The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power. The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation. He cannot brook the slightest appearance of defiance, and has remained the irreconcilable enemy of ships and men ever since ships and men had the unheard-of audacity to go afloat together in the face of his frown. From that day he has gone on swallowing up fleets and men without his resentment being glutted by the number of victims - by so many wrecked ships and wrecked lives. To-day, as ever, he is ready to beguile and bettray, to smash and to drown the incorrigible optimism of men who, backed by the fidelity of ships, are trying to wrest from him the fortune of their house, the dominion of their world, or only a dole of food for their hunger. If not always in the hot mood to smash, he is always stealthily ready for a drowning. The most amazing wonder of the deep is it's unfathomable cruelty.
Joseph Conrad
The Mirror of the Sea (1906)
Thank you for this wonderful piece of prose. Conrad certainly has an extraordinary gift of criticism and is an absolute master of a rich world of dangerous life at seas!
Rédigé par : Ruth Diskin | 20 septembre 2010 à 16:40
Glad to see that you are still 'in touch' with Conrad! Thank you for putting this remarkable description of the sea on your blog. His English language prose-style is truly amazing especially when one considers that this Polish-born writer did not speak English until he was in his twenties.
Rédigé par : biddy | 25 août 2010 à 22:37