BẢN CHÉP ÂM THANH 🔗
WEBVTT
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the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Green k r I dot Calm Heart of Darkness by
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Joseph Conrad, Chapter two, Part two. Two pilgrims were quarreling
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in hurried whispers as to which bank left. No, no,
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how can you right? Right? Of course, it is very serious,
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said the manager's voice behind me. I would be desolate
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if anything should happen to mister Kurtz. Before we came up.
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I looked at him and had not the slightest doubt
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he was sincere. He was just the kind of man
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who would wish to preserve appearances. That was his restraint.
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But when he muttered something about going on at once,
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I did not even take the trouble to answer him.
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I knew, and he knew, that it was impossible. Were
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we to let go our hold of the bottom, we
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would be absolutely in the air in space. We wouldn't
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be able to tell where we were going to, whether
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up or down stream or across till we fetched against
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one bank or the other, and then we wouldn't know
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at first which it was. Of course, I made no move.
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I had no mind for a smash up. You couldn't
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imagine a more deadly place for a shipwreck. Whether we
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drowned at once or not, we were sure to perish
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speedily in one way or another. I authorized you to
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take all the risks, he said, after a short silence.
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I refused to take any, I said shortly, which was
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just the answer he expected, though its tone might have
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surprised him. Well, I must defer to your judgment. You
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are captain, he said, with marked civility. I turned my
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shoulder to him in sign of my appreciation, and looked
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into the fog. How long would it last? It was
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the most hopeless look out. The approach to this Kurts,
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grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush, was beset by
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as many dangerous as though he had been an enchanted
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princess sleeping in a fabulous castle. Will they attack, do
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you think? Asked the manager in a confidential tone. I
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did not think they would attack, for several obvious reasons.
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The thick fog was one. If they left the bank
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in their canoes, they would get lost in it, As
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we would be if we attempted to move still. I
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had also judged the jungle of both banks quite impenetrable,
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and yet eyes were in it, eyes that had seen us.
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The riverside bushes were certainly very thick, but the undergrowth
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behind was evidently penetrable. However, during the short lift, I
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had seen no canoes anywhere in the reach, certainly not
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abreast of the steamer. But what made the idea of
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attack inconceivable to me was the nature of the noise
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of the cries we had heard. They had not the
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fierce character boding immediate hostile intention. Unexpected wild and violent
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as they had been, they had given me an irresistible
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impression of sorrow. The glimpse of the steamboat had for
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some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief. The danger,
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if any, I expounded, was from our proximity to a
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great human passion let loose. Even extreme grief may ultimately
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vent itself in violence, but more generally takes the form
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of apathy. You should have seen the pilgrims stare. They
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had no heart to grin or even to revile me.
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But I believe they thought me gone mad with fright.
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Maybe I delivered a regular lecture. My dear boys, it
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was no good bothering keep a lookout. Well, you may guess.
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I watched the fog for the signs of lifting as
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a cat watch as a mouse, but for anything else.
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Our eyes were of no more use to us than
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if we had been buried miles deep in a heap
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of cotton wool. It felt like it too, choking, warm, stifling. Besides,
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all I said, though its sounded extravagant, was absolutely true
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to fat. What we afterwards alluded to as an attack
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was really an attempt at repulse. The
Load full transcript
action was very
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far from being aggressive. It was not even defensive in
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the usual sense. It was undertaken under the stress of desperation,
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and in its essence was purely protective. It developed itself,
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I should say, two hours after the fog lifted, and
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its commencement was at a spot, roughly speaking, about a
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mile and a half below Kurtz's station. We had just
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floundered and flopped round a bend when I saw an islet,
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a mere grassy hummock of bright green in the middle
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of the stream. It was the only thing of the
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But as we opened the reach more I perceived it
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was the head of a long sand bank, or rather
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of a chain of shallow patches stretching down the middle
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of the river. They were discolored just a wash, and
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the whole lot was seen under the water, exactly as
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a man's backbone is seen running down the middle of
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his back under the skin. Now, as far as I
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did see, I could go to the right or to
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the left of this. I didn't know either channel. Of course,
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the banks looked pretty well alike, the depth appeared the same.
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But as I had been informed the station was on
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the west side, I naturally headed for the western passage.
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No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became
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aware it was much narrower than I had supposed. To
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the left of us there was the long, uninterrupted shoal,
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and to the right a high steep bank, heavily overgrown
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with bushes. Above the bush, the trees stood in serried ranks.
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The twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance,
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a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream.
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It was then well on in the afternoon. The face
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of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of
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shadow had already fallen on the water in this shadow.
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We steamed up very slowly. As you may imagine, I
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sheared her well inshore, the water being deepest near the bank.
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As the sounding pole informed me, one of my hungry
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and forbearing friends was sounding in the boughs just below me.
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This steamboat was exactly like a decked scow. On the
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deck there were two little teak wood houses with doors
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and windows. The boiler was in the fore end, and
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the machinery right astern. Over the whole there was a
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light roof supported on stanchions. The funnel projected through that roof,
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and in front of the funnel a small cabin built
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of light planks served for a pilot house. It contained
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a couch, too, campstools, a loaded martini henry leaning in
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one corner, a tiny table, and the steering wheel. It
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had a wide door in front and a broad shutter
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at each side. All these were always thrown open. Of course,
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I spent my days perched up there on the extreme
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fore end of that roof, before the door. At night
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I slept or tried to on the couch. An athletic
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black belonging to some coast tribe and educated by my
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poor predecessor was the helmsman. He sported a pair of
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brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist
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to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself.
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He was the most unstable kind of fool I had
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ever seen. He steered with no end of a swagger
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while you were by, but if he lost sight of you,
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he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and
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would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper
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hand of him. In a minute, I was looking down
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at the sound pole and feeling much annoyed to see
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at each try a little more of it stuck out
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of that river, when I saw my poleman give up
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on the business suddenly and stretch himself flat on the deck,
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without even taking the trouble to haul his pole in.
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He kept hold on it, though, and it trailed in
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the water. At the same time, the firemen, whom I
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could also see below me, sat down abruptly before his
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furnace and ducked his head. I was amazed. Then I
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had to look at the river mighty quick, because there
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was a snag in the fairway. Sticks, little sticks were
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flying about, thick they were whizzing before my nose, dropping
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below me, striking behind me against my pilot house. All
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this time, the river, the shore, the woods were very quiet,
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perfectly quiet. I could only hear the heavy splashing thump
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of the stern wheal and the patter of these things.
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We cleared the snag clumsily. Arrows. By jove, we were
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being shot at. I stepped in quickly to close the shutter.
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On the land side. That fool helmsman, his hands on
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the spokes, was lifting his knees high, stamping his feet,
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champing his mouth like a reined in hoarse confound him,
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and we were staggering within ten feet of the bank.
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I had to lean right out to swing the heavy shudder,
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and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the
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level with my own, looking at me, very fierce and steady.
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And then, suddenly, as though a veil had been removed
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from my eyes, I made out deep in the tangled gloom,
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naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes. The bush was swarming
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with human limbs and movement, glistening of Braun's color. The
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twig shook, swayed, and rustled. The arrows flew out of them,
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and then the shutter came too. Steer her straight, I
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said to the helmsman. He held his head rigid, face forward,
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but his eyes rolled. He kept on lifting and setting
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down his feet gently. His mouth foamed a little. Keep quiet,
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I said, in a fury. I might just as well
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have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind.
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I darted out below me. There was a great scuffle
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of feet on the iron deck, confused exclamations. A voice screamed,
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can you turn back? I caught sight of a V
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shaped ripple on the water ahead. What another snag? A
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fusillade burst out under my feet. The pilgrims had opened
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with their winchesters and were simply squirting lead into that bush.
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A deuce of a lot of smoke came up and
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drove slowly forward. I swore at it. Now. I couldn't
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see the ripple or the snag either. I stood in
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the doorway peering, and the arrows came in swarms. They
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might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they
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wouldn't kill a cat. The bush began to howl. Our
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woodcutters raised a warlike whoop. The report of a rifle
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just at my back deafened me. I glanced over my shoulder,
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and the pilot house was yet full of noise and smoke.
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When I made a dash at the wheel, the fool
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nigger had dropped everything to throw the shutter open and
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let off that Martini Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring,
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and I yelled at him to come back while I
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straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. There was
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no room to turn, even if I had wanted to.
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The snag was somewhere very near ahead. In that confounded smoke.
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There was no time to lose, so I just crowded
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her into the bank, right into the bank, where I
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knew the water was deep. We tore slowly along the
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overhanging bushes in a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves.
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The fuselade below stopped short, as I had foreseen it
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would when the squirts got empty. I threw my head
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back to a glinting whiz that traversed the pilot house
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in at one shutter hole and out at the other.
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Looking past that mad helmsman who was shaking the empty
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rifle and yelling at the shore, I saw vague forms
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of men running bent double leaping, gliding distinct, incomplete evanescent.
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Something big appeared in the air before the shutter. The
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rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked
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at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner,
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and fell upon my feet. The side of his head
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hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared
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a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little
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camp stool. It looked as though after wrenching that thing
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from somebody ashore, he had lost his balance in the effort.
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The thin smoke had blown away. We were clear of
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the snag, and looking ahead I could see that in
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another hundred yards or so I would be free to
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shear off away from the bank. But my feet felt
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so very warm and wet that I had to look down.
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The man had rolled on his back and stared straight
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up at me. Both his hands clutched that cane. It
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was the shaft of a spear that either thrown or
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lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side,
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just below the ribs. The blade had gone in out
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of sight after making a frightful gash. My shoes were
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full a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark
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red under the wheel. His eyes shone with an amazing luster.
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The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously,
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gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of
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being afraid I would try to take it away from him.
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I had to make an effort to free my eyes
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from his gaze and attend to the steering. With one hand,
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I felt above my head for the line of the
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steam whistle, and jerked out screech after screech hurriedly. The
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tumult of angry and warlike yells were checked inside, and
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then from the depths of the woods went out such
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a tremulous and prolonged wail of mournful fear and utter
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despair as may be imagined to follow the flight of
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the last hope from the earth. There was a great
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commotion in the bush. The shower of arrows stopped, a
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few dropping shots rang out sharply, then silence, in which
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the languid beat of the stern wheel came plainly to
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my ears. I put the helm hard a starboard. At
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the moment when the pilgrim in pink pajamas, very hot
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and agitated appeared in the doorway, the manager sends me.
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He began in an official tone and stopped short. Good God,
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he said, glaring at the wounded man. We two whites
239
00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:53.679
stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped
240
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us both. I declare, it looked as though he would
241
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presently put to us some questions in an understandable language.
242
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But he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb,
243
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without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment,
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as though in response to some sign we could not see,
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to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily,
246
00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:23.799
and that frown gave to his black death mask, an
247
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inconceivably somber, brooding and menacing expression. The luster of inquiring
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glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. Can you steer, I
249
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asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious. But I
250
00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.360
made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once.
251
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I meant him to steer, whether or no. To tell
252
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you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my
253
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shoes and socks. He is dead, murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. No,
254
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doubt about it, said I, tugging like mad at the
255
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shoe laces. And by the way, I suppose mister Kurtz
256
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is dead as well. By this time, For the moment
257
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that was the dominant thought, there was a sense of
258
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extreme disappointment, as though I had found out I had
259
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been striving after something altogether without a substance. I couldn't
260
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have been more disgusted if I had traveled all this
261
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way for the sole purpose of talking with mister Kurtz.
262
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Talking with I flung one shoe overboard and became aware
263
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that that was exactly what I had been looking forward to,
264
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a talk with Kurts. I made the strange discovery that
265
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I had never imagined him as doing, you know, but discoursing.
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I didn't say to myself, now I will never see him,
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or now I will never shake him by the hand.
268
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But now I will never hear him. The man presented
269
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himself as a voice, not of course, that I did
270
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not connect him with some sort of action. Hadn't I
271
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been told, in all the tones of jealousy and admiration,
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that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory
273
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than all the other agents altogether. That was not the point.
274
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00:17:19.720
The point was in his being a gifted creature, and
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that all of his gifts, the one that stood out
276
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pre eminently, that carried with it a sense of real presence,
277
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was his ability to talk, his words, the gift of expression,
278
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the bewildering, the illuminating, the most exalted and the most contemptible,
279
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the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from
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the heart of an impenetrable darkness. The other she went
281
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flying unto the devil god of that river. I thought,
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by Jove, it's all over. We're too late. He has vanished.
283
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The gift tis vanished by means of some spear, arrow,
284
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or club. I will never hear that chap speak after all,
285
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And my sorrow had a startling extravagance of emotion, even
286
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such as I had noticed in the howling sorrow of
287
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these savages in the bush. I couldn't have felt more
288
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of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief,
289
00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:24.960
or had missed my destiny in life? Why do you
290
00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:33.319
sigh in this beastly way? Somebody absurd? Well absurd? Good Lord,
291
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mustn't a man ever hear? Give me some tobacco. There
292
00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.759
was a pause of profound stillness. Then a match flared,
293
00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:48.880
and Marlow's lean face appeared worn hollow, with downward folds
294
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and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of concentrated attention, And
295
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as he took vigorous draws at his pipe, it seemed
296
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to retreat and advance out of the night. In the
297
00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:08.319
regular flicker of tiny flame, the match went out. Absurd,
298
00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:13.119
he cried, This is the worst of trying to tell here.
299
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You all are each moored with two good addresses, like
300
00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:19.680
a hulk with two anchors, a butcher round one corner,
301
00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:24.680
a policeman round another. Excellent appetites and temperature normal. You
302
00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:29.359
hear normal from year's end to year's end, and you
303
00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:36.720
say absurd, absurd, be exploded. Absurd, My dear boys, what
304
00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.680
can you expect from a man who, out of sheer nervousness,
305
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:43.279
had just flung overboard a pair of new shoes. Now
306
00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:45.160
I think of it, it is amazing. I did not
307
00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:50.119
shed tears. I
am upon the whole proud of my fortitude.
308
00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:52.839
I was cut to the quick at the idea of
309
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having lost the inestimable privilege of listening to the gifted kerts.
310
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Of course I was wrong. The privilege was waiting for me.
311
00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:07.119
Oh yes, I heard more than enough, and I was
312
00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:11.960
right too. A voice, he was very little more than
313
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:20.599
a voice, and I heard him it this voice, other voices,
314
00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.480
all of them were so little more than voices. And
315
00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:28.720
the memory of that time itself lingers around me, impalpable,
316
00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:34.920
like a dying vibration of one immense jabber, silly, atrocious, sordid,
317
00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:43.519
savage or simply mean, without any kind of sense, voices, voices,
318
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:50.079
even the girl herself. Now he was silent for a
319
00:20:50.119 --> 00:20:57.000
long time. I laid the ghost of his gifts at
320
00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:02.880
last with a lie. He began suddenly, Girl, What did
321
00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:05.680
I mention a girl? Oh? She is out of it completely,
322
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They the women, I mean, are out of it. Should
323
00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:11.839
be out of it. We must help them to stay
324
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in that beautiful world of their own lest ours gets worse. Oh,
325
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:17.680
she had to be out of it. You should have
326
00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:21.920
heard the disinterred body of mister Kurt saying my intended.
327
00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:26.680
You would have perceived directly then how completely she was
328
00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:30.039
out of it. And the lofty frontal bone of mister
329
00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:34.599
Kurt's they say, the hair goes on growing sometimes but
330
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this ah specimen was impressively bald. The wilderness had patted
331
00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:44.119
him on the head, and behold, it was like a ball,
332
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an ivory ball. It had caressed him, and lo he
333
00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:54.359
had withered. It had taken him, loved him, embraced him,
334
00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:59.119
got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his
335
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soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some
336
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devilish initiation. He was its spoiled and pampered favorite ivory.
337
00:22:10.839 --> 00:22:14.160
I should think so. Heaps of it, stacks of it.
338
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The old mud shanty was bursting with it. You would
339
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.279
think there was not a single tusk left either above
340
00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:23.920
or below the ground in the whole country. Mostly fossil,
341
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:28.079
the manager had remarked
disparagingly. It was no more fossil
342
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than I am. But they call it fossil when it
343
00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:33.759
is dug up. It appears these niggers do bury the
344
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tusks sometimes, But evidently they couldn't bury this parcel deep enough.
345
00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.680
To save the gifted mister Kurtz from his fate, we
346
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filled the steamboat with it and had to pile a
347
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lot on the deck. Thus he could see and enjoy
348
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as long as he could see, because the appreciation of
349
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this favor had remained with him to the last. You
350
00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:58.920
should have heard him say, my ivory. Oh yes, I
351
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:05.240
heard him. My intended, my ivory, my station, my river,
352
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my everything belonged to him. It made me hold my
353
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breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into a
354
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prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars
355
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in their places. Everything belonged to him. But that was
356
00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:27.119
a trifle. The thing was to know what he belonged to,
357
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How many powers of darkness claimed him for their own.
358
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That was a reflection that made you creepy all over.
359
00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:39.039
It was impossible. It was not good for one either,
360
00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:42.920
trying to imagine he had taken a high seat amongst
361
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the devils of the land. I mean, literally, you can't understand.
362
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How could you, with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded
363
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by kind neighbors ready to cheer you or to fall
364
00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:57.880
on you, stepping delicately between the butcher and the policemen,
365
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in the holy terror of scandal and gallows and lunatic asylums.
366
00:24:03.240 --> 00:24:06.319
How can you imagine what particular region of the first
367
00:24:06.359 --> 00:24:10.119
ages a man's untrammeled feet may take him into by
368
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the way of solitude, utter solitude without a policeman, by
369
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the way of silence, utter silence where no warning voice
370
00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:21.920
of a kind neighbor can be heard, whispering of public opinion.
371
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These little things make all the great difference. When they
372
00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:29.960
are gone, you must fall back on your own innate strength,
373
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upon your own capacity for faithfulness. Of course, you may
374
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be too much of a fool to go wrong, too
375
00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:39.839
dull even to know you are being assaulted by the
376
00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:44.359
powers of darkness. I take it no fool ever made
377
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a bargain for his soul with the devil. The fool
378
00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:50.359
is too much of a fool, or the devil too
379
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:54.039
much of a devil, I don't know which. Or you
380
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:57.119
may be such a thunderingly exalted creature as to be
381
00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:00.799
altogether deaf and blind to anything but heavenly sight and sounds.
382
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:04.319
Then the earth for you is only a standing place.
383
00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.119
And whether to be like this is your loss or
384
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.799
your gain. I won't pretend to say. But most of
385
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.160
us are neither one nor the other. The earth for
386
00:25:13.279 --> 00:25:15.519
us is a place to live in where we must
387
00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:20.039
put up with sights, with sounds, with smells too. By Jove,
388
00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:24.279
breathe dead hippo so to speak and not be contaminated.
389
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:29.839
And there, don't you see. Your strength comes in that faith,
390
00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:33.240
in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to
391
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.960
bury the stuff, in your power of devotion not to
392
00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:44.599
yourself but to an obscure, backbreaking business. And that's difficult enough. Mind.
393
00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:47.960
I am not trying to excuse or even explain. I
394
00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.880
am trying to account myself for for mister Kurtz, for
395
00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:57.440
the shade of mister Kurtz. This initiated wrath from the
396
00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:01.079
back of nowhere honored me with its amazing confidence before
397
00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:05.000
it vanished altogether. This was because it could speak English
398
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.799
to me. The original Curts had been educated partly in England,
399
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.799
and as he was good enough to say himself, his
400
00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:17.200
sympathies were in the right place. His mother was half English,
401
00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:21.720
his father was half French. All Europe contributed to the
402
00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:24.759
making of Kurts. And by and by I learned that,
403
00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:29.319
most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression of Savage
404
00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:32.960
Customs had entrusted him with the making of a report
405
00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:37.119
for its future guidance, and he had written it too.
406
00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:42.759
I've seen it, I've read it. It was eloquent vibrating
407
00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:47.720
with eloquence, but too high strung. I think seventeen pages
408
00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:51.799
of close writing he had found time for. But this
409
00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:57.000
must have been before his let us say, nerves went
410
00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:00.920
wrong and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances
411
00:27:01.039 --> 00:27:05.759
ending with unspeakable rights, which, as far as I reluctantly
412
00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:09.200
gathered from what I heard at various times, were offered
413
00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:13.119
up to him, do you understand, to mister Kurtz himself.
414
00:27:14.039 --> 00:27:17.839
But it was a beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, however,
415
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:21.400
in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous.
416
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:25.319
He began with the argument that we whites, from the
417
00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:29.839
point of development we had arrived at, must necessarily appear
418
00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:34.640
to them savages. In the nature of supernatural beings, we
419
00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:37.920
approached them with the might of a deity, and so
420
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:42.160
on and so on. By this simple exercise of our will,
421
00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:46.559
we can exert a power for good, practically unbounded, et cetera,
422
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.480
et cetera. From that point he soared and took me
423
00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:56.119
with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember.
424
00:27:56.160 --> 00:27:59.400
You know, it gave me the notion of an exotic
425
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:04.680
immensity ruled by an august benevolence. It made me tingle
426
00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:09.920
with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence of words,
427
00:28:10.519 --> 00:28:15.160
of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to
428
00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:18.720
interrupt the magical current of phrases, unless a kind note
429
00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:21.680
at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much
430
00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:24.920
later in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the
431
00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:29.160
exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at
432
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:32.720
the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment,
433
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:36.920
it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash
434
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:42.720
of lightning in a serene sky. Exterminate all the brutes.
435
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:49.279
The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all
436
00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:54.119
about that valuable postscriptum, because later on, when he, in
437
00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:57.759
a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to
438
00:28:57.799 --> 00:29:02.680
take good care of my pamphlet. He called it, as
439
00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:04.400
it was sure to have in the future a good
440
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:08.920
influence upon his career. I had full information about all
441
00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:12.480
these things, and besides, as it turned out, I was
442
00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:16.200
to have the care of his memory. I've done enough
443
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.559
for it to give me the undisputable right to lay
444
00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:21.480
it if I choose for an everlasting rest in the
445
00:29:21.559 --> 00:29:26.160
dust bin of progress, amongst all the sweepings, and figuratively speaking,
446
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:31.200
all the dead cats of civilization. But then you see,
447
00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:37.440
I can't choose. He won't be forgotten. Whatever he was,
448
00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:42.920
he was not common. He had the power to charm
449
00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:47.319
or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch dance in
450
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:51.960
his honor. He could also fill the small souls of
451
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:57.240
the pilgrims with bitter misgivings. He had one devoted friend
452
00:29:57.279 --> 00:29:59.759
at least, and he had conquered one soul in the
453
00:29:59.799 --> 00:30:05.039
way world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self seeking. No,
454
00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:09.759
I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to
455
00:30:09.759 --> 00:30:12.240
affirm the fellow is exactly worth the life we lost
456
00:30:12.279 --> 00:30:16.079
in getting to him. I missed my late helmsman, awfully.
457
00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:20.079
I missed him even while his body was still lying
458
00:30:20.119 --> 00:30:23.640
in the pilot house. Perhaps you will think it passing strange,
459
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.359
this regret for a savage who was no more account
460
00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.440
than a grain of sand in a black sahara. Well,
461
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:35.680
you don't see. He had something he had steered for months.
462
00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:39.119
I had him at my back, a help, an instrument.
463
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:43.680
It was a kind of partnership. He steered for me.
464
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:47.920
I had to look after him. I worried about his deficiencies,
465
00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:51.279
and thus a subtle bond had been created, of which
466
00:30:51.319 --> 00:30:55.039
I only became aware when it was suddenly broken. And
467
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:58.279
the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when
468
00:30:58.279 --> 00:31:01.799
he received his hurt remained to this day in my memory,
469
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:06.200
like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment.
470
00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.000
Poor fool, if he had only left that shutter alone,
471
00:31:11.599 --> 00:31:16.440
he had no restraint, no restraint, just like Kurts a
472
00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:20.319
tree swayed by the wind. As soon as I had
473
00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:22.799
put on a dry pair of slippers, I dragged him out,
474
00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:25.960
after first jerking the spear out of his side, which
475
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:29.200
operation I confess I performed with my eyes shut tight.
476
00:31:30.880 -->
00:31:35.119
His heels leaped together over the little doorstep. His shoulders
477
00:31:35.160 --> 00:31:38.960
were pressed to my breast. I hugged him from behind desperately.
478
00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:44.559
Oh he was heavy, heavy, heavier than any man on earth,
479
00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:49.400
I should imagine. Then, without more ado, I tipped him overboard.
480
00:31:50.559 --> 00:31:52.519
The current snatched him as though he had been a
481
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:55.240
wisp of grass, and I saw the body roll over
482
00:31:55.319 --> 00:31:59.640
twice before I lost sight of it. Forever, all the
483
00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:02.920
pillow rooms and the manager were then congregated on the
484
00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:05.960
awning deck about the pilot house, chattering at each other
485
00:32:06.039 --> 00:32:09.480
like a flock of excited magpies. And there was a
486
00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:14.160
scandalized murmur at my heartless promptitude. What they wanted to
487
00:32:14.200 --> 00:32:18.079
keep that body hanging about? For? I can't guess embalm
488
00:32:18.119 --> 00:32:21.680
it maybe, But I had also heard another and a
489
00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:26.640
very ominous murmur on the deck below. My friends, the
490
00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:30.920
woodcutters were likewise scandalized, and with better show of reason,
491
00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:33.839
though I admit that the reason itself was quite inadmissible,
492
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:38.119
Oh quite. I had made up my mind that if
493
00:32:38.119 --> 00:32:41.440
my late helmsman was to be eaten, the fishes alone
494
00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:44.960
should have him. He had been a very second rate
495
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:48.400
helmsman while alive, but now he was dead he might
496
00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:52.440
have become a first class temptation and possibly caused some
497
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:57.000
startling trouble. Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel
498
00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:00.000
the man in pink pajamas showing himself a hopeless duffer
499
00:33:00.039 --> 00:33:04.960
at the business. This I did directly. The simple funeral
500
00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:08.559
was over. We were going half speed, keeping right in
501
00:33:08.599 --> 00:33:10.920
the middle of the stream, and I listened to the
502
00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:14.880
talk about me. They had given up Kurtz they had
503
00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:18.680
given up the station. Kurtz was dead, and the station
504
00:33:18.839 --> 00:33:22.119
had been burnt, and so on and so on. The
505
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:24.839
red haired pilgrim was beside himself with a thought that
506
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:29.519
at least this poor Kurts had been properly avenged. Say,
507
00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:31.559
we must have made a glorious slaughter of them in
508
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:36.720
the bush. Eh, what do you think? Say? He positively
509
00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:42.200
danced the bloodthirsty little gingery beggar, and he had
nearly
510
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.400
fainted when he saw the wounded man. I could not
511
00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:49.000
help saying, you made a glorious lot of smoke. Anyhow,
512
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:52.599
I had seen from the way the tops of the
513
00:33:52.599 --> 00:33:55.880
bushes rustled and flew that almost all the shots had
514
00:33:55.920 --> 00:33:59.079
gone too high. You can't hit anything unless you take
515
00:33:59.119 --> 00:34:02.559
aim and fire from them shoulder. But these chaps fired
516
00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:06.839
from the hip with their eyes shut. The retreat, I maintained,
517
00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:10.000
and I was right, was caused by the screeching of
518
00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:14.639
the steam whistle. Upon this they forgot Kurts and began
519
00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:19.320
to howl at me with indignant protests. The manager stood
520
00:34:19.320 --> 00:34:22.280
by the wheel, murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting
521
00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:24.920
well away down the river before dark at all events.
522
00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:27.920
When I saw in the distance, a clearing on the
523
00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:31.239
river side, and the outlines of some sort of building.
524
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:36.719
What's this, I asked. He clapped his hands in wonder
525
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:43.280
the station, he cried. I edged in at once, still
526
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.599
going half speed through my glasses, I saw the slope
527
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:49.920
of a hill, interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free
528
00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:54.440
from undergrowth. A long, decaying building on the summit was
529
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:57.840
half buried in the high grass. The large holes in
530
00:34:57.880 --> 00:35:01.679
the peaked roof gaped black from a far. The jungle
531
00:35:01.719 --> 00:35:05.440
and the woods made a background. There was no enclosure
532
00:35:05.519 --> 00:35:07.920
or fence of any kind, but there had been one,
533
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.800
apparently for near the house. Half a dozen slim posts
534
00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:14.039
remained in a row, roughly trimmed and with their upper
535
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.800
ends ornamented with round carved balls. The rails or whatever
536
00:35:18.840 --> 00:35:22.679
there had been between had disappeared, of course. The forests
537
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:26.519
surrounded all that. The river bank was clear, and on
538
00:35:26.559 --> 00:35:29.159
the water side I saw a white man under a
539
00:35:29.199 --> 00:35:33.400
hat like a cart wheel, beckoning persistently with his whole arm.
540
00:35:34.599 --> 00:35:37.760
Examining the edge of the forest above and below, I
541
00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:42.000
was almost certain I could see movements human forms gliding
542
00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:46.480
here and there. I steamed past prudently, then stopped the
543
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:50.199
engines and let her drift down. The men on the
544
00:35:50.199 --> 00:35:53.280
shore began to shout, urging us to land. We have
545
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:56.400
been attacked, screamed the manager. I know, I know, it's
546
00:35:56.440 --> 00:35:59.280
all right, yelled back the other, and as cheerful as
547
00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:02.039
you please, come along. It's all right. I am glad.
548
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:07.559
His aspect reminded me of something I had seen, something
549
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:12.280
funny I had seen somewhere. As I maneuvered to get alongside,
550
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:15.920
I was asking myself, what does this fellow look like?
551
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:21.360
Suddenly I got it. He looked like a harlequin. His
552
00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:24.480
clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown,
553
00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:27.760
Holland probably, but it was covered with patches all over,
554
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:32.360
with bright patches, blue, red and yellow patches on the back,
555
00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:37.280
patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees, colored
556
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:41.199
binding around his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of
557
00:36:41.239 --> 00:36:45.079
his trousers. And the sunshine made him look extremely gay
558
00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:49.599
and wonderfully neat withal because you could see how beautifully
559
00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:54.199
all this patching had been done. A beardless, boyish face,
560
00:36:54.840 --> 00:36:59.599
very fair, no features to speak of, nose peeling, little
561
00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:03.519
blue eye, eyes, smiles and frowns chasing each other, over
562
00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:07.440
that open countenance, like sunshine and shadow on a windswept plain.
563
00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:12.119
Look Out, captain, he cried, there's a snag lodged in
564
00:37:12.159 --> 00:37:16.840
here last night. What another snag? I confess, I swore, shamefully.
565
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:19.559
I had nearly holed my cripple to finish off that
566
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:23.360
charming trip. The harlequin on the bank turned his little
567
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:27.480
pug nose up to me. You English, he asked, All smiles,
568
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:33.119
are you? I shouted from the wheel. The smiles vanished,
569
00:37:33.199 --> 00:37:35.599
and he shook his head as if sorry for my disappointment.
570
00:37:36.599 --> 00:37:41.159
Then he brightened up. Never mind, he cried encouragingly. Are
571
00:37:41.159 --> 00:37:45.599
we in time? I asked, He is up there, he replied,
572
00:37:45.960 --> 00:37:47.880
with a toss of the head up the hill and
573
00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:51.559
becoming gloomy. All of a sudden. His face was like
574
00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:55.360
the autumn sky, overcast one moment and bright the next.
575
00:37:56.719 --> 00:37:59.760
When the manager, escorted by the pilgrims all of them
576
00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:02.480
are to the teeth, had gone to the house, this
577
00:38:02.679 --> 00:38:06.559
chap came on board. I say, I don't like this.
578
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:10.840
These natives are in the bush, I said, He assured
579
00:38:10.840 --> 00:38:14.679
me earnestly, it was all right. They are simple people.
580
00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:17.960
He added, Well, I am glad you came. It took
581
00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:21.079
me all my time to keep them off, but you
582
00:38:21.159 --> 00:38:24.360
said it was all right. I cried, Oh, they meant
583
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:28.000
no harm, he said, And as I stared, he corrected himself.
584
00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:34.519
Not exactly then, vivaciously, my faith, your pilot house wants
585
00:38:34.519 --> 00:38:37.280
a clean up. In the next breath, he advised me
586
00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:39.119
to keep enough steam on the boiler to blow the
587
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:42.920
whistle in case of any trouble. One good screech will
588
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:46.000
do more for you than all your rifles. They are
589
00:38:46.119 --> 00:38:49.800
simple people, he repeated. He rattled away at such a
590
00:38:49.880 --> 00:38:53.239
rate he quite overwhelmed me. He seemed to be trying
591
00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:56.440
to make up for lots of silence, and actually hinted,
592
00:38:56.679 --> 00:39:01.440
laughing that such was the case. Don't you talk with
593
00:39:01.559 --> 00:39:06.599
mister Kurtz. I have said you don't talk with that man.
594
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:10.920
You listen to him, he exclaimed, with severe exultation. But
595
00:39:11.119 --> 00:39:14.079
now he waved his arm, and in the twinkling of
596
00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:17.960
an eye, was in the uttermost debts of despondency. In
597
00:39:18.039 --> 00:39:20.400
a moment, he came up again with a jump, possessed
598
00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:23.480
himself of both my hands, shook them continuously while he
599
00:39:23.519 --> 00:39:29.559
gabbled brother, sailor, honor, pleasure, delight, introduce myself, Russian son
600
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:34.519
of an arch priest, government of Tamboy. What tobacco, English tobacco,
601
00:39:34.599 --> 00:39:38.679
The excellent English tobacco. Now that's brotherly smoke. Where's a
602
00:39:38.719 --> 00:39:42.239
sailor that does not smoke? The pipe soothed him, and
603
00:39:42.440 --> 00:39:45.039
gradually I made out he had run away from school,
604
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:48.440
had gone to sea in a Russian ship, ran away again,
605
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:52.320
served some time in English ships, was now reconciled with
606
00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:56.880
the arch priest. He made a point of that, But
607
00:39:56.960 --> 00:40:01.280
when one is young, one must see things, gather ex experience, ideas,
608
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:06.159
enlarge the mind. Here, I interrupted, you can never tell
609
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:11.679
here I met mister Kurtz, he said, youthfully, solemn and reproachful.
610
00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:16.440
I held my tongue. After that, it appears he had
611
00:40:16.480 --> 00:40:19.360
persuaded a Dutch trading house on the coast to fit
612
00:40:19.480 --> 00:40:22.239
him out with stores and goods, and had started for
613
00:40:22.280 --> 00:40:25.239
the interior with a light heart and no more idea
614
00:40:25.320 --> 00:40:28.320
of what would happen to him than a baby. He
615
00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:31.559
had been wandering about that river for nearly two years alone,
616
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:36.199
cut off from everybody and everything. I am not so
617
00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:39.199
young as I look. I am twenty five, he said
618
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:42.280
at first. Old Van Schueten would tell me to go
619
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:46.440
to the devil. He narrated with keen enjoyment. But I
620
00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:49.599
stuck to him and talked and talked till at last
621
00:40:49.639 --> 00:40:51.760
he got afraid I would talk the hind leg off
622
00:40:51.760 --> 00:40:54.480
his favorite dog. So he gave me some cheap things
623
00:40:54.480 --> 00:40:56.599
and a few guns, and told me he hoped he
624
00:40:56.599 --> 00:41:00.599
would never see my face again, good old Dutchman van Shoyten.
625
00:41:01.480 --> 00:41:03.519
I've sent him one small lot of ivory a year
626
00:41:03.519 --> 00:41:05.400
ago so that he can't call me a little thief
627
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:09.440
when I get back. I hope he got it, and
628
00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:11.760
for the rest I don't care. I had some woodstacked
629
00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:15.079
for you. That was my old house, did you see.
630
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:17.880
I gave him Towson's book. He made as though he
631
00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:21.760
would kiss me, but restrained himself. The only book I
632
00:41:21.800 --> 00:41:24.239
had left, and I thought I had lost it, he said,
633
00:41:24.280 --> 00:41:27.760
looking at it ecstatically. So many accidents happened to a
634
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:31.519
man going about alone. You know, canoes get upset sometimes,
635
00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:33.960
and sometimes you got to clear out so quick when
636
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.960
the people get angry. He thumbed the pages. He made
637
00:41:37.960 --> 00:41:42.519
notes in Russian. I asked, He nodded. I thought they
638
00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:47.880
were written in cipher. I said, He laughed, then became serious.
639
00:41:48.239 --> 00:41:50.480
I had lots of trouble to keep these people off,
640
00:41:50.519 --> 00:41:54.199
he said. Did they want to kill you? I asked,
641
00:41:55.400 --> 00:41:58.000
Oh no, he cried and checked himself. Why did they
642
00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:03.679
attack us? I pursued. He hesitated, then said, shamefacedly. They
643
00:42:03.719 --> 00:42:08.400
don't want him to go, don't they? I said curiously.
644
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:13.760
He nodded, a nod full of mystery and wisdom, I
645
00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:17.320
tell you, he cried, This man has enlarged my mind.
646
00:42:18.360 --> 00:42:21.239
He opened his arms wide, staring at me with his
647
00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:29.480
little blue eyes that were perfectly round. End of Chapter two,
648
00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:33.480
Part two