105 Lord Jim.pdf

Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim

Retold by Graham Read

w o r y g i n a l e

Chapter I

Jim

Mediasat Poland Bis sp. z o.o.

ul. Mikołajska 26

31-027 Kraków

www.czytamy.pl

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Projekt okładki i ilustracje: Małgorzata Flis

Skład: Marek Szwarnóg

ISBN 83 - 89652 - 16 - 1

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He was an inch or two under six feet

tall and powerfully built. His voice was

deep and loud and he was always very well

dressed. He worked in the ports of the Far

East. He was known as Jim, just Jim. He

had another name, but he was afraid of

anyone knowing it, because he wanted to

hide a fact. And when the fact was known,

he would suddenly leave port. He was

travelling slowly but surely towards the

rising sun.

Afterwards, when he finally decided to

leave the ports behind him, the Malays of

the jungle village he came to live in added

another word to his name. They called him

Tuan Jim: or Lord Jim.

Jim had always wanted to be a sailor

and after two years of training he went

to sea, he had dreamed of the sea and the

adventures it would bring all his life. So

when he finally entered the regions so well

known to his imagination, he found them

strangely empty of excitement. However,

he worked hard, was gentlemanly and had

a thorough knowledge of his duties. In

time, when still very young, he became

chief mate of a fine ship.

On this ship, Jim had his first piece of

bad luck; he was badly injured during a

storm when one of the ship’s sails fell

on him. His Scottish captain would say

afterwards, “Man! It was a perfect miracle

how he survived it!”. Jim’s injuries

continued and when the ship arrived at

the next port, Jim was left behind. In this

Eastern city Jim met many new characters,

generally of two kinds. Some, very few,

lived energetic lives, full of dreams,

dangers, hopes and plans. However most

were lazy, they hated the horror of hard

work, they loved short voyages and the

difference of being white. They led easy

lives. At first this gossiping crowd seemed

to be nothing more than shadows, but

after a time Jim became fascinated with

them and their lives of leisure, so he gave

up the idea of going back to England, and

took the job of chief mate on a ship called

the Patna. The ship was to carry eight

hundred pilgrims to a port in the Red Sea.

The captain of this ship was a German,

who had no love for his home country.

He was enormously fat, and looked like

a baby elephant who had been trained to

walk on his back legs.

A month or so later, Jim was in court,

trying to explain what had happened on

the Patna. This was when we first looked at

each other, and I still remember Jims’ story

quite clearly. Everybody was there in that

courtroom as it was such a notorious story.

There had been four of them who escaped

from the ship. The captain, as soon as he

realised the seriousness of his actions had

run away immediately, saying in broken

English “Bah! the Pacific is big, my friend, I

know where there is plenty of room for me.

I vill an Amerigan citizen begome.” One of

the others, an older man, with a long grey

moustache had drunk himself into insanity,

it is said he had been drinking four bottles

a day of the most evil rum.

Jim was the only one of the four who was

able and willing to stand trial and when our

eyes first met in court he gave me a dark

unfriendly stare. I was very interested to

find out his story. What had this clean,

honest, young man been doing, why had

he escaped with his crew members when

they seemed no better than criminals?

That had been the second day of

the trial. This was when I had my first

meeting with Jim. I was walking out of

the court with my friend and we had

just gone past Jim. At that moment my

companion nearly fell over a little yellow

dog that had been wandering about

between people’s legs.

“Look at that miserable dog,” said my

friend.

”Did you speak to me?” asked Jim,

directing the question to me.

“No,” I replied.

“You say you didn’t, but I heard you, and

what did you mean by staring at me all this

morning during the trial. I won’t let any

man call me names outside this court. Even

if you were the size of two men, and as

strong as six I would tell you what I thought

of you,” he said.

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