Section II, Part 2 Abschnitt II, Teil 2 セクション II, パート 2 Secção II, Parte 2 Розділ II, частина 2

"I had been dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise, and when I lifted my eyes I saw the wood-pile was gone, and the manager, aided by all the pilgrims, was shouting at me from the riverside. I slipped the book into my pocket. I assure you to leave off reading was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an old and solid friendship. Asseguro-lhe que deixar de ler foi como me afastar do abrigo de uma velha e sólida amizade.

"I started the lame engine ahead. 'It must be this miserable trader—this intruder,' exclaimed the manager, looking back malevolently at the place we had left. "Deve ser esse comerciante miserável, esse intruso", exclamou o gerente, olhando maldosamente para o lugar que havíamos deixado. 'He must be English,' I said. 'It will not save him from getting into trouble if he is not careful,' muttered the manager darkly. "Não vai salvá-lo de ter problemas se ele não for cuidadoso", murmurou o gerente sombriamente. I observed with assumed innocence that no man was safe from trouble in this world.

"The current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern-wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give up every moment. It was like watching the last flickers of a life. But still we crawled. Sometimes I would pick out a tree a little way ahead to measure our progress towards Kurtz by, but I lost it invariably before we got abreast. Às vezes eu escolhia uma árvore um pouco à frente para medir nosso progresso em direção a Kurtz, mas eu a perdia invariavelmente antes de nos aproximarmos. To keep the eyes so long on one thing was too much for human patience. Manter os olhos por tanto tempo em uma coisa era demais para a paciência humana. The manager displayed a beautiful resignation. O gerente exibiu uma bela resignação. I fretted and fumed and took to arguing with myself whether or no I would talk openly with Kurtz; but before I could come to any conclusion it occurred to me that my speech or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be a mere futility. What did it matter what any one knew or ignored? What did it matter who was manager? One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my reach, and beyond my power of meddling.

"Towards the evening of the second day we judged ourselves about eight miles from Kurtz's station. I wanted to push on; but the manager looked grave, and told me the navigation up there was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun being very low already, to wait where we were till next morning. Moreover, he pointed out that if the warning to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach in daylight—not at dusk or in the dark. Além disso, ele ressaltou que, se o aviso para se aproximar com cautela fosse seguido, devemos nos aproximar à luz do dia - não ao anoitecer ou no escuro. This was sensible enough. Eight miles meant nearly three hours' steaming for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples at the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was annoyed beyond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably, too, since one night more could not matter much after so many months. No entanto, fiquei inexplicavelmente aborrecido com a demora, e muito irracional também, já que uma noite a mais não poderia importar muito depois de tantos meses. As we had plenty of wood, and caution was the word, I brought up in the middle of the stream. The reach was narrow, straight, with high sides like a railway cutting. O alcance era estreito, reto, com laterais altas como um corte de ferrovia. The dusk came gliding into it long before the sun had set. The current ran smooth and swift, but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. The living trees, lashed together by the creepers and every living bush of the undergrowth, might have been changed into stone, even to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. It was not sleep—it seemed unnatural, like a state of trance. Not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard. You looked on amazed, and began to suspect yourself of being deaf—then the night came suddenly, and struck you blind as well. About three in the morning some large fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as though a gun had been fired. Por volta das três da manhã, um peixe grande saltou e o barulho fez-me saltar como se tivesse sido disparada uma arma. When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. Quando o sol nasceu, havia um nevoeiro branco, muito quente e pegajoso, e mais ofuscante do que a noite. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all round you like something solid. Ele não se mexeu nem dirigiu; estava ali, de pé ao seu redor como algo sólido. At eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts. Às oito ou nove, talvez, levantou-se como uma veneziana. We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it—all perfectly still—and then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. Vislumbrámos a imponente multidão de árvores, a imensa selva emaranhada, com a pequena bola de sol ardente a pairar sobre ela - tudo perfeitamente imóvel - e depois a persiana branca desceu de novo, suavemente, como se deslizasse em ranhuras lubrificadas. I ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again. Ordenei que a corrente, que havíamos começado a levantar, fosse desembolsada novamente. Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air. Antes de parar de correr com um chocalho abafado, um grito, um grito muito alto, como de infinita desolação, voou lentamente no ar opaco. It ceased. A complaining clamour, modulated in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of it made my hair stir under my cap. A pura imprevisibilidade disso fez meu cabelo se mexer sob o boné. I don't know how it struck the others: to me it seemed as though the mist itself had screamed, so suddenly, and apparently from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful uproar arise. Não sei como é que os outros se aperceberam: a mim pareceu-me que a própria névoa tinha gritado, tão subitamente, e aparentemente de todos os lados ao mesmo tempo, surgiu este tumulto tumultuoso e triste. It culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened in a variety of silly attitudes, and obstinately listening to the nearly as appalling and excessive silence. 'Good God! What is the meaning—' stammered at my elbow one of the pilgrims—a little fat man, with sandy hair and red whiskers, who wore sidespring boots, and pink pyjamas tucked into his socks. Qual é o significado... — gaguejou ao meu lado um dos peregrinos — um homenzinho gordo, com cabelos ruivos e bigodes ruivos, que usava botas de molas laterais e pijama cor-de-rosa enfiado nas meias. Two others remained open-mouthed a while minute, then dashed into the little cabin, to rush out incontinently and stand darting scared glances, with Winchesters at 'ready' in their hands. Dois outros permaneceram de boca aberta por um minuto, então correram para a pequena cabine, para sair correndo incontinente e lançar olhares assustados, com Winchesters "prontos" em suas mãos. What we could see was just the steamer we were on, her outlines blurred as though she had been on the point of dissolving, and a misty strip of water, perhaps two feet broad, around her—and that was all. O que podíamos ver era apenas o vapor em que estávamos, seus contornos borrados como se estivesse a ponto de se dissolver, e uma faixa de água enevoada, talvez com sessenta centímetros de largura, ao redor dela – e isso era tudo. The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind.

"I went forward, and ordered the chain to be hauled in short, so as to be ready to trip the anchor and move the steamboat at once if necessary. 'Will they attack?' whispered an awed voice. 'We will be all butchered in this fog,' murmured another. The faces twitched with the strain, the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink. It was very curious to see the contrast of expressions of the white men and of the black fellows of our crew, who were as much strangers to that part of the river as we, though their homes were only eight hundred miles away. The whites, of course greatly discomposed, had besides a curious look of being painfully shocked by such an outrageous row. Os brancos, claro que muito desconcertados, tinham, além de um curioso olhar de estar dolorosamente chocados com uma briga tão ultrajante. The others had an alert, naturally interested expression; but their faces were essentially quiet, even those of the one or two who grinned as they hauled at the chain. Os outros tinham uma expressão alerta, naturalmente interessada; mas seus rostos estavam essencialmente quietos, mesmo aqueles de um ou dois que sorriam enquanto puxavam a corrente. Several exchanged short, grunting phrases, which seemed to settle the matter to their satisfaction. Their headman, a young, broad-chested black, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with fierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets, stood near me. O chefe deles, um jovem negro de peito largo, severamente envolto em panos azul-escuros com franjas, com narinas ferozes e seu cabelo todo arrumado artisticamente em cachos oleosos, estava perto de mim. 'Aha!' I said, just for good fellowship's sake. Eu disse, apenas por amor ao bom companheirismo. 'Catch 'im,' he snapped, with a bloodshot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth—'catch 'im. Give 'im to us.' 'To you, eh?' I asked; 'what would you do with them?' 'Eat 'im!' he said curtly, and, leaning his elbow on the rail, looked out into the fog in a dignified and profoundly pensive attitude. I would no doubt have been properly horrified, had it not occurred to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry: that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at least this month past. Sem dúvida, teria ficado devidamente horrorizado, se não me ocorresse que ele e seus camaradas deviam estar com muita fome: que deviam estar ficando cada vez mais famintos pelo menos desde o mês passado. They had been engaged for six months (I don't think a single one of them had any clear idea of time, as we at the end of countless ages have. Eles estavam noivos há seis meses (acho que nenhum deles tinha uma ideia clara do tempo, como nós, no final de incontáveis eras. They still belonged to the beginnings of time—had no inherited experience to teach them as it were), and of course, as long as there was a piece of paper written over in accordance with some farcical law or other made down the river, it didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live. Certainly they had brought with them some rotten hippo-meat, which couldn't have lasted very long, anyway, even if the pilgrims hadn't, in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown a considerable quantity of it overboard. Certamente eles tinham trazido alguma carne podre de hipopótamo, que não poderia ter durado muito, mesmo que os peregrinos não tivessem, em meio a um tumulto chocante, jogado uma quantidade considerável dela ao mar. It looked like a high-handed proceeding; but it was really a case of legitimate self-defence. You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence. Besides that, they had given them every week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to buy their provisions with that currency in riverside villages. You can see how that worked. There were either no villages, or the people were hostile, or the director, who like the rest of us fed out of tins, with an occasional old he-goat thrown in, didn't want to stop the steamer for some more or less recondite reason. So, unless they swallowed the wire itself, or made loops of it to snare the fishes with, I don't see what good their extravagant salary could be to them. Então, a menos que eles tenham engolido o próprio arame, ou feito laços com ele para prender os peixes, não vejo o que seu salário extravagante poderia ser para eles. I must say it was paid with a regularity worthy of a large and honourable trading company. For the rest, the only thing to eat—though it didn't look eatable in the least—I saw in their possession was a few lumps of some stuff like half-cooked dough, of a dirty lavender colour, they kept wrapped in leaves, and now and then swallowed a piece of, but so small that it seemed done more for the looks of the thing than for any serious purpose of sustenance. Why in the name of all the gnawing devils of hunger they didn't go for us—they were thirty to five—and have a good tuck-in for once, amazes me now when I think of it. Por que, em nome de todos os demônios roedores da fome, eles não foram atrás de nós — eram trinta para cinco — e comem uma boa por uma vez, me surpreende agora quando penso nisso. They were big powerful men, with not much capacity to weigh the consequences, with courage, with strength, even yet, though their skins were no longer glossy and their muscles no longer hard. Eram homens grandes e poderosos, sem muita capacidade de pesar as consequências, com coragem, com força, mesmo ainda, embora suas peles não fossem mais brilhantes e seus músculos não mais duros. And I saw that something restraining, one of those human secrets that baffle probability, had come into play there. I looked at them with a swift quickening of interest—not because it occurred to me I might be eaten by them before very long, though I own to you that just then I perceived—in a new light, as it were—how unwholesome the pilgrims looked, and I hoped, yes, I positively hoped, that my aspect was not so—what shall I say?—so—unappetizing: a touch of fantastic vanity which fitted well with the dream-sensation that pervaded all my days at that time. Olhei para eles com um rápido interesse – não porque me ocorreu que eu poderia ser comido por eles em pouco tempo, embora eu admita a você que naquele momento percebi – sob uma nova luz, por assim dizer – quão insalubre o os peregrinos pareciam, e eu esperava, sim, eu esperava positivamente, que meu aspecto não fosse tão - como direi? Tempo. Perhaps I had a little fever, too. One can't live with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse. Não se pode viver com o dedo eternamente no pulso. I had often 'a little fever,' or a little touch of other things—the playful paw-strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary trifling before the more serious onslaught which came in due course. Muitas vezes eu tinha 'um pouco de febre', ou um pouco de outras coisas — as patas brincalhonas do deserto, as brincadeiras preliminares antes do ataque mais sério que veio no devido tempo. Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear—or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one's soul—than this kind of prolonged hunger. É realmente mais fácil enfrentar o luto, a desonra e a perdição da alma – do que esse tipo de fome prolongada. Sad, but true. And these chaps, too, had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. But there was the fact facing me—the fact dazzling, to be seen, like the foam on the depths of the sea, like a ripple on an unfathomable enigma, a mystery greater—when I thought of it—than the curious, inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamour that had swept by us on the river-bank, behind the blind whiteness of the fog. Mas havia o fato diante de mim – o fato deslumbrante, para ser visto, como a espuma nas profundezas do mar, como uma ondulação em um enigma insondável, um mistério maior – quando eu pensava nele – do que a nota curiosa e inexplicável de uma dor desesperada nesse clamor selvagem que passou por nós na margem do rio, por trás da brancura cega do nevoeiro.

"Two pilgrims were quarrelling in hurried whispers as to which bank. "Dois peregrinos discutiam em sussurros apressados sobre qual margem. 'Left.' 'no, no; how can you? Right, right, of course.' 'It is very serious,' said the manager's voice behind me; 'I would be desolated if anything should happen to Mr. Kurtz before we came up.' I looked at him, and had not the slightest doubt he was sincere. Olhei para ele e não tive a menor dúvida de que ele era sincero. He was just the kind of man who would wish to preserve appearances. That was his restraint. But when he muttered something about going on at once, I did not even take the trouble to answer him. I knew, and he knew, that it was impossible. Were we to let go our hold of the bottom, we would be absolutely in the air—in space. We wouldn't be able to tell where we were going to—whether up or down stream, or across—till we fetched against one bank or the other—and then we wouldn't know at first which it was. Não saberíamos dizer para onde íamos - se para cima ou para baixo do rio, ou para o outro lado - até nos encostarmos a uma margem ou a outra - e depois não saberíamos, à partida, qual era. Of course I made no move. I had no mind for a smash-up. Eu não tinha cabeça para um desabafo. You couldn't imagine a more deadly place for a shipwreck. Whether we drowned at once or not, we were sure to perish speedily in one way or another. 'I authorize you to take all the risks,' he said, after a short silence. 'I refuse to take any,' I said shortly; which was just the answer he expected, though its tone might have surprised him. 'Well, I must defer to your judgment. You are captain,' he said with marked civility. I turned my shoulder to him in sign of my appreciation, and looked into the fog. How long would it last? It was the most hopeless lookout. The approach to this Kurtz grubbing for ivory in the wretched bush was beset by as many dangers as though he had been an enchanted princess sleeping in a fabulous castle. A aproximação desse Kurtz que procurava marfim no mato miserável era cercada de tantos perigos como se ele fosse uma princesa encantada dormindo em um castelo fabuloso. 'Will they attack, do you think?' asked the manager, in a confidential tone.

"I did not think they would attack, for several obvious reasons. The thick fog was one. If they left the bank in their canoes they would get lost in it, as we would be if we attempted to move. Still, I had also judged the jungle of both banks quite impenetrable—and yet eyes were in it, eyes that had seen us. The riverside bushes were certainly very thick; but the undergrowth behind was evidently penetrable. However, during the short lift I had seen no canoes anywhere in the reach—certainly not abreast of the steamer. But what made the idea of attack inconceivable to me was the nature of the noise—of the cries we had heard. They had not the fierce character boding immediate hostile intention. Unexpected, wild, and violent as they had been, they had given me an irresistible impression of sorrow. The glimpse of the steamboat had for some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief. O vislumbre do barco a vapor tinha, por alguma razão, enchido aqueles selvagens de uma dor incontida. The danger, if any, I expounded, was from our proximity to a great human passion let loose. O perigo, se é que existe, disse eu, é a proximidade de uma grande paixão humana à solta. Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence—but more generally takes the form of apathy....

"You should have seen the pilgrims stare! "Você deveria ter visto os peregrinos olharem! They had no heart to grin, or even to revile me: but I believe they thought me gone mad—with fright, maybe. Eles não tinham coração para sorrir, ou mesmo para me insultar: mas acredito que pensaram que eu enlouqueci — de medo, talvez. I delivered a regular lecture. My dear boys, it was no good bothering. Keep a lookout? Well, you may guess I watched the fog for the signs of lifting as a cat watches a mouse; but for anything else our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool. It felt like it, too—choking, warm, stifling. Besides, all I said, though it sounded extravagant, was absolutely true to fact. What we afterwards alluded to as an attack was really an attempt at repulse. The action was very far from being aggressive—it was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective.

"It developed itself, I should say, two hours after the fog lifted, and its commencement was at a spot, roughly speaking, about a mile and a half below Kurtz's station. "Ele se desenvolveu, devo dizer, duas horas depois que o nevoeiro se dissipou, e seu início foi em um ponto, grosso modo, cerca de uma milha e meia abaixo da estação de Kurtz. We had just floundered and flopped round a bend, when I saw an islet, a mere grassy hummock of bright green, in the middle of the stream. It was the only thing of the kind; but as we opened the reach more, I perceived it was the head of a long sand-bank, or rather of a chain of shallow patches stretching down the middle of the river. They were discoloured, just awash, and the whole lot was seen just under the water, exactly as a man's backbone is seen running down the middle of his back under the skin. Eles estavam descoloridos, apenas inundados, e todo o lote foi visto logo abaixo da água, exatamente como a espinha dorsal de um homem é vista correndo pelo meio de suas costas sob a pele. Now, as far as I did see, I could go to the right or to the left of this. I didn't know either channel, of course. The banks looked pretty well alike, the depth appeared the same; but as I had been informed the station was on the west side, I naturally headed for the western passage.

"No sooner had we fairly entered it than I became aware it was much narrower than I had supposed. To the left of us there was the long uninterrupted shoal, and to the right a high, steep bank heavily overgrown with bushes. À nossa esquerda havia o longo baixio ininterrupto, e à direita um barranco alto e íngreme, coberto de arbustos. Above the bush the trees stood in serried ranks. The twigs overhung the current thickly, and from distance to distance a large limb of some tree projected rigidly over the stream. It was then well on in the afternoon, the face of the forest was gloomy, and a broad strip of shadow had already fallen on the water. In this shadow we steamed up—very slowly, as you may imagine. I sheered her well inshore—the water being deepest near the bank, as the sounding-pole informed me.

"One of my hungry and forbearing friends was sounding in the bows just below me. "Um dos meus amigos, faminto e tolerante, estava a soar nos arcos logo abaixo de mim. This steamboat was exactly like a decked scow. On the deck, there were two little teakwood houses, with doors and windows. The boiler was in the fore-end, and the machinery right astern. Over the whole there was a light roof, supported on stanchions. The funnel projected through that roof, and in front of the funnel a small cabin built of light planks served for a pilot-house. It contained a couch, two camp-stools, a loaded Martini-Henry leaning in one corner, a tiny table, and the steering-wheel. Continha um sofá, dois bancos de acampamento, um Martini-Henry carregado encostado em um canto, uma mesinha e o volante. It had a wide door in front and a broad shutter at each side. All these were always thrown open, of course. I spent my days perched up there on the extreme fore-end of that roof, before the door. At night I slept, or tried to, on the couch. An athletic black belonging to some coast tribe and educated by my poor predecessor, was the helmsman. Um negro atlético pertencente a alguma tribo da costa e educado pelo meu pobre predecessor, era o timoneiro. He sported a pair of brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself. Er trug ein Paar Messingohrringe, trug ein blaues Tuch von der Taille bis zu den Knöcheln und hielt die ganze Welt für sich. Ostentava um par de brincos de latão, usava uma capa de pano azul da cintura até aos tornozelos e achava-se o máximo. He was the most unstable kind of fool I had ever seen. He steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him in a minute. Ele guiou sem fim de uma arrogância enquanto você estava por perto; mas se ele perdesse você de vista, ele se tornaria instantaneamente a presa de um funk abjeto, e deixaria aquele aleijado de um barco a vapor tomar a vantagem dele em um minuto.

"I was looking down at the sounding-pole, and feeling much annoyed to see at each try a little more of it stick out of that river, when I saw my poleman give up on the business suddenly, and stretch himself flat on the deck, without even taking the trouble to haul his pole in. "Estava a olhar para o mastro de sondagem e a sentir-me muito aborrecido por ver, a cada tentativa, um pouco mais dele a sair do rio, quando vi o meu canastro desistir subitamente da tarefa e estender-se no convés, sem sequer se dar ao trabalho de puxar o mastro. He kept hold on it though, and it trailed in the water. Ele continuou segurando-o, porém, e ele se arrastou na água. At the same time the fireman, whom I could also see below me, sat down abruptly before his furnace and ducked his head. I was amazed. Then I had to look at the river mighty quick, because there was a snag in the fairway. Depois tive de olhar para o rio muito rapidamente, porque havia um obstáculo no fairway. Sticks, little sticks, were flying about—thick: they were whizzing before my nose, dropping below me, striking behind me against my pilot-house. Paus, pequenos paus, voavam a toda a velocidade: passavam-me pelo nariz, desciam por baixo de mim, batiam atrás de mim contra a minha casa do piloto. All this time the river, the shore, the woods, were very quiet—perfectly quiet. I could only hear the heavy splashing thump of the stern-wheel and the patter of these things. Eu só podia ouvir o baque pesado da roda de popa e o tamborilar dessas coisas. We cleared the snag clumsily. Limpamos o problema desajeitadamente. Arrows, by Jove! Flechas, por Júpiter! We were being shot at! Estavam a disparar contra nós! I stepped in quickly to close the shutter on the landside. Entrei rapidamente para fechar o obturador no lado da terra. That fool-helmsman, his hands on the spokes, was lifting his knees high, stamping his feet, champing his mouth, like a reined-in horse. Aquele bobo, com as mãos nos raios, levantava os joelhos, batia com os pés, grasnava com a boca, como um cavalo preso. Confound him! And we were staggering within ten feet of the bank. I had to lean right out to swing the heavy shutter, and I saw a face amongst the leaves on the level with my own, looking at me very fierce and steady; and then suddenly, as though a veil had been removed from my eyes, I made out, deep in the tangled gloom, naked breasts, arms, legs, glaring eyes—the bush was swarming with human limbs in movement, glistening of bronze colour. The twigs shook, swayed, and rustled, the arrows flew out of them, and then the shutter came to. 'Steer her straight,' I said to the helmsman. He held his head rigid, face forward; but his eyes rolled, he kept on lifting and setting down his feet gently, his mouth foamed a little. 'Keep quiet!' I said in a fury. I might just as well have ordered a tree not to sway in the wind. I darted out. Below me there was a great scuffle of feet on the iron deck; confused exclamations; a voice screamed, 'Can you turn back?' I caught sight of a V-shaped ripple on the water ahead. Avistei uma ondulação em forma de V na água à frente. What? Another snag! A fusillade burst out under my feet. The pilgrims had opened with their Winchesters, and were simply squirting lead into that bush. Os peregrinos tinham aberto com as suas Winchesters, e estavam simplesmente a esguichar chumbo para aquele arbusto. A deuce of a lot of smoke came up and drove slowly forward. I swore at it. Now I couldn't see the ripple or the snag either. I stood in the doorway, peering, and the arrows came in swarms. They might have been poisoned, but they looked as though they wouldn't kill a cat. The bush began to howl. Our wood-cutters raised a warlike whoop; the report of a rifle just at my back deafened me. I glanced over my shoulder, and the pilot-house was yet full of noise and smoke when I made a dash at the wheel. The fool-nigger had dropped everything, to throw the shutter open and let off that Martini-Henry. O idiota tinha largado tudo, para abrir a persiana e deixar sair aquele Martini-Henry. He stood before the wide opening, glaring, and I yelled at him to come back, while I straightened the sudden twist out of that steamboat. There was no room to turn even if I had wanted to, the snag was somewhere very near ahead in that confounded smoke, there was no time to lose, so I just crowded her into the bank—right into the bank, where I knew the water was deep.

"We tore slowly along the overhanging bushes in a whirl of broken twigs and flying leaves. "Rasgámos lentamente ao longo dos arbustos pendentes, num turbilhão de galhos partidos e folhas esvoaçantes. The fusillade below stopped short, as I had foreseen it would when the squirts got empty. I threw my head back to a glinting whizz that traversed the pilot-house, in at one shutter-hole and out at the other. Looking past that mad helmsman, who was shaking the empty rifle and yelling at the shore, I saw vague forms of men running bent double, leaping, gliding, distinct, incomplete, evanescent. Something big appeared in the air before the shutter, the rifle went overboard, and the man stepped back swiftly, looked at me over his shoulder in an extraordinary, profound, familiar manner, and fell upon my feet. The side of his head hit the wheel twice, and the end of what appeared a long cane clattered round and knocked over a little camp-stool. It looked as though after wrenching that thing from somebody ashore he had lost his balance in the effort. The thin smoke had blown away, we were clear of the snag, and looking ahead I could see that in another hundred yards or so I would be free to sheer off, away from the bank; but my feet felt so very warm and wet that I had to look down. The man had rolled on his back and stared straight up at me; both his hands clutched that cane. O homem tinha-se virado de costas e olhava diretamente para mim; ambas as suas mãos agarravam a bengala. It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side, just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing lustre. Era a haste de uma lança que, arremessada ou atirada através da abertura, o tinha apanhado no lado, mesmo por baixo das costelas; a lâmina tinha entrado sem se ver, depois de ter feito um corte horrível; os meus sapatos estavam cheios; uma poça de sangue jazia muito quieta, brilhando vermelho-escuro debaixo da roda; os seus olhos brilhavam com um brilho espantoso. The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him. Olhou para mim ansiosamente, agarrando a lança como se fosse algo precioso, com um ar de medo que eu tentasse tirar-lha. I had to make an effort to free my eyes from his gaze and attend to the steering. With one hand I felt above my head for the line of the steam whistle, and jerked out screech after screech hurriedly. The tumult of angry and warlike yells was checked instantly, and then from the depths of the woods went out such a tremulous and prolonged wail of mournful fear and utter despair as may be imagined to follow the flight of the last hope from the earth. There was a great commotion in the bush; the shower of arrows stopped, a few dropping shots rang out sharply—then silence, in which the languid beat of the stern-wheel came plainly to my ears. I put the helm hard a-starboard at the moment when the pilgrim in pink pyjamas, very hot and agitated, appeared in the doorway. 'The manager sends me—' he began in an official tone, and stopped short. 'Good God!' he said, glaring at the wounded man.

"We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as though he would presently put to us some questions in an understandable language; but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb, without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though in response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black death-mask an inconceivably sombre, brooding, and menacing expression. Só no último momento, como que em resposta a algum sinal que não podíamos ver, a algum sussurro que não podíamos ouvir, franziu fortemente o sobrolho, e esse franzir deu à sua máscara negra de morte uma expressão inconcebivelmente sombria, taciturna e ameaçadora. The lustre of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness. 'Can you steer?' I asked the agent eagerly. He looked very dubious; but I made a grab at his arm, and he understood at once I meant him to steer whether or no. To tell you the truth, I was morbidly anxious to change my shoes and socks. 'He is dead,' murmured the fellow, immensely impressed. 'No doubt about it,' said I, tugging like mad at the shoe-laces. 'And by the way, I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time.'