when my
father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre
cut first took up his lodging under our roof.
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow—a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards: "Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest— |
EL CAVALLER Trelawney, el doctor Livesey i d’altres senyors em demanaren que escrivís fil per randa la història de l’Illa del Tresor, mantenint-ne en secret la posició geogràfica —i això només perquè hi queden encara riqueses no conegudes—. Agafo, per tant, la ploma l’any del Senyor de 17... i torno al temps que el meu pare posseïa la posada Almirall Benbow, sota el sostre de la qual s’havia atrinxerat aquell vell llop de mar, de rostre renegrit pel sol i amb una esgarrifosa cicatriu produïda per un cop de sabre. El recordo encara com si fos ahir. Aparegué pesadament al llindar d’entrada, i rere seu un carretó, carregat amb el seu cofre mariner: un home gegantí, fort i bronzejat; la cua dels cabells, embreada, li queia fins a l’esquena, sobre el tabard d’un blau brut. Tenia les mans clivellades, plenes de cicatrius, amb les ungles irregulars i negres. A la galta, el cop de sabre li havia deixat un xiribec blanquinós, repugnant. Recordo que, tot mirant la cala, xiulava baixet; i després es posà a entonar la vella cançó marinera que tan sovint li havia de sentir: Quinze són que volen el cofre del mort, |
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in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard. "This is a handy cove," says he at length; "and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop. Much company, mate?" My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity. "Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit," he continued. "I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at— there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I’ve worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander. |
La veu li ressonava tan ronca que semblava el cruixir gemegós
de les barres d’un cabrestant. Després trucà a la porta amb
una mena de perpal que duia. En aparèixer el meu pare, li demanà
a crits un got de rom. Begué a poc a poc, com ho fan els tastavins,
assaborint el líquid amb els llavis, sense deixar de mirar els penya-segats
de la costa i la mostra de la posada. —Quina cala més acollidora —comentà per fi—. I quin lloc més avinent per a una taverna! Teniu molts d’hostes, company? A contracor, el meu pare confessà que ben pocs. —Magnífic, doncs! —comentà l’home—; aquesta serà
la meva jaça. Ei. tu! —cridà al qui portava el carretó—.
Atraca i descarrega. |
And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest. He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove or upon the cliffs with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to, only look up sudden and fierce and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day when he came back from his stroll he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question, but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman did put up at the Admiral Benbow (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol) he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter, for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day and promised me a silver fourpenny on the first of every month if I would only keep my "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg" and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough when the first of the month came round and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me and stare me down, but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four-penny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the seafaring man with one leg." |
I, efectivament, malgrat la roba ratada i el parlar ordinari, no
semblava un mariner ras, sinó un pilot o patró, acostumat
a fer-se obeir, ni que fos a cops. L’home que portava el carretó
ens explicà que aquell matí el capità havia arribat
amb diligència a la posada Rei Jordi, on havia demanat informació
sobre els albergs existents a la costa. A la fi havia triat el nostre,
potser per les referències rebudes i perquè era força
solitari. No vam poder saber més detalls del nostre hoste. Era un home callat. Vagarejava tot el dia per la cala o les roques,
armat d’un llarga vista de llautó. Al vespre, romania assegut en
un racó de la sala, prop del foc, i bevia rom i aigua. Gairebé
mai no responia quan li parlaven; sobtadament llançava una mirada
furiosa bufava pels narius com a través d’un corn d’alarma en dies
de boira; de manera que tant nosaltres, els de la casa, com els hostes.
ens acostumàrem a deixar-lo estar. Cada dia, en retornar de la passejada,
demanava si pel camí havíem vist passar mariners. De primer
crèiem que ens feia aquella pregunta perquè potser enyorava
velles companyies; però més tard ens adonàrem que
el que volia era evitar-les. Quan algun mariner, de pas vers Bristol —cosa
que ocorria de tant en tant—, es detenia a la sala de l’Almirall Benbow,
el capità l’examinava ben bé des de darrere la cortina de
la porta, abans que l’home entrés, i després procurava callar
com un mort. Al capdavall, però, per a mi no existí cap secret;
i és que un dia, portant-me a part, em prometé una moneda
de plata el dia primer de cada mes, a condició que l’avisés
immediatament si arribava a veure la presència d’un mariner amb
una cama de pal. Sovint, això no obstant, quan arribava el primer
de mes i jo li reclamava el meu salari, em responia només amb un
esbufec i mirades despectives. Tot amb tot, abans no era passada una setmana,
ja s’havia repensat, i em portava la moneda de plata, tot renovant l’ordre
«d’estar alerta amb el mariner de la cama de pal». |
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How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies. But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum," all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death
upon them, and each singing louder than the other to avoid remark.
For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; |
No cal dir que aquest personatge misteriós em perseguia en
somnis. Les nits rúfoles, quan el vent feia estremir la casa pels
quatre costats i la marejada bramava contra roques i espadats, jo l’imaginava
prenent mil formes diverses i mil expressions diabòliques. De vegades
em feia l’efecte que tenia la cama tallada fins al genoll, d’altres fins
a l’anca; més tard se m’apareixia com un monstre, amb una sola cama
al mig del tronc. El pitjor malson, però, era quan el veia perseguint-me
corrents i saltant rases i tanques. I com que aquestes visions m’assetjaven
sovint, em resultava força cara la mensual moneda de plata. Per bé que la idea del misteriós navegant em perseguia
contínuament en terror, la meva por del capità era inferior
a la de qualsevol dels qui el coneixien. Alguns vespres engolia més
rom del compte i, en conseqüència, rompia a cantar les seves
heretges, antigues i salvatges cançons marineres, sense cap consideració
envers els presents. Però a vegades convidava tothom a beure i ens
obligava a escoltar els seus relats o a corejar el seu cant; i sovint sacsejava
la casa amb la tornada: Eren quinze, oh, oh, i una ampolla de rom! Els parroquians la repetien, tots alhora, morts de por de desvetllar les seves ires i alçant la veu en mútua competència, car, durant aquells accessos, el capità era el company més intolerant del món. Llavors copejava bruscament la taula amb la mà per imposar absolut silenci a tots, o es deixava endur per un impuls de còlera salvatge a la més mínima pregunta; mentre, en d’altres ocasions, el mateix efecte li produïa si no li preguntàvem res, perquè creia que la concurrència no estava atenta a la seva història. Per cap raó no permetia que ningú abandonés la sala fins que ell, completament borratxo i ensonyat, se n’anava, fent tentines, a desplomar-se al llit. |
His stories were what frightened people worst of all.
Dreadful stories they were—about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms
at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish
Main. By his own account he must have lived his life among some of
the wickedest men that God ever allowed upon the sea, and the language
in which he told these stories shocked our plain country people almost
as much as the crimes that he described. My father was always saying
the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be
tyrannized over and put down, and sent shivering to their beds; but I really
believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time,
but on looking back they rather liked it; it was a fine excitement in a
quiet country life, and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended
to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog" and a "real old salt" and such
like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible
at sea.
In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us, for he kept on staying
week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had
been long exhausted, and still my father never plucked up the heart to
insist on having more. If ever he mentioned it, the captain blew
through his nose so loudly that you might say he roared, and stared my
poor father out of the room. I have seen him wringing his hands after
such a rebuff, and I am sure the annoyance and the terror he lived in must
have greatly hastened his early and unhappy death.
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Les narracions eren allò que més espantava la gent. Històries de penjats, càstigs bàrbars, com el «passeig pel tauló», tempestes a la mar i a les illes Tortugues, gestes salvatges i paratges abruptes pel Carib. Pel que referia, s’havia passat la vida enmig dels més perversos homes que Déu hagi permès creuar les mars. El llenguatge que emprava en aquestes històries horroritzava els nostres senzills veïns quasi tant com els crims espantosos descrits. El meu pare solia dir que la posada aniria a la ruïna, perquè els hostes, al capdavall, no es deixarien esclavitzar escoltant contes que després els llevarien la son. Però jo crec que, al contrari, la seva presència ens fou de molt profitosa. Tot i que, al començament, aquella bona gent passà molta por, de mica en mica anà trobant un cert gust en aquella conversa. Era una font de valuoses emocions enmig d’aquella assossegada vida camperola. Alguns dels més joves dels nostres conveïns li fingien admiració i li deien «autèntic llop de mar», «mariner com no n’hi ha», i altres renoms similars, tot afegint que d’aquella estofa són els qui, precisament, fan que el nom d’Anglaterra sigui temut i respectat a la mar Però també, i en certa mesura, no deixava d’anar-nos portant a la ruïna, car la seva estada es perllongava setmana rere setmana i mes rere mes; de tal manera que aquelles primeres monedes d’or, ja havien desaparegut, esmerçades sense que el meu pare s’atrevís a insistir gaire a demanar-ne més. I si alguna vegada ho insinuava, el capità esbufegava d’una manera tan formidable que era quasi un bramul i, amb una mirada ferotge, feia eixir el meu pare fora de la cambra. Vaig veure’l, el pare, molts cops després d’aquells menyspreus, retorçant-se les mans; i estic convençut que el terror i l’enuig en què vivia contribuïren en gran manera a accelerar-ne la dissortada mort. |
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All the time he lived with us the captain made no change whatever
in his dress but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the
cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth,
though it was a great annoyance when it blew. I remember the appearance
of his coat, which he patched himself upstairs in his room, and which,
before the end, was nothing but patches. He never wrote or received
a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these,
for the most part, only when drunk on rum. The great sea-chest none
of us had ever seen open.
He was only once crossed, and that was towards the end, when my poor father was far gone in a decline that took him off. Dr. Livesey came late one afternoon to see the patient, took a bit of dinner from my mother, and went into the parlour to smoke a pipe until his horse should come down from the hamlet, for we had no stabling at the old Benbow. I followed him in, and I remember observing the contrast the neat, bright doctor, with his powder as white as snow and his bright, black eyes and pleasant manners, made with the coltish country folk, and above all, with that filthy, heavy, bleared scarecrow of a pirate of ours, sitting, far gone in rum, with his arms on the table. Suddenly he—the captain, that is—began to pipe up his eternal song: "Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest—
At first I had supposed "the dead man’s chest" to be that identical
big box of his upstairs in the front room, and the thought had been mingled
in my nightmares with that of the one-legged seafaring man. But by
this time we had all long ceased to pay any particular notice to the song;
it was new, that night, to nobody but Dr. Livesey, and on him I observed
it did not produce an agreeable effect, for he looked up for a moment quite
angrily before he went on with his talk to old Taylor, the gardener, on
a new cure for the rheumatics. In the meantime, the captain gradually
brightened up at his own music, and at last flapped his hand upon the table
before him in a way we all knew to mean silence. The voices stopped
at once, all but Dr. Livesey’s; he went on as before speaking clear and
kind and drawing briskly at his pipe between every word or two. The
captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still
harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, low oath,
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En tot el temps que va viure entre nosaltres, el capità no introduí el més mínim canvi en el seu abillament, si no era per comprar a un venedor ambulant algunes mitges. Una de les ales del barret se li havia descosit, però ni que quan feia vent li caigués pel damunt de la cara, ell no s’havia molestat a recosir-la. Recordo la miserable aparença del seu gec, que ell mateix se sargia a la cambra, i que havia reduït a pedaços. Mai no escriví ni rebé cap carta, ni es dignà adreçar la paraula a ningú que no fos dels veïns, i això, encara, només quan li bullien al cap els vapors de l’alcohol. Quant al cofre que havia portat en venir, ningú no l’havia vist mai obert. Un sol cop, poc abans de la mort del meu pare, li van picar la cresta. La salut del meu pare anava perdent, perdent, i aquella tarda, el doctor Livesey s’havia retardat en la visita al malalt; mentre esperava que li portessin del poble el cavall, ja que a la posada no teníem cavallerissa, la mare li serví un refrigeri, i després ell entrà a la sala a fumar-se una pipa. Jo li vaig anar al darrere i recordo haver observat el contrast que oferí als meus ulls aquell home fi i endreçat, amb la perruca blanca, ulls negres vivíssims, i agradables i fines maneres, amb aquells rudes camperols convilatans; i més que res amb el brut, enorme i repugnant espantaocells de pirata, assegut i en avançat estat d’embriaguesa. De sobte el capità rompé a cantussejar l’eterna cançó: Quinze són que volen el cofre del mort, Al començament jo havia cregut que el «cofre del mort»
a què es referia el capità era aquell gran bagul que guardava
dalt de la cambra, i aquest pensament s’havia barrejat en els meus malsons
amb la figura del mariner coix. Però després ja havíem
deixat de fer la més mínima atenció a aquell cant
que, fora del doctor Livesey, era de tots conegut. I vaig poder observar
que al doctor no li produí un efecte agradable, perquè va
aixecar els ulls amb expressió de força disgust vers el capità,
abans de continuar conversant amb el vell Taylor, el jardiner, a propòsit
d’un nou tractament del reuma. Mentre, el capità semblava complaure’s
amb el so de la pròpia música, d’una manera gradual, fins
que copejà la taula d’aquella forma brusca que tots sabíem
que volia dir «Silenci». Les veus cessaren tot seguit,
i només el doctor Livesey continuà enraonant impertorbablement,
clarament, agradosament i pipant amb força a cada dues o tres paraules.
El capità el fulminà amb la mirada uns moments; tornà
a copejar la taula, i acompanyant-se d’una llorda blasfèmia, cridà:
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"Were you addressing me, sir?" says the doctor; and when
the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp-knife, and balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall. The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him as before,
over his shoulder and in the same tone of voice, rather high, so that all
the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady: Then followed a battle of looks between them, but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog. "And now, sir," continued the doctor, "since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m not a doctor only; I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if it’s only for a piece of incivility like tonight’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice."
Soon after, Dr. Livesey’s horse came to the door and he rode away, but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come. |
—M’ho dieu a mi? —demanà el doctor. El capità
respongué afirmativament, no sense acompanyar-ho d’una altra paraulota.
La fúria que s’emparà del vell fou tremenda. D’un bot va alçar-se, tragué i obrí una navalla i, brandint-la, amenaçà el doctor de deixar-lo clavat a la paret. El doctor Livesey no féu cap moviment. Li tornà a parlar,
igual que abans, per damunt del muscle, amb el mateix repòs a la
veu, de manera que tots els presents ho sentíssim bé; calmós
i serè va dir:
Hi hagué un combat de mirades entre tots dos; aviat, però, al capità li calgué retre’s; plegà l’arma, la guardà i tornà al seu seient, grunyint com un gos apallissat. —I ara —continuà el doctor—, des del moment que em consta la presència d’un home com vós dins el districte, podeu estar segur que no us perdré de vista ni de dia ni de nit. No sóc només metge; sóc també magistrat. I, doncs, si m’arriba la més insignificant queixa en contra vostra, encara que només sigui per un brot de grolleries com aquesta nit, sabré prendre les mesures adients per tal que us apressin i foragitin. Això, com a advertiment. Poc després arribà la cavalcadura a la porta i el doctor
se n’anà. El capità romangué apaivagat aquella nit,
i moltes altres nits que seguiren.
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