2019.01.24.
The Sea Is Spread Wide
The sea is spread wide
And the waves are storming.
Comrade, we're going far away,
Far away from our homeland.
No songs are heard on the deck
And the Red Sea is roaring,
And the shore is dim and narrow,
Heartbreaking to remember.
Eight bells have rung,
He had to relieve his comrade.
He hardly came down the ladder,
The driver screamed to him: 'Move it!'
'Comrade, I can't withstand my duty',
A fire feeder said to a fire feeder,
'The fire doesn't burn in my furnace,
I can't keep the steam in my boilers.
'Go and report that I'm ill
And I'm leaving my duty before time,
I'm drenched with sweat and drooping in heat,
I'm beat, I'm dying.'
His comrade left, he took the shovel
Summoning up all the strength he had,
He opened the furnace door with a routine push
And the fire lit him up:
His face, his shoulders, his bare chest
And the sweat that hailed down.
If anyone could see the fireroom,
He'd call it hell.
The steam boilers whirred grimly,
Shuddering because of the steam force.
And the steam, it hissed like a thousand serpents
As it broke through the pipes in some places.
And he, bending before the hot fire,
Skillfully threw the coal.
It was dim downstairs: even in the day
Sun rays couldn't reach that corner.
It was windless that day, he couldn't stand,
The water had warmed up, it was stifling and hot.
The thermometer was up as high as forty-five1,
The whole fireroom was airless.
When he was done throwing coal, he drank some water,
Some unclean distilled water.
Sweat and soot tracks were running down his face,
He heard the boilerman's speech:
'You haven't finished your duty, so you can't leave,
The driver is displeased.
You must go and tell the doctor:
If you're ill, he'll give you medicine.'
Gripping the handholds feebly,
He went up the ladder.
He couldn't go to get his medicine,
He was stifling in the heat.
He went up to the deck, unconscious already,
His eyes dimmed.
For a moment he saw the blinding glare,
He fell, his heart beated no more.
They ran up to him with cold water
Trying to bring him to life,
But the doctor said with a shake of his head:
'My skill is powerless.'
The deceased lied in the sick-bay all night
Dressed in a sailor's outfit.
He held a wax candle in his hands,
The wax melted, warmed up by the heat.
In the morning the sailors, the fire-feeder's friends,
Came to say farewell to their comrade.
They brought him the last present:
A burnt and rusty grate.
They tied the grate to his legs
And wrapped the body in a cloth.
The old naval chaplain came
And tears welled in many eyes.
The ocean was peacefull and still at that moment,
The water glimmered like a mirror.
The high ranks turned up, the captain came,
And they sang a requiem.
They raised the plank with a trembling hand,
And the body in a shroud slided down,
In the deep obscure abyss of the sea
It sank forever with a splash.
The old woman is waiting for her son in vain,
When someone tells her, she would weep.
And the waves run away from the screw under the aft
And their trace disappear in the distance.
- 1. 45 C = 113 F