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{{em tradução}}
A versão traduzida deste documento ficará em [[Billy Bud/Capítulo 1]].
 
A versão original do documento foi retirada de [http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/36/1006/frameset.html www.bibliomania.com].
 
Note que a tradução de cada parágrafo segue-se ao parágrafo original. O texto original distingue-se da tradução por ter cor vermelha.
 
Sempre que possível o texto deve ser dividido em secções Wiki correspondentes a trechos de tradução (que não correspondem necessariamente à divisão lógica do texto original) de modo a reduzir a quantidade de texto em edição, reduzindo também a probabilidade de edições simultâneas do mesmo trecho.
 
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{{navegar
|anterior=
|posterior=[[Billy Bud/Capítulo 2|Capítulo 2]]
|obra= Billy Bud —
|seção= Capítulo 1
|autor=Herman Melville
}}
 
==Capítulo 1==
 
<font color=red>IN THE time before steamships, or then more frequently than now, a stroller along the docks of any considerable sea-port would occasionally have his attention arrested by a group of bronzed mariners, man-of-war's men or merchant-sailors in holiday attire ashore on liberty.</font>
 
Nos tempos anteriores aos dos navios a vapor, ou então mais frequentemente que agora, um passeante pelas docas de qualquer porto de mar de dimensão considerável teria ocasionalmente a sua atenção aprisionada por um grupo de bronzeados marinheiros, de navio de guerra ou marinha mercante, desfardados e desembarcados em liberdade.
 
<font color=red>In certain instances they would flank, or, like a body-guard quite surround some superior figure of their own class, moving along with them like Aldebaran among the lesser lights of his constellation.</font>
 
Ladeando por vezes, ou como guarda-costas completamente rodeando um exemplar superior da sua classe, como Aldebaran entre as estrelas menores da sua constelação.
 
<font color=red>That signal object was the "Handsome Sailor" of the less prosaic time alike of the military and merchant navies. With no perceptible trace of the vainglorious about him, rather with the off-hand unaffectedness of natural regality, he seemed to accept the spontaneous homage of his shipmates.</font>
 
Esse centro de atracção era o “Marinheiro Bonito” dos tempos menos prosaicos das marinhas militares e mercantes. Sem traço perceptível do vanglorioso que havia nele, pelo contrário, com a desarmante descontracção da realeza, parecia aceitar com naturalidade a homenagem espontânea dos seus camaradas.
 
<font color=red>A somewhat remarkable instance recurs to me. In Liverpool, now half a century ago, I saw under the shadow of the great dingy street-wall of Prince's Dock (an obstruction long since removed) a common sailor, so intensely black that he must needs have been a native African of the unadulterate blood of Ham.</font>
 
Vem-me à memória uma situação de contornos notáveis. Em Liverpool, faz agora meio século, vi à sombra da suja parede exterior da Doca do Príncipe (uma obstrução já há muito removida) um marinheiro vulgar, tão intensamente negro que só podia ser um nativo Africano de puro sangue Ham.
 
<font color=red>A symmetric figure much above the average height. The two ends of a gay silk handkerchief thrown loose about the neck danced upon the displayed ebony of his chest; in his ears were big hoops of gold, and a Scotch Highland bonnet with a tartan band set off his shapely head.</font>
 
Era uma figura simétrica de altura muito acima da média. As duas pontas do seu vistoso lenço de seda, soltas ao pescoço, dançavam sobre o ébano descoberto do seu peito; nas orelhas tinha grandes argolas de ouro, e uma boina das Terras Altas da Escócia com uma faixa de tartan compunha a sua cabeça bem proporcionada.
 
<font color=red>It was a hot noon in July; and his face, lustrous with perspiration, beamed with barbaric good humor. In jovial sallies right and left, his white teeth flashing into he rollicked along, the centre of a company of his shipmates.</font>
 
Era um meio-dia quente de Julho; e a sua face, lustrosa da transpiração, brilhava com uma boa disposição selvagem. Em movimentos joviais para a esquerda e para a direita, os seus dentes branco brilhando, no meio de uma algazarra, era o centro de um grupo dos seus camaradas.
 
<font color=red>These were made up of such an assortment of tribes and complexions as would have well fitted them to be marched up by Anacharsis Cloots before the bar of the first French Assembly as Representatives of the Human Race.</font>
 
Estes provinham de um tão grande sortido de tribos e compleições que bem poderiam servir para desfilar pela mão de [[w:Anacharsis Cloots|Anacharsis Cloots]] em frente aos deputados da primeira Assembleia Francesa como Representantes da Raça Humana.
 
<font color=red>At each spontaneous tribute rendered by the wayfarers to this black pagod of a fellow- the tribute of a pause and stare, and less frequent an exclamation,- the motley retinue showed that they took that sort of pride in the evoker of it which the Assyrian priests doubtless showed for their grand sculptured Bull when the faithful prostrated themselves.</font>
 
A cada tributo espontâneo dos navegantes a este pagode negro – o tributo de uma pausa e um olhar fixo, e menos frequentemente uma exclamação, - o variado grupo revelava o tipo de orgulho no seu evocador que os sacerdotes Assírios sem dúvida mostraram pelo seu escultural Touro quando os fiéis se prostravam a seus pés.
 
<font color=red>To return.</font>
 
Regressar.
 
<font color=red>If in some cases a bit of a nautical Murat in setting forth his person ashore, the Handsome Sailor of the period in question evinced nothing of the dandified Billy-be-Damn, an amusing character all but extinct now, but occasionally to be encountered, and in a form yet more amusing than the original, at the tiller of the boats on the tempestuous Erie Canal or, more likely, vaporing in the groggeries along the tow-path.</font>
 
Se nalguns casos era um pouco um [[w:Joachim Murat|Murat]] náutico no seu comportamento em terra, o Marinheiro Bonito do período em questão não revelava nada do aperaltado Billy-be-Damn, um personagem divertido, já quase extinto mas ainda encontrado ocasionalmente, numa forma ainda mais divertida que a original, ao leme de navios no tempestuoso [[w:Canal de Erie|Canal de Erie]] ou, mais provavelmente, destilando nas tabernas de grogue ao longo dos caminhos de reboque do canal.
 
<font color=red>Invariably a proficient in his perilous calling, he was also more or less of a mighty boxer or wrestler. It was strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess were recited. Ashore he was the champion; afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost.</font>
 
Invariavelmente dextro na sua aventurosa ocupação, era também, num certo grau, um poderoso boxeur ou lutador. Era força e beleza. Contavam-se histórias lendárias sobre as suas proezas. Em terra era o campeão; no mar o porta-voz; liderando sempre que apropriado.
 
<font color=red>Close-reefing top-sails in a gale, there he was, astride the weather yard-arm-end, foot in the Flemish horse as "stirrup," both hands tugging at the "earring" as at a bridle, in very much the attitude of young Alexander curbing the fiery Bucephalus.</font>
 
Recolhendo as velas altas numa borrasca, aí estava ele, cavalgando o temporal na ponta da verga, um pé no no ''Flemish horse'' qual "estribo", as duas mãos puxando o "''brinco''" como se foram arreios, quase numa postura de jovem [[w:Alexandre, o Grande|Alexandre]] dominando o tempestuoso [[w:Bucéfalo|Bucéfalo]].
 
<font color=red>A superb figure, tossed up as by the horns of Taurus against the thunderous sky, cheerily hallooing to the strenuous file along the spar.</font>
 
Figura superior, recortada como pelo cornos de [[w:Taurus|Touro]] contra o céu trovejante, gritando alegremente para a enérgica fila ao longo do mastro.
 
<font color=red>The moral nature was seldom out of keeping with the physical make. Indeed, except as toned by the former, the comeliness and power, always attractive in masculine conjunction, hardly could have drawn the sort of honest homage the Handsome Sailor in some examples received from his less gifted associates.</font>
 
A natureza moral raramente discordava da compleição física. Na verdade, excepto se matizada pela primeira, a boa aparência e a potência, sempre atraentes quando conjugadas no masculino, só dificilmente conseguiriam receber o tipo de homenagem honesta que o Marinheiro Bonito nalguns casos recebia dos seus associados menos dotados.
 
<font color=red>Such a cynosure, at least in aspect, and something such too in nature, though with important variations made apparent as the story proceeds, was welkin-eyed Billy Budd, or Baby Budd, as more familiarly under circumstances hereafter to be given he at last came to be called, aged twenty-one, a foretopman of the British fleet toward the close of the last decade of the eighteenth century.</font>
 
Tal pólo de atracção, pelo menos pelo aspecto, e também um pouco pela natureza, embora com variações importantes que serão evidenciadas com o progredir da história, era o Billy Budd <ref>Billy Budd seria, em tradução literal para português, Xico Amigão</ref>, ou Baby Budd<ref>Baby Budd, por seu turno, seria Bebé Amigão</ref>, como veio a ser por fim familiarmente chamado em circunstância que serão futuramente descritas, com 21 anos de idade, um homem do mastro alto de proa de navio da frota Britânica em finais da última década do século dezoito.
 
<font color=red>It was not very long prior to the time of the narration that follows that he had entered the King's Service, having been impressed on the Narrow Seas from a homeward-bound English merchantman into a seventy-four outward-bound, H.M.S. Indomitable; which ship, as was not unusual in those hurried days, having been obliged to put to sea short of her proper complement of men.</font>
 
Não foi muito antes da época da narrativa que se segue que ele entrou para a Marinha Real, recrutado nos Mares Estreitos<ref>Narrow Seas, os mares que rodeiam a Inglaterra</ref> por um mercador Inglês de regresso a casa para um navio de partida com setenta e quatro pés, o H.M.S. Indomitable<ref>Navio de Sua Majestade Indomitável</ref>; que, como não era invulgar nesses tempos apressados, tinha sido obrigado a largar para o mar com falta do apropriado número de tripulantes.
 
<font color=red>Plump upon Billy at first sight in the gangway the boarding officer Lieutenant Ratcliff pounced, even before the merchantman's crew was formally mustered on the quarter-deck for his deliberate inspection. And him only he elected.</font>
 
<font color=red>For whether it was because the other men when ranged before him showed to ill advantage after Billy, or whether he had some scruples in view of the merchantman being rather short-handed, however it might be, the officer contented himself.with his first spontaneous choice. To the surprise of the ship's company, though much to the Lieutenant's satisfaction, Billy made no demur. But, indeed, any demur would have been as idle as the protest of a goldfinch popped into a cage.
Noting this uncomplaining acquiescence, all but cheerful one might say, the shipmates turned a surprised glance of silent reproach at the sailor. The Shipmaster was one of those worthy mortals found in every vocation, even the humbler ones- the sort of person whom everybody agrees in calling "a respectable man." And- nor so strange to report as it may appear to be- though a ploughman of the troubled waters, life-long contending with the intractable elements, there was nothing this honest soul at heart loved better than simple peace and quiet. For the rest, he was fifty or thereabouts, a little inclined to corpulence, a prepossessing face, unwhiskered, and of an agreeable color- a rather full face, humanely intelligent in expression. On a fair day with a fair wind and all going well, a certain musical chime in his voice seemed to be the veritable unobstructed outcome of the innermost man. He had much prudence, much conscientiousness, and there were occasions when these virtues were the cause of overmuch disquietude in him. On a passage, so long as his craft was in any proximity to land, no sleep for Captain Graveling. He took to heart those serious responsibilities not so heavily borne by some shipmasters.
Now while Billy Budd was down in the forecastle getting his kit together, the Indomitable's Lieutenant, burly and bluff, nowise disconcerted by Captain Graveling's omitting to proffer the customary hospitalities on an occasion so unwelcome to him, an omission simply caused by preoccupation of thought, unceremoniously invited himself into the cabin, and also to a flask from the spirit-locker, a receptacle which his experienced eye instantly discovered. In fact he was one of those sea-dogs in whom all the hardship and peril of naval life in the great prolonged wars of his time never impaired the natural instinct for sensuous enjoyment. His duty he always faithfully did; but duty is sometimes a dry obligation, and he was for irrigating its aridity, whensoever possible, with a fertilizing decoction of strong waters. For the cabin's proprietor there was nothing left but to play the part of the enforced host with whatever grace and alacrity were practicable. As necessary adjuncts to the flask, he silently placed tumbler and water-jug before the irrepressible guest. But excusing himself from partaking just then, he dismally watched the unembarrassed officer deliberately diluting his grog a little, then tossing it off in three swallows, pushing the empty tumbler away, yet not so far as to be beyond easy reach, at the same time settling himself in his seat and smacking his lips with high satisfaction, looking straight at the host.
These proceedings over, the Master broke the silence; and there lurked a rueful reproach in the tone of his voice: "Lieutenant, you are going to take my best man from me, the jewel of 'em."
"Yes, I know," rejoined the other, immediately drawing back the tumbler preliminary to a replenishing; "Yes, I know. Sorry."
"Beg pardon, but you don't understand, Lieutenant. See here now. Before I shipped that young fellow, my forecastle was a rat-pit of quarrels. It was black times, I tell you, aboard the Rights here. I was worried to that degree my pipe had no comfort for me. But Billy came; and it was like a Catholic priest striking peace in an Irish shindy. Not that he preached to them or said or did anything in particular; but a virtue went out of him, sugaring the sour ones. They took to him like hornets to treacle; all but the buffer of the gang, the big shaggy chap with the fire-red whiskers. He indeed out of envy, perhaps, of the newcomer, and thinking such a 'sweet and pleasant fellow,' as he mockingly designated him to the others, could hardly have the spirit of a game-cock, must needs bestir himself in trying to get up an ugly row with him. Billy forebore with him and reasoned with him in a pleasant way- he is something like myself, Lieutenant, to whom aught like a quarrel is hateful- but nothing served. So, in the second dog-watch one day the Red Whiskers in presence of the others, under pretence of showing Billy just whence a sirloin steak was cut- for the fellow had once been a butcher- insultingly gave him a dig under the ribs. Quick as lightning Billy let fly his arm. I dare say he never meant to do quite as much as he did, but anyhow he gave the burly fool a terrible drubbing. It took about half a minute, I should think. And, lord bless you, the lubber was astonished at the celerity. And will you believe it, Lieutenant, the Red Whiskers now really loves Billy- loves him, or is the biggest hypocrite that ever I heard of. But theyall love him. Some of 'em do his washing, darn his old trousers for him; the carpenter is at odd times making a pretty little chest of drawers for him. Anybody will do anything for Billy Budd; and it's the happy family here. But now, Lieutenant, if that young fellow goes- I know how it will be aboard the Rights. Not again very soon shall I, coming up from dinner, lean over the capstan smoking a quiet pipe- no, not very soon again, I think. Ay, Lieutenant, you are going to take away the jewel of 'em; you are going to take away my peacemaker!" And with that the good soul had really some ado in checking a rising sob.
"Well," said the officer who had listened with amused interest to all this, and now waxing merry with his tipple; "Well, blessed are the peacemakers, especially the fighting peacemakers! And such are the seventy- four beauties some of which you see poking their noses out of the port-holes of yonder war-ship lying-to for me," pointing thro' the cabin window at the Indomitable. "But courage! don't look so downhearted, man. Why, I pledge you in advance the royal approbation. Rest assured that His Majesty will be delighted to know that in a time when his hard tack is not sought for by sailors with such avidity as should be; a time also when some shipmasters privily resent the borrowing from them a tar or two for the service; His Majesty, I say, will be delighted to learn that one shipmaster at least cheerfully surrenders to the King, the flower of his flock, a sailor who with equal loyalty makes no dissent.- But where's my beauty? Ah," looking through the cabin's open door, "Here he comes; and, by Jove- lugging along his chest- Apollo with his portmanteau!- My man," stepping out to him, "you can't take that big box aboard a war-ship. The boxes there are mostly shot-boxes. Put your duds in a bag, lad. Boot and saddle for the cavalryman, bag and hammock for the man-of-war's man."
The transfer from chest to bag was made. And, after seeing his man into the cutter and then following him down, the Lieutenant pushed off from the Rights-of-Man. That was the merchant-ship's name; tho' by her master and crew abbreviated in sailor fashion into The Rights. The hard-headed Dundee owner was a staunch admirer of Thomas Paine whose book in rejoinder to Burke's arraignment of the French Revolution had then been published for some time and had gone everywhere. In christening his vessel after the title of Paine's volume, the man of Dundee was something like his contemporary shipowner, Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, whose sympathies, alike with his native land and its liberal philosophers, he evinced by naming his ships after Voltaire, Diderot, and so forth.
But now, when the boat swept under the merchantman's stern, and officer and oarsmen were noting- some bitterly and others with a grin,- the name emblazoned there; just then it was that the new recruit jumped up from the bow where the coxswain had directed him to sit, and waving his hat to his silent shipmates sorrowfully looking over at him from the taffrail, bade the lads a genial good-bye. Then, making a salutation as to the ship herself, "And good-bye to you too, old Rights-of-Man."
"Down, Sir!" roared the Lieutenant, instantly assuming all the rigour of his rank, though with difficulty repressing a smile.
To be sure, Billy's action was a terrible breach of naval decorum. But in that decorum he had never been instructed; in consideration of which the Lieutenant would hardly have been so energetic in reproof but for the concluding farewell to the ship. This he rather took as meant to convey a covert sally on the new recruit's part, a sly slur at impressment in general, and that of himself in especial. And yet, more likely, if satire it was in effect, it was hardly so by intention, for Billy, tho' happily endowed with the gayety of high health, youth, and a free heart, was yet by no means of a satirical turn. The will to it and the sinister dexterity were alike wanting. To deal in double meanings and insinuations of any sort was quite foreign to his nature.
As to his enforced enlistment, that he seemed to take pretty much as he was wont to take any vicissitude of weather. Like the animals, though no philosopher, he was, without knowing it, practically a fatalist. And, it may be, that he rather liked this adventurous turn in his affairs, which promised an opening into novel scenes and martial excitements.Aboard the Indomitable our merchant-sailor was forthwith rated as an able-seaman and assigned to the starboard watch of the fore-top. He was soon at home in the service, not at all disliked for his unpretentious good looks and a sort of genial happy-go-lucky air. No merrier man in his mess: in marked contrast to certain other individuals included like himself among the impressed portion of the ship's company; for these when not actively employed were sometimes, and more particularly in the last dog-watch when the drawing near of twilight induced revery, apt to fall into a saddish mood which in some partook of sullenness. But they were not so young as our foretopman, and no few of them must have known a hearth of some sort; others may have had wives and children left, too probably, in uncertain circumstances, and hardly any but must have had acknowledged kith and kin, while for Billy, as will shortly be seen, his entire family was practically invested in himself.</font>
 
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