| Title | : | The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780140157550 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 106 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1955 |
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor Reviews
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Relato de un Náufrago = The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, Gabriel García Márquez
This is Marquez's account of a real-life event. In 1955, eight crew members of the destroyer Caldas, were swept into the Caribbean Sea. The sole survivor, Luis Alejandro Belasco, told the true version of the events to Marquez, causing great scandal at the time.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز چهاردهم ماه نوامبر سال1982میلادی
عنوان: سرگذشت یک غریق؛ نویسنده: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: رضا قیصریه؛ بی جا، روزگار ما، سال1359، در147ص، مصور، چاپ دیگر تهران، نیلوفر، سال1368، در102ص؛ چاپ سوم سال1383، در146ص؛ شابک9644482492؛ چاپ چهارم سال1387، شابک9789643382496؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان کلمبیا - سده20م
در سال1970میلادی، روایت «مارکز» از ماجرای «ملوان ولاسکو» در کتابی با عنوان «سرگذشت یک غریق» منتشر شد؛ با آن‌که «مارکز» این اثر را در بیست و هفت سالگی خویش بنوشته اند، اما نوشته ای بی نقص است، و بسیار خواندنی؛ برای اینکه چیره دستی «مارکز» را بهتر درک کنیم، باید تصور کنیم بخواهیم حدود صد صفحه از زند‌گی ده روزه ی یک مرد را، روی کلکی، در وسط دریا بنویسیم؛ «مارکز» جوان، از این موقعیت یک‌نواخت و ساکن، روایتی پرکشش، و سرگرم کننده ارائه کرده است، به گونه ای که خوانشگر، مشتاقانه از ابتدا تا انتهای کتاب را می‌خواند، و حس تعلیق، هرگزی او را رها نمی‌کند؛
جذابیت این داستان مستند، گاه یادآور آن نبرد نامدار در «پیرمرد و دریا»، نوشته ی «ارنست همینگوی» است؛ و در صحنه های کمی نیز، یاد آوری «رابینسون کروزو»، نوشته ی «دانیل دفو» است
نقل از متن: (زیر تابش آن خورشید سوزان، و با آن نومیدی، و آن تشنگی، که برای نخستن بار، واقعا غیرقابل تحمل شده بود، یک اتفاق غیرمنتظره، و عجیب، برایم رخ داد؛ در وسط قایق، در میان طنابهای تور، ریشه ی گیاهی قرمزرنگ، گیر کرده بود؛ مثل آن ریشه هایی که در «بویاکا»، برای رنگ می‌کوبند، و اسمش را، به یاد نمی‌آورم؛ نمی‌دانم از چه وقت، آنجا بوده؛ در طی نه روزی که در دریا بودم، یک برگ علف هم، در سطح دریا ندیده بودم، و در عین حال، بدون اینکه بدانم، چگونه آن ریشه آنجا بوده، و در طنابهای تور پیچیده شده، و نشانه ی غیرقابل انکار دی��ری، از زمین بود؛ زمینی که از هیچ سمتی دیده نمی‌شد....؛) پایان نقل از متن
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 26/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 07/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی -
"Lo terrible del mar es morir de sed”, canta Gustavo Cerati en el tema “Yo nací para esto”, y luego agrega: “Yo seguí a la estrella más voraz / nunca me llevó tan lejos / para qué creer en el azar / yo nací para esto.” Luis Alejandro Velasco, sin ayuda del azar, había nacido para no morir y contar su historia. Hace mucho tiempo que no leo un libro tan atrapante y adictivo y que quiera terminar (y que a la vez no quiero que se termine) con tantas ansias.
Velasco y su historia del naufragio del Caldas y su odisea arriba de una balsa, luchando contra las inclemencias del clima, la sed, el hambre, el sol, una rodilla maltrecha y los hambrientos tiburones, me revela que es más el relato de un héroe que el de un náufrago, y creo que no cualquier persona tendría tanta entereza para soportar semejante calvario.
La maestría literaria de García Márquez para pulir la historia de Velasco y adaptarla al marco literario es brillante, en parte gracias a la memoria de elefante del náufrago rescatado, y en segundo lugar por imprimirle el dramatismo narrativo necesario para pegar al lector a las páginas de este libro maravilloso que NO es ficción, sino la vida misma, que a veces puede ser impredecible e increíble.
Uno acostumbra a leer novelas de ficción y en cierto modo tener empatia con tal o cual personaje, aborrecer al villano y compenetrarse con la historia. Cuando leemos no ficción, sabemos que “palpamos” lo que se nos narra teniendo en cuenta que eso pasó realmente, más allá de los adornos literarios. Algunos ejemplos de ellos pueden ser “A sangre fría”, de Truman Capote u “Operación Masacre” de Rodolfo Walsh, el verdadero iniciador de la literatura de no ficción aunque todos la atribuyan a Capote.
Lo mismo sucede con la novela histórica, o sea, con esa ficción rodeada de hechos históricos verdaderos (me viene a la mente “Los Miserables").
Esta historia demuestra la entereza del ser humano ante la peor de las adversidades, ante el destino funesto y las probabilidades en contra. Es una historia de persistencia, de lucha y de vida. Fueron 164 páginas leídas sin stop, fue la impaciencia por saber cómo terminaba la historia y el ruido en mi cabeza, pensando la historia hacia atrás a medida que la leía hasta llegar al final.
Cinco estrellas (no puedo darle más), por la historia, por Gabo, por la vida y por lo maravilloso que logra la literatura: que formemos parte activa de ella desde adentro como si nosotros mismos fuéramos ese náufrago, luchando denodadamente durante diez días eternos con un único objetivo: vivir para contarla. -
El título lo dice todo: El relato de un náufrago es una historia contada de manera muy simple y hasta amigable. Me gustó mucho porque se describe la historia completa, paso a paso. Empieza con la felicidad que Luis Alejandro Velasco tenía antes de salir rumbo a Cartagena. Luego, el relato es bastante claro y detallado; cuenta todo.
A medida que va avanzando el relato, uno se imagina claramente la historia a medida que se va leyendo. Desde que el barco cae, todo el proceso que tiene que vivir, todas las etapas que hay que soportar durante esos días, lo bueno, lo malo y lo asqueroso, la desesperación por el ser humano por sobrevivir, cosas que uno, sentado en la comodidad de su hogar dice que jamás haría, pero quién sabe cuando se está durante 10 días en medio de agua y tiburones, muerto de sed y hambre y desesperación.
Creo que es rescatable cuando Gabo dejó bastante claro que este libro, si bien es de su propiedad, no es mérito suyo, ya que esta historia es real, por ende él no inventó nada.
También me gustó cuando se describe el "precio" de lidiar con la fama después de no haberla buscado, se habla de todo lo bueno y lo malo: me gusta eso, me gusta la objetividad ante todo.
Si van a viajar en barco uno de estos días, por favor no lean este libro :)
¿Recomendable? Absolutamente. Se garantiza una lectura rápida, entretenida y fácil de imaginar... aunque sabemos que en la realidad no sería para nada entretenido. -
The full title is The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor: Who Drifted on a Liferaft for Ten Days Without Food or Water, Was Proclaimed a National Hero, Kissed by Beauty Queens, Made Rich Through Publicity, and Then Spurned by the Government and Forgotten for All Time, which pretty much sums up the story.
The story of Luis Alejandro Velasco is one of intense survival, as he was flung overboard from the destroyer Caldas with seven of his fellow seamen on February 28, 1955. The ship was traveling from Mobile, Alabama, in the United States, where it had docked for repairs, to the Colombian port of Cartagena, where it arrived two hours after the tragedy. After four days, the search was abandoned and the lost sailors were officially declared dead. Velasco, however, found a raft and remained on the open sea without food and without hope. After drifting with sea currents for ten days, an emaciated Velasco arrives with his raft on a coast that he later discovers to be Colombia. He is received first with affection and later with military honors and much money from publicity agencies.
The story on El Espectador
Yet, Luis Alejandro Velasco carried a secret within himself.
"...I asked Luis Alejandro Velasco to describe the storm that caused the disaster. Aware that his statement was worth its weight in gold, he answered with a smile, “There was no storm.” It was true: the weather bureau confirmed that it had been another clear and mild February in the Caribbean."
-Gabriel García Márquez in the foreword to the book.
The truth, unpublished until then, was that the destroyer was loaded with contraband. Not being able to withstand the weight of its cargo, the ship tossed in windy seas and dropped its ill-secured cargo and eight of its seamen into the sea. Knowing that it was illegal to transport cargo on a destroyer, the journalists were in a dilemma, as Colombia was under the military and social dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla and the press was heavily censored.
The story, divided into installments, ran for fourteen days. The government denied that the destroyer was loaded with contraband. To back up the story, a special supplement was published one week after the publication of the series, containing photographic proof.
"Behind the groups of friends on the high seas one could see the boxes of contraband merchandise and even, unmistakably, the factory labels. The dictatorship countered the blow with a series of drastic reprisals that would result, months later, in the shutdown of the newspaper."
The aftermath
Luis Alejandro Velasco never recanted a word of the story, resulting in his having to leave the Navy and began to work in the private sector, starting with a job in a bus company. He eventually settled into work as a commercial agent in an insurance company in Bogotá. When Gabriel García Márquez published the story fifteen years later — in 1970 — in the book Relato de un Náufrago, he generously ceded the author's rights and royalties to Velasco. In 1983, Velasco sued for translation rights to the book and lost. In the last week of his life, he apologized to García Márquez for the lawsuit. He died in Bogotá on August 2, 2000, aged 66. -
That's the true story of a vigorous young sailor who fell from a Colombian navy destroyer in the 1950s in the Caribbean Sea. The literary talent of Garcia-Marquez makes us live ten days of this castaway who will survive his distress. We are a little in the world of Poe, but the story is true there.
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It is been ten years since I set foot on sea as you guess am really scared of, I didn’t try learn to swim and almost drowned twice trying to show off my nonexistent swimming prowess to people, I don’t try to aboard any ship and if I tried I must make sure I have my life saving jacket near me so when things go wrong which they don’t happen but seeing my jacket calms me down
The story tells what it means to be stranded in sea where there is no water or food for ten days and survive
Our story begins when a Colombian navy Caldas sails from mobile Alabama in February 1955 where they docked in the port for repairs for the last 8 months
The 7 sailors with our hero Luis Alejandro Valasco used most of the time going to movies with their American girl friends or went to bar to drink whiskey and start brawls,
However after watching the movie Caine Mutiny the 8 sailors feelings became uneasy not like they knew what will happen to them but what will they do if they were caught in a situation like they saw in the movie.
The ship has started to shake in febuary 27 at 10 pm until 11:30 but after few minutes the ship was capsized and some of the sailors who were on the roof have fallen overboard.
What happens after that can be hard for anyone to think about, as Luis who found a raft started to move the toward remaining three survivors of his shipmates it become futile as he watched them helplessly drown as the waves was getting bigger.
After that is ten days of struggle against nature where he fights off sharks for a fish where he falls overboard twice but thankfully at the time there were no sharks around, he fights off extreme hunger and thirst and even catches a bird but the sight of flesh makes him feel nauseas and eventually he throws it to the hungry who accompanied him
amazing story of endurance and surviving -
3,8 estrellas en realidad.
El único libro que he leído de García Márquez a la fecha y una aventura bastante entretenida, corta, y por lo que asegura la novela, verídica.
La premisa es sencilla Luis Velasco, un marinero, naufraga teniendo que sobrevivir diez días en altamar por su propia cuenta. Por lo que la novela abarca desde que se embarca hasta que llega a tierra con su posterior repercusion.
Este libro lo leí durante un verano de mi adolescencia en el que poco tenía que hacer. Así que buscando en la biblioteca encontré esta novela, una de las pocas que me llamó la atención, y la verdad me hizo pasar un buen rato.
El relato se cuenta de modo bastante realista dado el trasfondo verídico de la historia. Hay lucha con tiburones, hambre, sol, mucha sed... y a ratos desesperanza. Pese a ello, y aunque la novela es corta, hubo momentos en que la lectura se me hizo algo pesada pues sentía que se estancaba demasiado en lo introspectivo más que en lo que ocurría en derredor... y aunque tiene bastante sentido, dado lo verídico del relato y la sencilla premisa que nos presenta, no me hizo disfrutar la novela al cien por cien.
Libro corto, entretenido, realista.
¡Si te interesa saber cómo sería sufrir un verdadero naufragio sin abandonar la seguridad de tu sillón ésta es tú novela! -
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor was a riveting story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez while working for a Bogotá, Colombia newspaper, El Espectador, when it was reported that eight crew members of the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed overboard and disappeared on February 28, 1955. The Caldas was sailing from Mobile, Alabama to Cartagena, Colombia when the mishap occurred. However, ten days later one of the Colombian sailors, Luis Alejandro Velasco, turned up half-dead on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. This book is the reconstruction of his experiences as told to Gabriel Garcia Marquez about his ordeal surviving without food or water drifting on a life raft at sea.
As Gabriel Garcia Marquez says of the fantastic story of survival, "It was so detailed and exciting that my only concern was finding readers who would believe it. Not solely for that reason but also because it seemed fitting, we agreed that the story would be written in the first person and signed by him. This is the first time my name has appeared in connection with the text." -
Hay un instante en que ya no se siente la sed ni el hambre. Un momento en que no se sienten ni los implacables mordiscos del sol en la piel ampollada. No se piensa. No se tiene ninguna noción de los sentimientos. Pero aún no se pierden las esperanzas.
3.5.
Me gustó este libro. Pensaba que se me iba a ser muy pesado, ya que es un relato de una persona sola en el mar. Sin embargo, sucedió lo contrario: me resultó rápido y ameno. -
Read: June 2022
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, age unknown
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, as told to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez by Luis Alejandro Velasco.
AKA "Lucky Luis" (Not actually)
The ten word review: Gull sushi is probably never going to be a thing.
I didn’t have high expectations for this book. After all, it was written in 1955 when Gabriel Garcia-Marquez was a 28 year old newspaperman, years before he became famous, before he had what it takes to grow a proper mustache. It smacked of that feeling that his handlers might be scraping the barrel here to make a buck. This is reiterated in the forward he wrote, which closes, “I have not reread this story in fifteen years. It seems worthy of publication but I never quite understood the usefulness of publishing it. I find it depressing that the publishers are not so much interested in the merit of the story as in the name of the author, which, much to my sorrow, is also that of a fashionable writer. If it is now published in the form of a book, that is because I agreed without thinking about it very much, and I am not a man to go back on his word.” (Imagine the publisher’s reaction knowing they have to include this!)
Setting any preconceptions and the author’s own discomfort aside, this is a competently told piece of straight forward non-fiction: realism, of course, without the flourishes or magic realism and flights of fancy of his prose later on. Make that, more than competently told. And it’s a pretty riveting tale.
A Columbian Navy ship, dangerously overloaded with illegal, poorly secured contraband, lists in high seas. Several sailors are washed aboard and all but one drowns. (The book of course is that single survivor’s story, as told to GGM, and the scandal caused so much embarrassment the government shut down his newspaper).
For ten days he drifts in a raft, suffering hunger, thirst, heat and cold, hallucinations, depression … Oh and –surprise, surprise— sharks! (Oh, you were expecting sharks? Huh, so was I.)
He tries to gnaw his shoes, his belt (too tough—the sailor later became wealthy from shoe-endorsement ads, no kidding.) Chews some business cards, slowly, as if they were gum.
“My jaws hurt … but I felt stronger and more optimistic … I could feel a tiny piece of mashed-up cardboard move all the way down to my stomach, and from that moment on I felt I could be saved, that I wouldn’t be destroyed by the sharks.” Every evening sharks haunt his raft in voracious packs, chasing fish, bumping into the raft, trying to overturn it …
“Enough! I'm tired of these m-fucking sharks in this m-fucking raft!”
(Well, it’s not in the book per se, but I feel pretty confident he said it.)
Okay, be warned the rest of this might be a spoiler, but I’d like to note a few details. Otherwise, I’ll forget them. This fellow somehow survived ten days without water and almost no moisture at all from food. Just two bites of a fish, a bit of floating tree branch, and a gull he killed and tasted but was too disgusting to get down.
“It’s easy to say that after five days of hunger you can eat anything. But though you may be starving, you still feel nauseated by a mess of warm, bloody feathers with a strong odor of raw fish and of mange… I put a sliver of the thigh in my mouth … but unable to get over my repugnance, I spit out the piece of flesh and kept still for a long time, with the revolting hash of bloody feathers and bones in my hand.”
On the seventh day, the sharks (remember them?) chase a fish that jumps into his raft. Food! “I managed to tear off the first mouthful … and chewed with disgust …” but he only gets to the second mouthful when a shark steals back his fish and --just to be extra-mean-- bites in half the single oar he has left to paddle his raft hundreds of miles across the ocean.
The raft overturns. Because he had thought it a good idea to tie himself to the raft with his belt, he nearly drowns, upside down in the sea, trapped. He manages to hold his breath long enough to free himself and struggle back onto the raft. Good thing at least, it's a time of day when the sharks are not around to munch on him. Lucky Luis, they call him.
And when at last he spies land, it’s too rocky and dangerous to land his raft, so after ten days without food or water, he summons the strength to swim two kilometers to shore.
Oh my. I do hope the cruise we’re planning on goes nothing like this. -
Hay que reconocer que la historia de por sí es muy interesante porque parece inverosímil, pero aquí el verdadero interés reside en cómo está narrado. Obviamente carece de la magia que tienen otras novelas de ficción del propio Gabo, pero no deja indiferente. Y más sabiendo todo el revuelo que hubo en torno a esta historia debido al clima político y social de aquel momento. Si decidís leerlo (lo que por supuesto recomiendo), os animo a investigar acerca del tema.
Son muchos los fragmentos que me han cautivado, pero me gustaría resaltar este en concreto:
«Yo no sabía si era realidad o fantasía. Y todavía no me atrevo a decir si era realidad o fantasía, a pesar de que durante breves minutos vi nadar aquella gigantesca tortuga amarilla delante de la balsa, llevando fuera del agua su espantosa y pintada cabeza de pesadilla. Sólo sé que —fuera realidad o fuera fantasía— habría bastado con que tocara la balsa para que la hubiera hecho girar varias veces sobre sí misma.
La tremenda visión me hizo recobrar el miedo. Y en ese instante el miedo me reconfortó. Agarré el pedazo de remo, me senté en la balsa y me preparé para la lucha, con ese monstruo o con cualquier otro que tratara de voltear la balsa. Iban a ser las cinco. Puntuales, como siempre, los tiburones estaban saliendo del mar a la superficie.
Miré al lado de la balsa donde anotaba los días y conté ocho rayas. Pero recordé que no había anotado la de aquel día. La marqué con las llaves, convencido de que sería la última, y sentí desesperación y rabia ante la certidumbre de que me resultaba más difícil morir que seguir viviendo. Esa mañana había decidido entre la vida y la muerte. Había escogido la muerte, y sin embargo seguía vivo, con el pedazo de remo en la mano, dispuesto a seguir luchando por la vida. A seguir luchando por lo único que ya no me importaba nada.» -
July 2021 update.
Due to being trolled by other goodreads users regarding my review I originally wrote three years ago for this book, I have permanently removed my upload for the foreseeable future. Please think before going after a book reviewer and criticising who they are as a reader. If you genuinely wish to hear my thoughts, feel free to send me a private message. Thanks. -
Think of a writer who can make you smile, happy and laugh with just the title of his work or with its prologue written in four short pages. I have one, and only one: Gabriel Joselito de la Concordia Garcia Marquez. And it is here, where he didn't tell his own story, but the story of another, written in the first-person narrative but in GG Marquez's hand, sort of like "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein.
The title you see from the image of this book here at GR is not complete as it has a sub-title which sort of serves as an appetizer to this memorable dainty little dish. I reads:
"who drifted on a life raft for ten days without food or water, was proclaimed a national hero, kissed by beauty queens, made rich through publicity, and then spurned by the government and forgotten for all time"
Flip over a leaf and you'll have the prologue I was referring to which GG Marquez entitled "The Story of This Story." In his honor, as he had passed away only yesterday, and as his soul may still be here to witness this small sacrifice I am making in his name, and as this prologue made me laugh several times, I am reproducing it here in all its glory:
"February 28, 1955, brought news that eight crew members of the destroyer Caldas, of the Colombian Navy, had fallen overboard and disappeared during a storm in the Caribbean Sea. The ship was traveling from Mobile, Alabama, in the United States, where it had docked for repairs, to the Colombian port of Cartagena, where it arrived two hours after the tragedy. A search for the seamen began immediately, with the cooperation of the U.S. Panama Canal Authority, which performs such functions as military control and other humanitarian deeds in the southern Caribbean. After four days, the search was abandoned and the lost sailors were officially declared dead. A week later, however, one of them turned up half dead on a deserted beach in northern Colombia, having survived ten days without food or water on a drifting life raft. His name was Luis Alejandro Velasco. This book is a journalistic reconstruction of what he told me, as it was published one month after the disaster in the Bogota daily El Espectador.
"What neither the sailor nor I knew when we tried to reconstruct his adventure minute by minute was that our exhaustive digging would lead us to a new adventure that caused a certain stir in the nation and cost him his honor, and could have cost me my skin. At that time Colombia was under the military and social dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, whose two most memorable feats were the killing of students in the center of the capital when the Army broke up a peaceful demonstration with bullets, and the assassination by the secret police of an undetermined number of Sunday bullfight fans who had booed the dictator's daughter at the bullring. The press was censored, and the daily problem for opposition newspapers was finding politically germ-free stories with which to entertain their readers. At El Espectador, those in charge of that estimable confectionary work were Guillermo Cano, director; Jose Salgar, editor-in-chief, and I, staff reporter. None of us was over thirty.
"When Luis Alejandro Velasco showed up of his own accord to ask how much we would pay him for his story, we took it for what it was: a rehash. The armed forces had sequestered him for several weeks in a naval hospital, and he had been allowed to talk only with reporters favorable to the regime and with one opposition journalist who had disguised himself as a doctor. His story had been told piecemeal many times, had been pawed over and perverted, and readers seemed fed up with a hero who had rented himself out to advertise watches (because his watch hadn't even slowed down during the storm); who appeared in shoe advertisements (because his shoes were so sturdy that he hadn't been able to tear them apart to eat them); and who had performed many other publicity stunts. He had been decorated, he had made patriotic speeches on radio, he had been displayed on television as an example to future generations, and he had toured the country amid bouquets and fanfares, signing autographs and being kissed by beauty queens. He had amassed a small fortune. If he was now coming to us without our having invited him, after we had tried so hard to reach him earlier, it was likely that he no longer had much to tell, that he was capable of inventing anything for money, and that the government had very clearly defined the limits of what he could say. We sent him away. But on a hunch, Guillermo Cano caught up with him on the stairway, accepted the deal, and placed him in my hands. It wa as if he had given me a time bomb.
"My first surprise was that this solidly built twenty-year-old, who looked more like a trumpet player than a national hero, had an exceptional instinct for the art of narrative, an astonishing memory and ability to synthesize, and enough uncultivated dignity to be able to laugh at his own heroism. In twenty daily sessions, each lasting six hours, during which I took notes and sprang trick questions on him to expose contradictions, we put together an accurate and concise account of his ten days at sea. It was so detailed and so exciting that my only concern was finding readers who would believe it. Not solely for that reason but also because it seemed fitting, we agreed that the story would be written in the first person and signed by him. This is the first time my name has appeared in connection with the text.
"The second, and more important, surprise occurred during the fourth day of work, when I asked Luis Alejandro Velasco to describe the storm that caused the disaster. Aware that his statement was worth its weight in gold, he answered with a smile, 'There was no storm.' It was true: the weather bureau confirmed that it had been another clear and mild February in the Caribbean. The truth, never published until then, was that the ship, tossed violently by the wind in heay seas, had spilled its ill-secured cargo and the eight sailors overboard. This revelation meant that three serious offenses had been committed: first, it was illegal to transport cargo on a destroyer; second, the overweight prevented the ship from maneuvering to rescue the sailors; and third, the cargo was contraband--refrigerators, television sets, and washing machines. Clearly, the account, like the destroyer, was loaded with an ill-secured moral and political cargo that we hadn't foreseen.
"The story, divided into installments, ran for fourteen consecutive days. At first the government applauded the literary consecration of its hero. Later, when the truth began to emerge, it would have been politically dishonest to halt publication of the series: the paper's circulation had almost doubled, and readers scrambled in front of the building to buy back issues in order to collect the entire series. The dictatorship, in accordance with a tradition typical of Colombian governments, satisfied itself by patching up the truth with rhetoric: in solemn statement, it denied that the destroyer had been loaded with contraband goods. Looking for a way to substantiate our charges, we asked Luis Alejandro Velasco for a list of his fellow crewmen who owned cameras. Although many of them were vacationing in various parts of the country, we managed to find them and buy the photographs they had taken during their voyage. One week after the publication of the series, the complete story appeared in a special supplement illustrated with the sailors' photographs. Behind the groups of friends on the high seas one could see the boxes of contraband merchandise and even, unmistakably, the factory labels. The dictatorship countered the blow with a series of drastic reprisals that would result, months later, in the shutdown of the newspaper. Despite the pressure, the threats, and the most seductive attempts at bribery, Luis Alejandro Velasco did not recant a word of his story. He had to leave the Navy, the only career he had, and disappeared into the oblivion of everyday life. After two years the dictatorship collapsed and Colombia fell to the mercy of other regimes that were better dressed but not much more just, while in Paris I began my nomadic and somewhat nostalgic exile that in certain ways also resembles a drifting raft. No one heard anything more about that lone sailor until a few months later, when a wandering journalist found him seated behind a desk at a bus company. I have seen the photograph taken of him then: he had grown older and heavier, and looked as if life had passed through him, leaving behind the serene aura of a hero who had had the courage to dynamite his own statue.
"I have not reread this story in fifteen years. It seems worthy of publication, but I have never quite understood the usefulness of publishing it. I find it depressing that the publishers are not so much interested in the merit of the story as in the name of the author, which, much to my sorrow, is also that of a fashionable writer. If it is now published in the form of a book, that is because I agreed without thinking about it very much, and I am not a man to go back on his word.
"G. G. M.
"Barcelona, February 1970"
Rest in peace, tocayo. -
علاوه بر نثر عالی و داستان جذاب، آموزنده هم بود
"گرسنه بودم مطمئن بودم اگر موفق می‌شدم بگیرمش زنده زنده می‌بلعیدمش. ولی همین که او را توی دستم گرفتم، وقتی تپش بدن پرحرارتش را شنیدم، وقتی چشم‌های گرد و درخشنده‌اش را دیدم، لحظه‌ای دچار تردید شدم. یادم آمد معلم رزم‌ناو به من می‌گفت: بی‌شرف نباش. برای ملوان، مرغ دریایی نشانه‌ی آنست که ساحل را دیده است. در شان یک ملوان نیست که مرغ دریایی را بکشد. ولی در آن لحظه گرسنگی شدیدتر از از هر چیز دیگر بود. با تمام قوا کله‌ی حیوان را گرفتم و گردنش را شکستم. خیلی ظریف بود. با اولین فشار صدای شکستن استخوان گردنش را شنیدم. با دومی خونش را که میان انگشت‌هام جاری شده بود زنده و گرم حس کردم. دلم سوخت. این کار به نظرم یک قتل آمد. کله از بدن جدا شد و همانطور که می‌تپید توی دستم باقی ماند. فوران خون در زورق باعث جست و خیز ماهی‌ها شد. یک کوسه‌ماهی از ِن نزدیکی گذشت و به سطح زورق خورد. یک کوسه‌ماهی که بوی خون دیوانه‌اش کرده باشد، می‌تواند با یک گاز یک تیغه‌ی فولادی را خرد کند. آن‌لحظه احساس من این بود که کوسه‌ماهی می‌خواست زورق را زیر بگیرد. وحشت‌زده کله‌ی مرغ دریایی را بطرفش پرتاب کردم و در چند سانتیمتری زورق، سراسیمگی‌ِ وحشتناک آن حیوانات بزرگ را، که سر یک کله‌ی مرغ دریاییِ کوچکتر از یک تخم‌مرغ با هم دعوا می‌کردند، دیدم. اولین کاری که سعی کردم بکنم این بود که پرهایش را بکَنم. پوست آنقدر نازک بود و استخوان‌ها آنقدر ظریف که با انگشت‌ها می‌شد آن را شکست. سعی کردم پرهایش را جدا کنم، ولی به پوست چسبیده بودند. لطیف و سفید، طوری که گوشت هم با پرهای خونین، کنده می‌شد. با دیدن ماده‌ی سیاه لزج لای انگشت‌هام حالت انزجاری به من دست داد. گفتن این که بعد از پنج روز گرسنگی آدم می‌تواند هر چیزی بخورد، ساده است. ولی هر چقدر هم که کسی گرسنه باشد از انبوه پرهای آغشته به خون گرم، با بوی شدید ماهیِ خام و جوش‌های روی پوست، احساس نفرت می‌کند. رشته‌ای از رانش را به دهان بردم ولی نتوانستم قورتش بدهم. ساده بود. بنظرم آمد یک قورباغه را می‌جوم. نتوانستم انزجارم را پنهان کنم. تکه‌ای را که توی دهان داشتم تف کردم و مدتها با آن انبوه پرها و استخوان‌های آغشته به خون در دست، بی‌حرکت باقی ماندم. اولین چیزی که بخاطرم رسید این بود که می‌توانستم از آنچه که نتوانستم بخورم به عنوان طعمه‌ی ماهیگیری استفاده کنم. ولی هیچ وسلیه‌ای برای ماهیگیری نداشتم. داشت شب می‌شد. و ماهی‌ها که از بوی خون دیوانه شده بودند، دور و بر زورق جست و خیز می‌کردند. وقتی که هوا کاملا تاریک شد باقیمانده‌ی مرغ دریایی را توی آب انداختم و برای مردن دراز کشیدم ..." -
Lo leí en un día. La narración realmente te atrapa y no te suelta hasta el final. La magia de Gabo.
-
3,5*
Supostamente foi uma releitura, embora não tenha qualquer memória da primeira.
A narrativa tem um bom ritmo, com algumas partes algo emocionantes, mas não me proporcionou uma experiência extraordinária, como por exemplo A Pérola, de Steinbeck - não sei porque me ocorreu esta comparação, que reconheço ser injusta, pois este é um relato jornalístico e não uma obra de ficção, mas o cérebro às vezes faz ligações inexplicáveis...
De qualquer modo, é uma leitura interessante. -
১৯৫৫সালের ২৮শে ফেব্রুয়ারী কলম্বিয়া নৌবাহিনীর এক জাহাজ ক্যালড্যাস ক্যারিবীয় সমুদ্রে ঝড়ের কবলে পড়ে। ৯জন নাবিকের মধ্যে একজন শুধু জীবিত ফিরেছিলো। তার সাক্ষাৎকারের উপর ভিত্তি করে লেখা হয় এই বই। বইয়ের সবচেয়ে মনোমুগ্ধকর দিকটা হলো লুইসের বেচে ফেরার অদম্য মনোবল, যেখানে অন্য আটজনকে চোখের সামনে নির্মম ভাবে মরতে দেখেছে। দশদিন যাবত খোলা সমুদ্রে হাঙ্গরদের মাঝে থেকে, মাছ শিকার করে, এমনকি জুতা কামড়ে নিজের অস্তিত্ব রক্ষা করে গিয়েছে। বইয়ের শেষের দিকে তো এরক��� অভিজ্ঞতার সারসংক্ষেপ হিসাবে বলেই বসলেন, "Even if I pay a million dollars, I will not go on a sea expedition."
আর এই লেখকের লেখা পড়ে আমি তো লেখকের ফ্যান হয়ে গেলাম। সম্পূর্ণ ভিন্নধাঁচের লেখনী। একটা নর্মাল বিষয়কেও বেশ ঘুড়িয়ে পেচিয়ে, আগ্রহ জাগিয়ে তারপর ছাড়ে। মনে হচ্ছিলো লুইসের মুখ থেকে তার সমুদ্র যাত্রা শুনছি।৷ -
This was absolutely incredible. Although told by Marquez, he makes it clear in the foreword that he is just the writer here. This story is Luis Alejandro Velasco's alone. His story of survival is one to behold and truly captures the immensity of the human spirit and will to survive. His hallucinations are both terrifying and heartwarming to read about; his struggle to capture a seagull and fish to eat; the ever-circling sharks who promptly arrived at 5pm every evening, and the winds that more than once upended the raft, in one instance with him tied beneath it. I found it really hard to put this book down and so I wholeheartedly recommend it.
-
Continuing my accidental trend of novellas featuring sailors & seamen. (Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, John Steinbeck's The Pearl...)
Been meaning to read GGM for ages, but a mammoth novel can be intimidating. So when I saw this slim volume on the shelf, I picked it up. Discovering in the introduction that this was actually a true story that the author covered during his time at a Colombian newspaper, serialized in 14 parts, I was initially disappointed that this wasn't a whole-cloth creation as I'd assumed; certainly this would prove less compelling than the fiction novels he's gained such acclaim for.
How wrong I was.
This may be only a short novella, but it's gripping, harrowing, and at times gut-wrenching in its terror. The account of this one man's 10 days at sea, unprotected from the elements, devoid of food and water, at the mercy of the shark-infested ocean ... It's ruthless, and so vivid that I was forced to go online and verify that yes, this IS actually a true story and not something made up.
The final chapter is entitled "My Heroism Consisted of Not Letting Myself Die." Wow.
So worth reading. -
So... here's some background, I recently got a collection of numerous Gabriel García Márquez books very cheaply - so in this year (2007) I'll be looking to try and take a long look at the work of a well known and liked writer whom I don't really like!
My first foray is this retelling of shipwrecked sailor by Gabriel García Márquez. An exploration akin to the likes of Defoe and Golding, into shipwrecking, solitude and the possible reversion to primitiveness. ... and mentioning those other writers underlines my view, that this lacked an interesting story, mayhaps because it's based on fact?
-
5 días y 88 páginas después. El primer libro que leo de GGM. Empecé con este porque fue una recomendación especial.
Se debe destacar que de una historia/narración plana el autor le pone talento y hace una descripción mucho más profunda y sagaz. La tragedia de un marinero de quedarse solo en altamar por siete días... y como desemboca días después.
Es un libro sencillo, y profundo a la par. El autor logra transmitir las sensaciones al grado de tener la sed provocada por mirar agua salada todo el día.
Me agradó. Habrá algo más del autor el próximo año por acá. -
"The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor" is an ideal book for all readers that like the stories of survival and adventure (the same as me! ;D). It's a short book but written by the excellence of Gabriel García Márquez. For me, it has been a great reference book for the writing of my own novel, Lights on the Sea. I recommend The Story of a Shipwrecked to everyone, especially the one who want to discover Gabriel García Márquez amazing writing
Spanish version:
Diario de un náufrago es un libro ideal para todos los lectores aficionados a los relatos de supervivencia, viajes y aventuras. Es un libro corto pero escrito con la excelencia con que Márquez cuenta las historias. Para mí ha sido un libro de referencia para la escritura de mi primera novela, Luces en el Mar. Recomiendo Diario de un Náufrago a todo el mundo, especialmente a todos aquellos que quieran descubrir la manavisosa manera con qué Gabriel García Márquez escribe. -
এক ডুবে যাওয়া জাহাজের একমাত্র বেঁচে থাকা নাবিকের গল্প নিয়ে এই বই। সেই নাবিকের কাছ থেকে তার সংগ্রামের গল্প শুনে লেখক গ্যাব্রিয়েল মার্কেস প্রথমে ছোট ছোট পর্ব আকারে প্রকাশ করেন, যা ছাপা হতো পত্রিকায়। পরবর্তীতে বই হিসেবে প্রকাশিত হয় পুরো গল্প।
বেঁচে থাকা এই নাবিকের সাহস আর বেঁচে থাকার অসম্ভব ইচ্ছা আমাকে মুগ্ধ করেছে। পুরো দশটা দিন খোলা সমুদ্রে, একা, নেই কোন খাবার, নেই পানি, চারপাশে হাঙর সাঁতরে বেড়াচ্ছে! এসব প্রতিকূলতার মধ্যে বেঁচে থাকার জন্য তার ইচ্ছাশক্তি কতটা দৃঢ় ছিল, তা বইটা পড়লেই বোঝা যায়।
খাবার নেই, তাই খ��য়েছেন শঙ্খচিল, মাছের কাঁচা মাংস, চিবিয়েছেন জুতো! ভাবা যায়?
লোকালয়ে ফিরে বেশ লাভবান হয়েছিলেন তিনি। মানুষজন দলে দলে দেখতে আসতো তাকে। অনেকেই তার এই গল্পকে মিথ্যা হিসেবে নিলেও, তার এই গল্প তাকে বেশ ভালো পয়সাকড়ি এনে দিয়েছে।
শেষে অবশ্য তিনি বলেছেন যে লক্ষ টাকার বিনিময়েও আর কোনদিন ঐরকম কোন অভিযানে যেতে চান না! -
Amena y de ágil lectura. Un relato apasionante. Para ser una obra de juventud, tiene mucha calidad.
Grande, Gabo! -
It's giving Life of Pi and I'm not sure if I'm here for it. The fact that it is nonfiction though makes this story incredibly daring. Imagine calling out and exposing an oppressive regime in your journalist writing... takes some balls!
And btw who would've thought that I would have read my THIRD Gabo of the year at the beginning of March? Whuat?? -
আমি এই জিনিসটা বিলিভ করি যে জিজিএম এর বই বুঝার মত মস্তিষ্ক আমার নাই!!!
আল্লাহর রহমতে একটা বই পাইলাম যেটা আমি পড়ে বুঝছি। তো বইটা পড়ে অনুভুতি কি?
ওহ মাই গড উনি অ্যাডভেঞ্চার টাইপ বই লিখছেন!!!! আমি তো ভাবছিলাম কঠিন কঠিন বইয়ের নাম উইথ কঠিন জিনিসপাতি ছাড়া উনি কিছু লিখেন না । মাত্র ১০৬পেজের পিচ্চি বই । অনুবাদ করার পর যেটা হয়ে গেছে ৭০ পেজের ততোধিক পিচ্চি।
ঝড়রে কবলে পড়ে ডেস্ট্রয়ার থেকে পড়ে গেছে কয়েক জন নাবিক যাদের ভিতরে গল্প কথক কোন রকমে নিজেকে এক লাইফ বোটে তুলতে পেরেছে । এরপরের ১০টা দিন তার জন্য বেঁচে থাকার চরমতম পরীক্ষা। এই পরীক্ষা কঠিন করার জন্য হাংগরের দল সব অনেক কিছু । ১০দিনের পরীক্ষা শেষে সে কূলে ফিরে বীর বনে যায়। নিজের স্বাভাবিক জীবনে ফিরে দেখতে পায় ১০ দিনের সংগ্রাম তার জন্য বেশ লাভই এনেছে।!!! যে ঘড়ি তার হাতে ছিল সেটার জন্য ঘড়ি কোম্পানী থেকে টাকা পয়সা। যে জুতা খেয়েছিল সেটার জন্যও জুতা কোম্পানী টাকা পয়সা দিচ্ছে।
গল্পটা সত্য ঘটনার উপরে। জিজিএম তখন সাংবাদিক এই নাবিককে খুজে বের করে তিনি তার সাক্ষাৎকার নিয়ে অনেক পরে গল্পটা লিখেন। -
Una historia increíble. Estoy seguro que si no fuera por la advertencia del prólogo o por tratarse de una historia archiconocida la gran mayoría (me incluyo en el montón) podría pensar que se trata de una novela de ficción. No es casual que la etiqueta más usada para catalogar al libro en Goodreads sea, justamente, "fiction".
García Márquez ha escrito cosas mejores, pero si algo tiene de especial este libro es la facilidad para engancharte y mantenerte en vilo de principio a fin. El suspenso de las últimas líneas de cada capítulo está tan bien logrado que te dan ganas de seguir leyendo y no parar hasta la última página. La trama está perfectamente resumida en ese título kilométrico que figura en la portada, no es ni más ni menos que eso, pero lo que en verdad vale es la manera en la que el relato está contado. -
Era un poco más de medianoche. Tomé el libro en mis manos (Relato de un náufrago), lo hojeé y me senté en mi sofá de cuero marrón. Quería algo de beber. Miré a mi alrededor. Vi una botella de vino tinto, que me llamaba como una sirena. Dejé el libro en la mesa de cristal a mi lado, me levanté y me dirigí a la botella de vino. La abrí. Llené mi vaso con su contenido. Empecé a leer el libro. Al principio, había una nota del autor, del gran Gabriel García Márquez. Citaré algunos extractos:
“La noticia surgió el 29 de febrero de 1955, cuando ocho miembros de la tripulación del destructor Caldas, perteneciente a la Armada colombiana, cayeron al agua y desaparecieron a causa de una tormenta en el mar Caribe”… “Después de cuatro días, se abandonaron todos los esfuerzos, y los marineros desaparecidos fueron declarados muertos. Una semana después, uno de ellos fue encontrado medio muerto en una playa desierta del norte de Colombia. El superviviente, un hombre llamado Luis Alejandro Velasco, vagaba en el mar con una balsa, sin comida y sin agua. Este libro es una reconstrucción periodística de lo que me contó, y fue publicado en El Espectador de Bogotá, un mes después del desastre… ”
La historia me pareció muy interesante. Aunque hace años que dejé de fumar, confieso que me apetecía fumar un cigarrillo. Me dirigí hacia el dormitorio donde dormía mi amiga. Siempre deja su paquete de cigarrillos en la mesita de noche. Lo tomé... Como un ladrón en medio de la noche. Volví a mi sofá de cuero. Fui a sentarme. Pero me arrepentí. Primero tuve que abrir la ventana, unos centímetros, para que saliera el humo del cigarrillo. Lo hice. Luego encendí el cigarrillo. Tomé un sorbo de mi vino. Excelente.
Cuando el cigarrillo se acababa y el vaso empezó a vaciarse, me estaba preguntando... ¿A quién pertenece esta historia? ¿ A Luis Alejandro Velasco o… a Gabriel García Márquez? ¿A quién debo juzgar en mi valoración?... ¿En mi reseña?
Apagué el cigarrillo en el cenicero. Iba a juzgarlos a ambos. El primero vivió esta trágica historia como náufrago, se la contó a Gabriel con varios elementos de ficción con los que la enriqueció, y el segundo la estructuró y desarrolló, para transmitirla al público lector.
02:27
La lectura había terminado. Me dejó un muy buen sabor. He vivido la historia con el náufrago. Sin duda se lo atribuyo a Gabriel García Márquez, que, como gran narrador, consiguió cautivarme y hacer que leyera el libro en casi dos horas. Por supuesto, es obvio, y por las palabras del autor, que Luis Alejandro Velasco, también poseía un don narrativo bastante inusual, potenciado por la habilidad compositiva.
Este libro me llevó a historias salvajes, llenas de tiburones, de hambre humana, de sed, de la voluntad del hombre de sobrevivir, en una balsa, en el mar. Puedo decir que me sacó de mi zona de confort.
Cerré el libro, Me recosté en mi sofá de cuero marrón y encendí la televisión.
Me sentía afortunado en mi comodidad... -
This is a journalistic reconstruction of what happened on a clear calm early 1955 morning on a destroyer traveling from Mobile, Ala. to Cartagena, Columbia, when eight sailors were suddenly swept overboard and the lone survivor thereafter battled overwhelming odds during more than 10 days at sea. Published in serial form in a local Bogota newspaper later that year, the straightforward narrative account contains little of the flow and rhythms of Marquez's later dancing prose. Only the entire title:
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor who drifted on a life raft for ten days without food or water, was proclaimed a national hero, kissed by beauty queens, made rich through publicity, and then spurned by the government and forgotten for all time
is evocative of the more familiar mature Marquez style, but his fans may appreciate this early journalistic piece as prelude to his later short stories and novels.
