Diario di Bordo / Logbook - Finish the Story Contest 35
Questa è la mia partecipazione alla 35ma edizione del contest Finish the Story di @bananafish
La prima parte della storia, scritta, in inglese, da @theironfelix, può essere letta nel post del contest, qui:
https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-35
Da qui comincia la mia parte.
English version at the bottom
Diario di bordo della Defiance
11 novembre 1718
Incrociamo al largo di Punta Cajón, brezza leggera, velocità 5 nodi, di gran lasco a tribordo.
Avvistato vascello a due alberi battente bandiera pirata. Avendo noi dato ordine di inseguimento, il vascello nemico virava con la prua contrapposta e tentava di prenderci d’infilata a tribordo.
Io, capitano Alvise Morosini, scrivo queste riflessioni nell’imminenza della battaglia.
Cosa può spingere un uomo a solcare l’Oceano divenendo pirata? Cosa può fargli perdere in codesto modo qualunque parvenza di civilizzazione, financo adottando un linguaggio imbarbarito quale io, pur cimentandomi in numerosi idiomi stranieri per farmi comprendere tanto dai corsari di Albione, quanto dai capitani di galeone spagnoli, ed eziandio dai bucanieri francesi della Tortue, non potrò mai padroneggiare, essendo nato e cresciuto tra i dolci accenti della Serenissima?
Cosa può far preferire una vita di violenze, privazioni e incertezze, spesso troncata bruscamente da una palla di cannone o dal cappio di un boia, quando non dalla sciabola traditrice di un sodale abbrutito dal rum? La sete di libertà è forse più forte del bisogno di pace e tranquillità date da una società ben ordinata e timorata di Dio?
Nella mia incessante opera di pulizia del Mar delle Antille da questa feccia, mi sono costruito gradualmente una risposta. Ci sono persone che, di fronte alle incomprensioni e alle ingiustizie della vita, di fronte alla sensazione di essere irrilevanti e sostituibili ingranaggi di un immenso argano il cui scopo ultimo non è comprensibile, si rifugiano nella scrittura, come sto facendo io in questi fatali momenti.
Altri cercano un senso solcando i mari, arrembando carichi d’oro del Vicereame del Messico, non tanto per la prospettiva di arricchirsi, quanto per la possibilità di eludere dai lacci e dalle mordacchie della vita, per lanciare un grido di affermazione di se stessi al sordo mondo.
Anche se deprecandoli e rammentandoli con terrore, la Storia si ricorderà di Amaro Pargo, di François l’Olonese, di Henry Morgan, di Barbanera. Essi sono usciti dal novero degli anonimi ingranaggi dell’argano cosmico, spezzandosi, uscendo dal loro alloggiamento, facendolo ingrippare. Divenendo pietra dello scandalo, non sono più confondibili con le altre pietre.
Odo il mio secondo dare ordini sopra coperta. Lo scatto dei sabordi, il cigolio dei cannoni sospinti in avanti. Devo salire sul ponte di comando. La prima bordata sta per giungere. Lascio queste parole a mia memoria, nel caso la Sorte, questa volta, mi sia avversa.
Anche il buon olio che lubrifica gli ingranaggi affinché l’argano issi senza intoppi, talvolta, viene ricordato.
Source: Pixabay
Logbook of the Defiance
11th November 1718
We cross off Punta Cajón, light breeze, speed 5 knots, broad reach on starboard.
Spotted brigantine flying pirate flag. Having us given a chase order, the enemy vessel would veer opposing its bow and try to get us into the starboard.
I, Captain Alvise Morosini, write these reflections in the imminence of the battle.
What can push a man to sail the ocean and become a pirate? What can make him lose any semblance of civilization in this way, even adopting an embarrassing language, such as I will never be able to master, while trying in numerous foreign languages to make me understand by the Albion corsairs, as well as by the captains of Spanish galleons, and even by the Tortue French buccaneers, since I was born and raised among the sweet accents of the Serenissima?
What can make a man prefer a life of violence, deprivation and uncertainty, often abruptly cut off from a cannon ball or a hangman's noose, when not from the treacherous saber of a rum-sottish companion? Is the thirst for freedom perhaps stronger than the need for peace and tranquility, given by a well-ordered and God-fearing society?
In my incessant cleansing of the Antillean Sea from this scum, I gradually built an answer. There are people who, faced with the misunderstandings and injustices of life, feeling of being irrelevant and replaceable gears of an immense winch whose ultimate purpose is not understandable, take refuge in writing, as I am doing in these fatal moments.
Others try to make sense by crossing the seas, heaping loads of gold from the Viceroyalty of Mexico, not so much for the prospect of getting rich, as for the possibility of evading from the snares and bites of life, to launch a cry of self-assertion to the deaf world.
Even if deprecating them and remembering them with terror, History will remember Amaro Pargo, François l'Olonnais, Henry Morgan, Blackbeard. They have emerged from the ranks of the anonymous gears of the cosmic winch, breaking up, coming out of their quarters, making it engulf. Becoming a rock of scandal, they can no longer be confused with other stones.
I hear my lieutenant give orders over deck. The shooting of the gunports, the squeaking of the cannons pushed forward. I have to get on the bridge. The first broadside is coming. I leave these words to my memory, in case Fate, this time, is against me.
Even the good oil that lubricates the gears, so the winch can hoist smoothly, is sometimes remembered.
This is my entry for the week #35 of the awesome contest held by @bananafish: Finish the Story, the best way to earn STEEM and Steem Basic Income Shares.
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Very nicely done. You always seem to bring a very uniquely you style to the contest. I was much impressed. Parts are really profound and deep. I think this sums up much of the blogging phenomenon we see around the world today....
Those words are beautifully written, especially considering English is not your native language.
Thank you! I think you nailed the concept I included in my story... I was thinking about myself and the motivations for which I write ;)
While one might take it as some secret anti-pirate propaganda piece, this goes beyond good and evil. As my prompt secretly coughed that the pirate’s interests where at threat and neither side being the good or bad, the diary entry really completes that cough and repaints the prompt. As to suggest the prompt was a mental diary while this is the mere physical diary on the other side. To that, I like that aspect.
To go further, I like how the Cap’n does have his wonders and moral interpretations. The Cap’n indeed is living in the phemenon of golden-age pirating; which is having major effects in the rising global economy and politics. But more-so that it chooses to treat them as human beings and not nusiances. Thus this ending could serve as a striking docx of its time (without the Young New English accent of course) and one that attempts to take a materialist approach. With such, it also reminds the reader of the immediacy of life with the cannon shots and ongoing battle.
Thus, though a conscious pro-Empire leaning. This is an unconscious damning of the current material conditions and societies, even if the Cap’n has no way to figure out how to effectively change it. Aye, I buy rum for that. Upvot’d and resteem’d.
Thank you for the extensive critic to my little effort! I very appreciate it!
When I read your first part, I was worried, because I knew I couldn't reproduce the "Young New English accent", or as I call it "pirate slang". I'm not so fluent in English to dare such a task, I'm barely able to read it (and, I take this opportunity to say your lexicon, sir, is very difficult for me to understand, in many of your creative writings...but I keep trying!)
Another thing that has happened is that I started to write my part without having the slightest idea of where to go, and to kill the time during this Sunday, while I'm going through a period of difficulty in my love life, so instinctively putting me against pirates, in a certain sense, comes from my "feeling against" in general right now...
Like the concept.
Thank you!
The stilted opening works so very well as a ships log. The gaps between the lines painting the busy ships life, thoughts jotted down in stolen moments.
Not only are the musing themselves poignant and touching, they seem highly appropriate for the station. Reflecting on a persons life, how it contracts to the choices of another, and the futility of it all. There is a fair amount of room for comparison between pirates and ranking officers in the fleet, as life has lead them both there, one through hardship, one through duty, it may not have been a path either chose. Two sides of the same doubloon which you contrast so very well. This is just beautiful to read!
Two sides of the same doubloon! Yes, they are... yes, we are! Multiple sides of a billions-faced gem!
Interesting idea ... right before battle, get your thoughts out on paper for it might be the last chance one gets.
Yes I think understand your musings beneath the fiction.
Sometimes we just need to feel alive and free. By coincidence, I heard a 1975 interview to a young P. Villaggio, explaining his critique to consumeristic society..its being applicable to nowadays amazed me. Thanks also for brushing off my reminescences about Morosini!
I heard that interview too! I think it has been resumed by the web recently, and it bounced everywhere...
By the way, Alvise Morosini is a fictional character, altough Morosini family gave 4 Dogi and a couple of cardinals/patriarchs to the Republic of Venice...
First off:
Beautifully written contemplation, Marco! Captain Morosini shows the pirate (scum by their actions in his mind) respect by trying to understand the reasons why they would choose such a life. He will not deviate from the hunt, as he believes it to be just, nor will he lose the hope that his part in the grand mechanism won't vanish into time. Both sides with similar desires taking different paths.
And so they also achieved a sort of immortality. Living again through each retelling of their tales. (Or like one would through each play of a good game? 😉)
Hugs, @brisby!
Captain Morosini, the pirates, and myself, we're all sailing through a storm, asking ourselves how to give meaning to our lives...answer may vary!
Then I wish you a safe journey through with the hope that your discoveries bring you happiness. Also, your loyal crew of friends are always available should you need.
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That's a great line. I like the memoir style or narratives. It allows for a deeper investigation of the thoughts of the narrator. This felt realistic, the language seemed appropriate as well (rum-sottish, what a great phrase!). I enjoyed reading this.
Thank you! Sometimes I have to invent some word or expression to communicate my convoluted ideas effectively in English. I'm happy when it turns out good!