Tanisha M
The Colomber
Dino Buzzati, translated by Lawrence Venuti
When Stefano Roi was twelve years old, he asked his father, a sea captain and the owner of a fine sailing ship, to take him on board as his birthday gift. “When I grow up,” the boy said, “I want to go to sea with you. And I shall command ships even more beautiful and bigger than yours.” “God bless you, my son,” the father answered.
And since his vessel had to leave that very day, he took the boy with him.
It was a splendid sunny day, and the sea was calm. Stefano, who had never been on a ship, happily wandered around on deck, admiring the complicated maneuvers of the sails. He asked the sailors about this and that, and they gladly explained everything to him.
When the boy had gone astern, he stopped, his curiosity aroused, to observe something that intermittently rose to the surface at a distance of two to three hundred meters, in line with the ship’s wake.
Although the ship was indeed moving fast, carried by a great quarter wind, that thing always maintained the same distance. And though the boy did not make out what it was, there was some indefinable air about it, which attracted him intensely.
No longer seeing Stefano on deck, the father came down from the bridge, after having shouted his name in vain, and went to look for him.
“Stefano, what are you doing there, standing so still?” the captain asked his son, finally perceiving him on the stern as he stared at the waves. “Papa, come here and see.”
The father came, and he too looked in the direction indicated by the boy, but he could not see anything. “There’s a dark thing that rises in the wake every so often,” Stefano said, “and it follows behind us.” “Despite my forty years,” said the father, “I believe I still have good eyesight. But I see absolutely nothing.”
And the boy insisted, the father went to get a telescope, and he scrutinized the surface of the sea, in line with the wake. Stefano saw him turn pale.
Dino Buzzati, translated by Lawrence Venuti
When Stefano Roi was twelve years old, he asked his father, a sea captain and the owner of a fine sailing ship, to take him on board as his birthday gift. “When I grow up,” the boy said, “I want to go to sea with you. And I shall command ships even more beautiful and bigger than yours.” “God bless you, my son,” the father answered.
And since his vessel had to leave that very day, he took the boy with him.
It was a splendid sunny day, and the sea was calm. Stefano, who had never been on a ship, happily wandered around on deck, admiring the complicated maneuvers of the sails. He asked the sailors about this and that, and they gladly explained everything to him.
When the boy had gone astern, he stopped, his curiosity aroused, to observe something that intermittently rose to the surface at a distance of two to three hundred meters, in line with the ship’s wake.
Although the ship was indeed moving fast, carried by a great quarter wind, that thing always maintained the same distance. And though the boy did not make out what it was, there was some indefinable air about it, which attracted him intensely.
No longer seeing Stefano on deck, the father came down from the bridge, after having shouted his name in vain, and went to look for him.
“Stefano, what are you doing there, standing so still?” the captain asked his son, finally perceiving him on the stern as he stared at the waves. “Papa, come here and see.”
The father came, and he too looked in the direction indicated by the boy, but he could not see anything. “There’s a dark thing that rises in the wake every so often,” Stefano said, “and it follows behind us.” “Despite my forty years,” said the father, “I believe I still have good eyesight. But I see absolutely nothing.”
And the boy insisted, the father went to get a telescope, and he scrutinized the surface of the sea, in line with the wake. Stefano saw him turn pale.