Latest / Classic Adventure Books Library / 35 - The Adventures of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter thirty five in the Shark's Body, Pinocchio finds whom read this chapter,
- 0:04my children, and you will know Pinocchio. As soon as he had said
- 0:08goodbye to his friend, the tunny tottered away in the darkness and began to
- 0:12walk as well as he could toward the faint light which glowed in the distance.
- 0:16As he walked, his feet splashed in a pool of greasy and slippery
- 0:20water, which had such a heavy smell of fish fried in oil that Pinocchio
- 0:24thought it was lent. The farther on he went, the brighter and clearer
- 0:28grew the tiny light. On and on he walked, until finally he found
- 0:32I give you a thousand guesses, my dear children. He found a little
- 0:36table set for dinner and lighted by a candle stuck in a glass bottle,
- 0:41And near the table sat a little old man, white as snow, eating
- 0:45live fish. They wriggled, so that now and again one of them slipped
- 0:49out of the old man's mouth and escaped into the darkness under the table.
- 0:53At this sight, the poor Marionette was filled with such great and sudden happiness
- 0:57that he almost dropped in a faint. He wanted to laugh, He wanted
- 1:00to cry, He wanted to say a thousand and one things, but all
- 1:03he could do was to stand still, stuttering and stammering brokenly. At last,
- 1:10with a great effort, he was able to let out a scream of
- 1:12joy, and opening his arms, he threw them around the old man's neck.
- 1:18Oh, father, dear father, I have found you at last.
- 1:21Now I shall never never leave you again. Are my eyes telling me the
- 1:26truth? Answered the old man, rubbing his eyes. Are you really my
- 1:30own dear Pinocchio? Yes, yes, yes it is. I look at
- 1:34me, and you have forgotten me, haven't you. Oh, my dear
- 1:38father, how good you are? And to think that I oh, but
- 1:42if you only knew how many misfortunes have fallen on my head and how many
- 1:48troubles I have had. Just think that. On the day you sold your
- 1:53old coat to buy me my A B. C. Book so that I
- 1:56could go to school, I ran away to the Marionette theater, and the
- 1:59propos caught me and wanted to burn me to cook his roast. Lamb.
- 2:04He was the one who gave me the five gold pieces for you. But
- 2:07I met the fox and the cat who took me to the inn of the
- 2:10Red Lobster. There they ate like wolves, and I left the inn alone,
- 2:15and I met the assassins in the wood. I ran, and they
- 2:17ran after me, always after me, till they hanged me on the branch
- 2:22of a giant oak tree. Then the Fairy of the Azure Hair sent the
- 2:25coach to rescue me, and the doctors looking after me said, if he's
- 2:30not dead, then he's surely alive. And then I told a lie,
- 2:34and my nose began to grow, and it grew, and it grew till
- 2:38I couldn't get it through the door of the room. And then I went
- 2:40to the Fox and the cat in the fields of Wonder to bury the gold
- 2:44pieces. The parrot laughed at me, and instead of two thousand gold pieces,
- 2:49I found one. When the judge heard that I had been robbed,
- 2:52he sent me to jail to make the thieves happy. And when I came
- 2:54away, I saw a fine bunch of grapes hanging on a vine. The
- 2:59trap caught me, and the farmer put a collar on me and made me
- 3:01a watchdog. He found out I was innocent when I caught the weasels,
- 3:06and he'd let me go. The serpent with the tail that smoked started to
- 3:09laugh, and in vain his chest broke, and so I went back to
- 3:14the fairy's house. She was dead. And the pigeon, seeing me crying,
- 3:19said to me, I've seen your father building a boat to look for
- 3:22you in America. And I said to him, oh, if I only
- 3:27had wings, And he said to me, do you want to go to
- 3:29your father? And I said perhaps, but how? And he said,
- 3:32get on my back and I'll take you there. We flew all night long,
- 3:36and the next morning the fishermen were looking toward the sea, crying,
- 3:39there's a poor little man drownding. And I knew it was you, because
- 3:43my heart told me so, and I waved you from the shore. I
- 3:47knew you also put in geppetto. I wanted to go to you, but
- 3:52how could I. The sea was rough, and the white caps overturned the
- 3:54boat. When a terrible shark came up out of the sea, and as
- 3:59soon as he saw me in the water, swam quickly toward me, put
- 4:01out his tongue and swallowed me as easily as if I had been a chocolate
- 4:05peppermint. And how long have you been shut away in here from that day
- 4:10to this two long, weary years, two years, my Pinocchio, which
- 4:15have been like two centuries? And how have you lived? Where did you
- 4:18find the candle and the matches with which to light it? Where did you
- 4:21get them? You must know that in a storm which swamped my boat,
- 4:26a large ship also suffered the same fate. The sailors were all saved,
- 4:30but the ship went right to the bottom of the sea, and the same
- 4:34terrible shark that swallowed me swallowed most of it. What swallowed a ship?
- 4:40Asked Pinocchio in astonishment. At one gulp. The only thing he spat out
- 4:45was the main mast, for it stuck into his teeth. To my own
- 4:47good luck, that ship was loaded with meat, preserved food, crackers,
- 4:53breads, bottles of wine, raisins, cheese, coffee, sugar, wax,
- 4:58candles, and boxes of matches. With all of these blessings, I
- 5:01have been able to live happily on for two whole years. But now I
- 5:05am at the very last crumbs. Today there is nothing left in the cupboard,
- 5:10and this candle you see here is the last one I have. And
- 5:14then and then, my dear, we'll find ourselves in darkness. Then,
- 5:17my dear father, said Pinocchio. There's no time to lose. We must
- 5:21try to escape. Escape how we can run out of the shark's mouth and
- 5:27dive into the sea. You speak well, but I cannot swim, my
- 5:30dear Pinocchio, Why should that matter? You can climb on my shoulders,
- 5:34and I, who am a fine swimmer, will carry you safely to the
- 5:38shore. Dreams my boy, answered geppetto, shaking his head and smiling sadly.
- 5:43Do you think it is possible for a marionette a yard high to have
- 5:46the strength to carry me on his shoulders and swim? Try it and see?
- 5:50And in any case, if it is written that we must die,
- 5:54we shall at least die together. Not adding another word, Pinocchio took the
- 5:57candle in his hand, and going ahead to light the way, he said
- 6:00to his father, follow me, and have no fear. They walked a
- 6:03long distance through the stomach and the whole body of the shark. When they
- 6:06reached the throat of the monster, they stopped for a while to wait for
- 6:10the right moment in which to make their escape. I want you to know
- 6:14that the shark, being very old and suffering from asthma and heart trouble was
- 6:17obliged to sleep with his mouth open. Because of this, Pinocchio was able
- 6:20to catch a glimpse of the sky filled with stars as he looked up through
- 6:25the open jaws of his new home. The time has come for us to
- 6:28escape, he whispered, turning to his father. The shark is fast asleep,
- 6:31the sea is calm, and the night is as bright as day.
- 6:34Follow me closely, dear father, and we shall soon be saved. No
- 6:39sooner than done. They climbed up the throat of the monster till they came
- 6:42to that immense open mouth. There they had to walk on tiptoes, for
- 6:46if they tickled the shark's long tongue, he might awaken. And where would
- 6:49they be then? The tongue was so wide and so long that it looked
- 6:53like a country road. The two fugitives were just about to dive into the
- 6:57sea when the sharks sneezed, and very so suddenly as he sneezed, he
- 7:00gave Pinocchio and Geppetto such a jolt that they found themselves thrown on their backs,
- 7:05and dashed once more, very unceremoniously, into the stomach of the monster,
- 7:10to make matters worse. The candle went out, and father and son
- 7:14were left in the dark. And now asked Pinocchio with a serious face,
- 7:17now we are lost. Why lost? Give me your hand, dear father,
- 7:23and be careful not to slip. Where will you take me? We
- 7:26must try again. Come with me, and don't be afraid. With these
- 7:29words, Pinocchio took his father by the hand, and, always walking on
- 7:32tiptoes, they climbed up the monster's throat for a second time, and then
- 7:35they crossed the whole tongue and jumped over three rows of teeth. But before
- 7:40they took the last great leap, the marionette said to his father, climb
- 7:44on my back and hold on tight to my neck. I'll take care of
- 7:46everything else. As soon as Geppetto was comfortably seated on his shoulders, Pinocchio,
- 7:51very sure of what he was doing, dived into the water and started
- 7:55to swim. The sea was like oil, The moon shone in all splendor,
- 7:59and the sh shark continued to sleep so soundly that not even a cannon
- 8:03shot would have awakened him. End of Chapter thirty five