Joseph Conrad
From
Mirror of the Sea
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T
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he love that is given to ships is
profoundly different from the love men feel for every other work of their
hands—the love they bear to their houses, for instance—because it is untainted
by the pride of possession. The pride of skill, the pride of responsibility,
the pride of endurance there may be, but otherwise it is a disinterested
sentiment. No seaman ever cherished a ship, even if she belonged to him, merely
because of the profit she put in his pocket. No one, I think, ever did; for a
ship-owner, even of the best, has always been outside the pale of that
sentiment, embracing in a feeling of intimate, equal fellowship the ship and
the man, backing each other against the implacable, if sometimes dissembled,
hostility of the world of waters. No display of manly qualities—courage,
hardihood, endurance, faithfulness—has ever been known to touch its
irresponsible consciousness of power. The ocean has the conscienceless temper
of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation. He cannot brook the slightest
appearance of defiance, and has remained the irreconcilable enemy of ships and
men ever since ships and men had the unheard of audacity to go afloat together
in the face of his frown. From that day he has gone on swallowing up fleets and
men without his resentment being glutted by the number of victims—by so many
wrecked lives. Today, as ever, he is ready to beguile and betray, to smash and
to drown the incorrigible optimism of men who, backed by the fidelity of ships,
are trying to wrest from him the fortune of their house, the domination of
their world, or only a dole of food for their hunger. If not always in the hot
mood to smash, he is always ready for a drowning. The most amazing wonder of
the deep is its unfathomable cruelty.
Notes
and comments:
Love:
to have a love of learning—имам влечение
към ученето
to bear a love to—храня/питая любов към
to take something dear to heart—вземам
присърце
to cherish—обичам много, ценя, скъпя
to have bosom feelings for—пазя в
най-скрития кът на сърцето си
to be affectionate towards—предан/любящ съм
към
to feel/have a fondness for
someone—обичам/държа на някого
to be selflessly attached to—безкористно
съм привързан към
hate:
to hold somebody in one’s hatred—изпитвам
омраза към някого
to bear/have/nurse a grudge against—имам
зъб на някого
to abominate—отвращавам се от, ненавиждам
to loathe—ненавиждам, мразя, отвращавам се
от
to nurse vengeance against—тая в душата си
отмъщение към
to resent—негодувам срещу, роптая срещу,
възмущавам се от, засягам се от
to feel aversion towards—изпитвам
омраза/отвращение към
to have mutually beneficial relations with (but to seek to benefit from)
to endure hardship-търпя несгоди
to display hardihood-проявявам мъжество
to have it hard on one-”много ми идва”
to be a hard man to deal with-”мъчен” човек съм
to be a hard nut to crack-костелив орех
to be hardly one’s equal-надали имам равен
to harden against someone-закоравявам се срещу
to be hard-working-трудолюбив съм
to be a hard-liner-привърженик на твърд курс съм
implacable—unrelenting—ruthless—pitiless-inexorable-remorseless-heartless = безжалостен, безмилостен, безсърдечен, жесток, неумолим
Mark the spelling of:
science, conscience, unconscionable,
conscienceless, conscious, unconsciousness, subconsciously, conscientious
Note the personification of “ship” and
“ocean” with the use of personal pronouns in the masculine and feminine gender
respectively:
“No seaman ever cherished a ship, even if
she belonged to him…”
“The ocean has the… temper of a savage
autocrat. He cannot brook…”
a glut-1) пресищане, преситеност (на пазар), излишък
a glutton-a gourmand = лаком човек, лакомник, ненаситник
to be a glutton for work—ненаситен съм на
работа
a gluttony-a gourmandy = лакомия, ненаситност
to glut one’s eyes upon—гледам ненаситно
to glut oneself/one’s appetite-to gourmandise = тъпча се, натъпквам се
to defy orders—не зачитам заповедите,
проявявам неподчинение
to challenge an opponent—предизвиквам
опонент
to provoke undesirable reaction—провокирам
нежелателни реакции
Translate the sentences listed below into
Bulgarian:
She heard the house boy’s voice, he was
speaking angrily, the voice of another man, perhaps it was the water carrier’s,
and then a woman’s, shrill and vituperative. (William Somerset
Now the visit of Mrs. Calkett was not altogether
unexpected, for Miss Marian had guessed from chance remarks of her sister’s
that something “unfortunate” had happened with young Tony. (Angous Wilson)
“And it’s yours as much as anybody else’s,”
she said. (D.H. Lawrence)
Her voice had a catch in it like her son’s
and she stuttered slightly. (James Joyce)
Miss Marian put on an old scarlet hunting
waistcoat of her father’s, partly out of maudlin sentiment and partly because
she was cold. (Angous Wilson)
They came, eight or ten of them, whispering
and peering over each other’s shoulders. (Ruddyard Kipling)
Her hair is lightish, and her face is
comely as a live doll’s. (Thomas Hardy)
However, they arrived at her aunt’s¾a little sweet shop in a side street. (D.H. Lawrence)
Mary Jane settled down quietly to her
supper, but aunt Kate and aunt Julia were still toddling around the table,
walking on each other’s heels, getting in each other’s way, and giving each
other unheeded orders. (James Joyce)
Her face, healthier than her sister’s, was
all puckers and creases, like a shrivelled red apple. (James Joyce)
Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was
literally run off here feet. (James Joyce)
He had been told celery was a capital thing
for the blood and he was just then under doctor’s care. (James Joyce)
She was a Lady’s maid, thirty years old,
come back to marry her first love . . .(D.H. Lawrence)
He was still discomposed by the girl’s
bitter retort. (James Joyce)
Absorbed in his childish plotting, he had
ceased to pay any attention to Miss Spence’s words. (Aldous Huxley)
There was something of a mother’s lad about
him¾something warm and playful and
really sensitive. (D.H. Lawrence)
Guy glanced at his wife’s untouched plate.
(William Somerset
The two men understood nothing, cared for
nothing but for the passage of days that separated them from the steamer’s
return. (Joseph Conrad)
It was a bachelor’s room, untidy but stiff;
and though it amused her she found it intolerably pathetic. (William Somerset
In the light of the furnace she caught
sight of his drifting countenance, like a piece of floating fire. (D.H.
Lawrence)
There was no throb of machines, no hum of
voices, no sound at all, now, but the echo of their steps on the empty floors.
(V.S. Pritchett)
The sunburn shone through the clipped white
hair of his head and he had the simple, trim, open-air look of a snowman. (V.S.
Pritchett)
Her arms embraced him, and by the shaking
of her body he could feel that she was sobbing. (Aldous Huxley)
But now, after the kindling again of so
many memories, the first touch of her body, musical and strange and perfumed,
sent through him a keen pang of lust. (James Joyce)
Her profile might have been taken from a
Sicilian coin of a bad period. (Aldous Huxley)
His track went straight to the edge of a
frightful precipice, and beyond that everything was hidden. (Herbert George
Wells)
It was slushy underfoot, and only streaks
and patches of snow lay on the roofs, on the parapets of the quay and on the
area railings. (James Joyce)
Outside lay gloom of a November day in London
Has no one told you “In the Country of the
Blind the One-eyed Man is King”?
Here, in Milan, in an ancient tumble-down
ruin of a church is the mournful wreck of the most celebrated painting in the
world¾”The Last Supper” by Leonardo da
Vinci. (Mark Twain)
