Latest / Science Fiction Books / 24 - Lost! - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

Transcript

24 - Lost! - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four lost. No words in any human language
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: can depict my utter despair. I was literally buried alive,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: with no other expectation before me but to live in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all the slow, horrible torture of hunger and thirst. Mechanically,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I crawled about feeling the dry, arid rock. Never, to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: my fancy, had I ever felt anything so dry. But
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I frantically asked myself, how had I lost the course
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of the flowing stream. There could be no doubt it
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: had ceased to flow in the gallery in which I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: now was. Now I began to understand the cause of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the strange silence which prevailed when last I tried if
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: any appeal from my companions might perchance reach my ear.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It so happened that when I first took an imprudent
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: step in the wrong direction, I did not perceive the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: absence of the all important stream. It was now quite
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: evident that when we halted, another tunnel must have received
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the waters of the little Torrent, and that I had
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: unconsciously entered a different gallery. To what unknown depths had
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: my companions gone? Where was I how to get back?
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Clue or landmark? There was absolutely none. My feet left,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: no signs on the granite and shingle. My brain throbbed
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: with agony as I tried to discover the solution of
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: this terrible problem. My situation, after all sophistry and reflection,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: had finally to be summed up in three awful words.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Lost lost, lost, lost. At a depth which, to my
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: finite understanding appeared to be immeasurable, these thirty leagues of
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the globe of the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: crushed by the awful weight. It was indeed a position
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to drive the sanest man to madness. I tried to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: bring my thoughts back to the things of the world
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: so long forgotten. It was with the greatest death difficulty
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that I succeeded in doing so. Hamburg, the house on
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the Cornistrasse, my dear cousin Gretchen, All that world which
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: had before vanished like a shadow, floated before my now
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: vivid imagination. There they were before me, but how unreal.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Under the influence of a terrible hallucination, I saw all
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the incidents of our journey passed before me like the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: scenes of a panorama. The ship and its inmates, Iceland, m.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Friedrichson and the great summit of Mount Sneffels. I said
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to myself that if in my position I retain the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: most faint and shadowy outline of a hope, it would
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to give way wholly to despair. In fact, did I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: but reason, with calmness and philosophy. What human power was
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: there in existence able to take me back to the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: surface of the earth, and ready to to split asunder,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to rend in twain those huge and mighty vaults which
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: stand above my head? Who could enable me to find
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: my road and regain my companions. In sensate folly and
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: madness to entertain even a shadow of hope, Oh Uncle,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: was my despairing cry. This was the only word of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: reproach which came to my lips. For I thoroughly understood
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: how deeply and sorrowfully the worthy Professor would regret my loss,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and how in his turn he would patiently seek for me.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: When I at last began to resign myself to the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: fact that no further aid was to be expected from man,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and knowing that I was utterly powerless to do anything,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: for my own salvation. I kneeled with earnest fervor and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: asked assistance from heaven. The remembrance of my innocent childhood,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the memory of my mother, known only in my infancy,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: came welling forth from my heart. I had no recourse
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to prayer, and little as I had a right to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: be remembered by him whom I had forgotten in the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hour of prosperity, and whom I so tardily invoked, I
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: prayed earnestly and sincerely. This renewal of my youthful faith
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: brought about a much greater amount of calm, and I
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was enabled to concentrate all my strength and intelligence on
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation. I had about
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: me that which I had at first wholly forgotten three
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: days' provisions. Moreover, my water bottle was quite full. Nevertheless,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the one thing which it was impossible to do was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: to remain alone. Try to find my companions. I must
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: at any price. But which course should I take? Should
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I go upwards again descend? Doubtless it was right to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: retrace my steps in an upward direction. By doing this
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: with care and coolness, I must reach the point where
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I had turned away from the rippling stream. I must
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: find the fatal bifurcation or fork. Once at this spot,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: once the river at my feet, I could at all
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: events regain the awful crater of Mount Sneffels. Why had
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I not thought of this before? This, at last was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a reasonable hope of safety. The most important thing then
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to be done was to discover the bed of the Hansbach.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: After a slight meal and a draft of water, I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: rose like a giant, refreshed, Leaning heavily on my pole,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I began the ascent of the gallery. The slope was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: very rapid and rather difficult, but I advanced hopefully and carefully,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: like a man who at last is making his way
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: out of a forest and knows there is only one
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: road to follow. During one whole hour, nothing happened to
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: check my progress. As I advanced, I tried to recollect
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the shape of the tunnel, to recall to my memory
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: certain projections of rocks, to persuade myself that I had
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: followed certain winding routes before. But no one particular sign
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: could I bring to mind, and I was soon forced
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to allow that this gallery would never take me back
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to the point at which I had separated myself from
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: my companions. It was absolutely without issue, a mere blind
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: alley in the earth. The moment at length came, when
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: facing the solid rock, I knew my fate and fell
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: inanimate on the arid floor. To describe the horrible state
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of despair and fear into which I then fell would
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: now be vain and impossible. My last hope. The courage
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: which had sustained me, drooped before the sight of this
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: pitiless granite rock. Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of which spread in every direction without guide, clew, or compass,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I knew it was a vain and useless task to
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: attempt flight. All that remained to me was to lie
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: down and die. To lie down and die, the most
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: cruel and horrible of deaths. In my state of mind,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the idea came into my head that one day, perhaps
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: when my fossil bones were found, their discovery so far
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: below the level of the earth, might give rise to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: solemn and interesting scientific discussions. I tried to cry aloud,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: but hoarse, hollow and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: In the midst of all these horrible sources of anguish
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I had no means of repairing it. Its light was
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: already becoming paler and paler, and soon would expire. With
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a strange sense of resignation and despair, I watched the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: luminous current in the coil getting less and less. A
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: procession of shadows moved, flashing along the granite wall. I
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: scarcely dared to lower my eyelids, fearing to lose the
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: last spark of this fugitive light. Every instant it seemed
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: to me that it was about to vanish, and to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: leave me forever in utter darkness. At last, one final
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: trembling flame remained in the lamp. I followed it with
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: all my power of vision. I gasped for breath. I
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: concentrated upon it all the power of my soul. As
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: upon the last scintillation of light I was ever destined
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to see, and then I was to be lost forever
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: in sumerian and tenebrous shadows. A wild and plaintive cry
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: escaped my lips on Earth during the most profound and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: comparatively complete darkness. Light never allows a complete destruction and
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: extinction of its power. Light is so diffuse, so subtle,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that it permeates everywhere, and whatever little may remain the
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: retina of the eye will succeed in finding it. In
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: this place nothing, the absolute obscurity made me blind in
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: every sense. My head was now wholly lost. I've raised
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: my arms trying the effects of the feeling in getting
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: against the cold stone wall. It was painful. In the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: extreme madness must have taken possession of me. I knew
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: not what I did. I began to run, to fly,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: rushing at haphazard in this inextricable labyrinth, always going downwards,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: running wildly underneath the terrestrial crust, like an inhabitant of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the subterranean furnace. Is screaming, roaring, howling until bruised by
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the pointed rocks, falling and picking myself up, all covered
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: with blood, seeking madly to drink the blood which dripped
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: from my torn features, mad because this blood only trickled
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: over my face, and watching always for this horrid wall
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: which were presented to me, the fearful obstacle against which
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I could not dash my head. Where was I going?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: It was impossible to say I was perfectly ignorant of
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the matter. Several hours passed in this way. After a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: long time, having utterly exhausted my strength, I fell a
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: heavy inert mass along the side of the tunnel and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: lost conscious business. End of Chapter twenty four.