天方夜谭英文故事：The Sixth Voyage

"Before a year after my fifth voyage, I was on my sixth voyage, the longest of all my voyages. As we set sail we had a calm sea. After some days the weather grew bad and huge waves threatened to drown us. 

 

 

One afternoon, the captain of the ship looked troubled. In desperation, he tore of his turban and paced the deck. He told us that the ship was out of control and soon the ship would crash into a high, rocky mountain. That would mean that we would all be dead. As he had said in a quarter of an hour, our ship did crash into a huge mountain and the ship was in smithers. Good luck and God's blessings¹ saved all abroad. We swam to a narrow strip of land at the foot of the mountain. We soon recovered some food and goods from the shipwreck² but it was not heartening news at all. We were caught between a high, steep mountain and a raging sea. 

 

 

We had divided the food equally amongst ourselves but we knew the food wouldn't last long. My companions were worried and hopeless but I kept heart. I went to the seashore everyday and gathered whatever swept over from our wrecked³ ship to the shore. Once when I explored the mountains, I discovered hoards⁵ of diamonds, rubies⁶ and pearls. I gathered some of them and kept in a safe place thinking of selling them if I got out of the situation. 

 

 

One fine morning, I discovered a cave. To my surprise, I saw a river that flew through the cave from the sea to the land while as a rule, all rivers flew from land to the sea. I did not tell about the river to anyone. 

 

 

After a few days all my companions were dead as they had eaten off all their shares of food. I had eaten a little food at a time and had some in store so I had managed to live. As my store of food diminished I thought of the river which I had discovered. I thought it would give me a path to escape. I went to the spot where I had gathered pieces of wood from my ship. I made a raft out of the wood, took my precious hoard⁴ of gems⁷ and some food and set sail on the raft. When I rowed into the cave, there was complete darkness but I kept rowing in the darkness for some days. Some times I had to lie on my back to go through the low roof of the cave. Soon my food stock was finished and I grew weak from hunger. I lay back on my raft and was sure that I would die. 

 

 

I guess I must have slept off for many hours. I woke up to see daylight. I found myself lying on a riverbank and my raft was floating away. 1 looked up to see some Negroes looking down on me. The Negroes spoke⁸ to me in a language which 1 could not understand. Then one of them spoke in Arabic. He said, "I know Arabic too. For many of us lived in Arabia long ago. We found you floating on the raft when we came to dig a canal here. How did you reach this place?" 

 

 

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