The Call of Cthulhu / Зов Ктулху

Slowly, amidst the distorted horrors of that indescribable scene, the Alert began to sail; while on the masonry of that shore great Cthulhu slid greasily into the water and began to pursue. Briden looked back and went mad. He kept on laughing till death found him one night in the cabin while Johansen was wandering deliriously.

But Johansen had not surrendered. Knowing that the Thing could surely overtake the Alert, he set the engine for full speed, and reversed the wheel. The brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against the pursuing jelly. Johansen drove on relentlessly.

There was a horrific bursting as of an exploding bladder, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler could not put on paper. For an instant the ship was hidden by an acrid green cloud, and – God in heaven![101] – the distance widened every second as the Alert gained impetus from its mounting steam.

That was all. After that Johansen only watched the idol in the cabin and prepared some food for himself and the laughing maniac. He did not try to navigate, for he was completely exhausted. Then came the storm of April 2nd, and he lost his consciousness.

One day came rescue – the Vigilant, the vice-admiralty court, the streets of Dunedin, and the long voyage back home to the old house. He could not tell – they would think him mad[102]. He wrote of what he knew before death came. Death would be a boon if only it could delete memories.

That was the document I read, and now I have placed it in the tin box beside the bas-relief and the papers of Professor Angell. This record of mine will be placed with them. I do not think my life will be long. As my uncle went, as poor Johansen went, so I shall go. I know too much, and the cult still lives.

Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on Earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. It waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men. A time will come – but I must not and cannot think about it! Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors let nobody read this.

At the Mountains of Madness

I

I don’t want to tell my reasons for opposing the invasion of the Antarctic – with its vast fossil hunt and its melting of the ancient ice caps. I can understand clearly that my story will seem extravagant and incredible. But there are photographs, both ordinary and aerial, and they will count in my favor[103], for they are vivid and graphic. Of course, some people can say that is all fakery. And there are ink drawings which can be jeered at as obvious impostures.

I must rely on the judgment and standing of the few scientific leaders who have, on the one hand, sufficient independence of thought; and on the other hand, sufficient influence to deter the exploring world in general from any over-ambitious program in the region of those mountains of madness. It is pity that ordinary men like myself and my colleagues, connected only with a small university, have little chance of making an impression.

In the strictest sense, we are not specialists in the fields concerned. Miskatonic University[104] sent me as a geologist. The aim of our expedition was to secure deep-level specimens of rock and soil from various parts of the Antarctic continent. We had a remarkable drill devised by Professor Frank H. Pabodie[105] of our engineering department. I had no wish to be a pioneer in any other field than this, but I hoped that the use of this new mechanical device would discover materials, unacceptable by the ordinary methods of collection.

Pabodie’s drilling apparatus was unique and radical in its lightness, portability, and capacity. Three sledges could carry steel head, jointed rods[106], gasoline motor, collapsible wooden derrick[107], dynamiting paraphernalia[108], cords, rubbish-removal auger, and sectional piping for bores five inches wide and up to one thousand feet deep. This was possible due to aluminum alloy. Four large aeroplanes could transport our entire expedition from a base at the edge of the great ice barrier to various inland points.

We planned to explore a great area, operating mostly in the mountain ranges and on the plateau south of Ross Sea[109]; regions explored by Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd[110]. We expected to get a quite unprecedented amount of material – especially in the pre-Cambrian[111] strata. We wished also to obtain a variety of the upper fossiliferous rocks, since the primal life history of this realm of ice and death is of the highest importance to our knowledge of the Earth’s past. The Antarctic continent was once temperate and even tropical; and we hoped to expand that information in variety, accuracy, and detail.

The public knows of the Miskatonic Expedition through our frequent reports to the Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press[112], and through the later articles of Pabodie and myself. There were four men from the University – Pabodie, Lake[113] of the biology department, Atwood[114] of the physics department – also a meteorologist – and myself, representing geology – besides sixteen assistants: seven graduate students from Miskatonic and nine skilled mechanics. Of these sixteen, twelve were qualified aeroplane pilots, they were competent wireless operators as well. Eight of them understood navigation with compass and sextant, as did Pabodie, Atwood, and I. In addition, of course, our two ships were fully manned[115].

The Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation[116] financed the expedition. The dogs, sledges, machines, camp materials, and unassembled parts of our five planes were delivered in Boston, and there our ships were loaded. We were marvelously well-equipped for our specific purposes. As the newspapers told, we sailed from Boston Harbor on September 2nd, 1930, taking a leisurely course down the coast and through the Panama Canal[117], and stopping at Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania[118], where we got final supplies. Our ship captains were J. B. Douglas[119], commanding the brig Arkham, and Georg Thorfinnssen[120], commanding the Miskatonic – both veteran whalers in Antarctic waters.

At about 62° South Latitude we noticed our first icebergs – table-like objects with vertical sides – and just before reaching the Antarctic circle[121], which we crossed on October 20th with appropriately ceremonies, we were considerably troubled with field ice. The falling temperature bothered me considerably after our long voyage through the tropics. Very often the curious atmospheric effects enchanted me vastly; distant bergs became the battlements of unimaginable cosmic castles.

Pushing through the ice, we regained open water at South Latitude 67°, East Longitude 175°. On the morning of October 26th a snow-clad mountain chain appeared on the south. That was an outpost of the great unknown continent and its cryptic world of frozen death. These peaks were obviously the Admiralty Range discovered by Ross[122], and our task was to round Cape Adare[123] and sail down the east coast of Victoria Land[124] to our base on the shore of McMurdo Sound[125], at the foot of the volcano Erebus[126] in South Latitude 77° 9’.

The last part of the voyage was vivid and fancy-stirring. Great barren peaks of mystery, white snow, bluish ice and water lanes, and black bits of exposed granite slope. Something about the scene reminded me of the strange and disturbing Asian paintings of Nicholas Roerich[127], and of the disturbing descriptions of the evil plateau of Leng[128] which appear in the dreaded Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I was rather sorry, later on, that I had looked into that monstrous book at the college library.

On the 7th of November, we passed Franklin Island[129]; and the next day the cones of Mts. Erebus and Terror[130] on Ross Island appeared, with the long line of the Parry Mountains[131] beyond. There was a white line of the great ice barrier, rising perpendicularly to a height of two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of Quebec, and marking the end of southward navigation. In the afternoon we entered McMurdo Sound and stood off the coast[132] near Mt. Erebus. Beyond it rose the white, ghostlike height of Mt. Terror, ten thousand, nine hundred feet in altitude.

One of the graduate assistants – a brilliant young fellow named Danforth[133] – noticed lava on the snowy slope. On the barren shore, and on the lofty ice barrier in the background, myriads of grotesque penguins walked.

Using small boats, we landed on Ross Island shortly after midnight on the morning of the 9th, preparing to unload supplies. Our camp on the frozen shore below the volcano’s slope was only a provisional one, headquarters were situated aboard the Arkham. We landed all our drilling apparatus, dogs, sledges, tents, provisions, gasoline tanks, experimental ice-melting outfit

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Примечания

1

it was not meant – не предполагалось

2

piecing together – соединение

3

dark age – средневековье

4

theosophists – теософы, сторонники мистического богопознания

5

great-uncle – двоюродный дед

6

George Gammell Angell – Джордж Гэммел Энджелл

7

Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages – заслуженный профессор в отставке, специалист по семитским языкам

8

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island – Брауновский университет в Провиденсе, Род-Айленд (один из наиболее престижных частных университетов США, основанный в 1764 г.)

9

Newport boat – ньюпортский пароход

10

nautical-looking negro – негр, похожий на моряка

11

Williams Street – Уильямc-стрит

12

American Archaeological Society – Американское археологическое общество

13

clay bas-relief – глиняный барельеф

14

less than an inch thick – толщиной менее дюйма (1 дюйм = 25,4 мм)

15

tentacled head – голова, снабжённая щупальцами

16

Cyclopean architectural background – фоновые циклопические строения

17

characters painstakingly printed – тщательно выписанные буквы

18

H. A. Wilcox – Г. Э. Уилкокс

19

John R. Legrasse – Джон Р. Леграсс

20

121 Bienville St., New Orleans, La., at 1908 A. A. S. Mtg. – Notes on Same, & Prof. Webb’s Acct. – 121 Бьенвиль-стрит, Новый Орлеан, на собрании А. А. О. – заметки о том же + сообщение проф. Уэбба

21

W. Scott-Elliot’s Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria – книга У. Скотт-Эллиота «Атлантида и исчезнувшая Лемурия»

22

Frazer’s Golden Bough – книга Фрэзера «Золотая ветвь»

23

Miss Murray’s Witch-Cult in Western Europe – книга мисс Мюррей «Культ ведьм в Западной Европе»

24

Henry Anthony Wilcox – Генри Энтони Уилкокс

25

Rhode Island School of Design – художественная школа Род-Айленда

26

Fleur-de-Lys Building – особняк Флёр-да-Лис

27

psychically hypersensitive – психически сверхчувствительный

28

Providence Art Club – Клуб любителей искусства в Провиденсе

29

brooding Tyre – мечтательный Тир (финикийский город, один из древнейших крупных торговых центров)

30

garden-girdled Babylon – окружённый садами Вавилон

31

Cyclopean cities of Titan blocks – циклопические города из каменных плит

32

Cthulhu fhtagn – Ктулху фхтагн

33

R’lyeh – Р’льех

34

Waterman Street – Уотермен-стрит

35

Thayer Street office of Dr. Tobey – приёмная доктора Тоби на Тейер-стрит

36

over a fourth of them – больше четверти из них

37

Ardois-Bonnot – Ардуа-Бонно

38

St. Louis – Сент-Луис

39

had been captured – был конфискован

40

voodoo meeting – сборище приверженцев вуду (вуду – конгломерат анимистических культов, включающий в себя традиционные африканские верования)

41

cephalopod head – осьминожья голова

42

resembled nothing familiar – не напоминал ничего из известного

43

the late William Channing Webb – ныне покойный Уильям Ченнинг Уэбб

44

degenerate Esquimaux – вымирающие эскимосы

45

bloodthirstiness – кровожадность

46

addressed to a supreme elder devil or tornasuk – посвящённые верховному дьяволу, или «торнасуку»

47

had taken a careful phonetic copy from an aged angekok or wizard-priest – тщательно записал из уст старого целителя, или шамана

48

the aurora leaped high – занималась утренняя заря

49

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn – Пх’нглуи мглв’нафх Ктулху Р’льех вгах’нагл фхтагн

50

In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. – В своём доме в Р’льехе мёртвый Ктулху ждёт и видит сны.

51

descendants of Lafitte’s men – потомки племени Лафита (Жан Лафит – французский пират, контрабандист, орудовавший в дельте реки Миссисипи)

52

malevolent tom-tom – зловещий там-там (там-там – ударный музыкальный инструмент)

53

the people could stand it no more – люди не могли уже больше это выносить

54

Spanish moss – испанский мох (Tillandsia usneoides)

55

formless white polypous thing – бесформенный белый полип

56

to see it was to die – увидеть его означало умереть

57

endless bacchanal – нескончаемая вакханалия

58

Joseph D. Galvez – Джозеф Д. Гальвес

59

mentally aberrant type – низкое умственное развитие

60

Cape Verde Islands – Острова Зеленого Мыса

61

Great Old Ones – Великие Древние

62

to visit the faithful few – чтобы посетить немногих верных

63

Black Winged Ones – Чернокрылые

64

immensely aged mestizo named Castro – весьма престарелый метис по имени Кастро

65

on islands in the Pacific – на островах Тихого океана

66

Irem, the City of Pillars – Ирем, град колонн

67

Necronomicon of the mad arab Abdul Alhazred – «Некромикон» безумного араба Абдулы Альхазреда

68

That is not dead which can eternal lie. – Не мёртво то, что может вечно покоиться.

69

Tulane University – Тулейнский университет (частный исследовательский университет, расположенный в городе Новый Орлеан, Луизиана, США)

70

Victorian imitation of 17th century Breton Architecture – викторианская имитация бретонской архитектуры XVII века

71

Arthur Machen – Артур Мейчен (1863–1947), английский (валлийский) писатель, автор фантасмагорических историй.

72

Clark Ashton Smith – Кларк Эштон Смит (1983–1961), американский поэт и писатель, художник, скульптор; писал рассказы в жанре фантастики, фэнтэзи и ужасов.

73

Australian journal, the Sydney Bulletin – австралийский журнал «Сиднейский бюллетень»

74

Vigilant Arrives With Helpless Armed New Zealand Yacht in Tow. – «Неусыпный» прибывает в порт с неуправляемой новозеландской яхтой на буксире.

75

Inquiry to Follow. – Предстоит расследование.

76

the Morrison Co.’s freighter Vigilant – сухогруз «Неусыпный», принадлежащий компании «Моррисон»

77

Valparaiso – Вальпараисо, город и морской порт в Чили

78

Darling Harbour – Дарлинг-Харбор

79

steam yacht Alert of Dunedin, N.Z. – паровая яхта «Бдительная» из Данедина, Новая Зеландия

80

S. Latitude – южная широта

81

W. Longitude – западная долгота

82

Gustaf Johansen – Густав Йохансен

83

two-masted schooner Emma of Auckland – двухмачтовая шхуна «Эмма» из Окленда

84

Callao – Кальяо, автономный регион в Перу на побережье Тихого океана

85

Kanakas and half-castes – канаки и полукровки

86

Capt. Collins – капитан Коллинз

87

First Mate Green – первый помощник Грин

88

under Second Mate Johansen – под командованием второго помощника Йохансена

89

William Briden – Уильям Брайден

90

island trader – каботажное судно

91

according to the International Date Line – согласно международной демаркационной линии суточного времени

92

yellow hair turned white – поседевшие русые волосы

93

once more under control – снова подчиняясь управлению

94

when she was held up – когда бы остановлен

95

Rodriguez the Portuguese – португалец Родригес

96

trap-door – дверь-люк

97

Donovan – Донован

98

what wonder – что же удивляться

99

to claim his own – заявить свои права

100

Donovan, Guerrera, and Angstrom – Донован, Геррера и Ангстром

101

God in heaven! – Великий Боже!

102

they would think him mad – его бы сочли за сумасшедшего

103

in my favor – в мою пользу

104

Miskatonic University – Мискатоникский университет (вымышленный университет, расположенный в вымышленном городе Аркхем, штат Массачусетс, США).

105

Frank H. Pabodie – Фрэнк Х. Пэбоди

106

jointed rods – складной хвостовик бура

107

collapsible wooden derrick – разборная деревянная буровая вышка

108

dynamiting paraphernalia – принадлежности для взрывных работ

109

Ross Sea – море Росса (море в Тихом океане у берегов Земель Виктории и Мэри Бэрд, Западная Антарктида)

110

Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, and Byrd – Шеклтон, Амундсен, Скотт и Бэрд

111

pre-Cambrian – докембрийский период (криптозой, предшествовал началу кембрийского периода (около 540 млн. лет назад)

112

Arkham Advertiser and Associated Press – «Аркхемский листок» и «Ассошиэйтид Пресс»

113

Lake – Лэйк

114

Atwood – Этвуд

115

were fully manned – были полностью укомплектованы командами

116

Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation – Фонд Натаниэла Дерби Пикмена

117

Panama Canal – Панамский канал

118

Samoa and Hobart, Tasmania – Самоа и Хобарт, Тасмания

119

J. B. Douglas – Дж. Б. Дуглас

120

Georg Thorfinnssen – Георг Торфинсен

121

Antarctic circle – Южный полярный круг

122

Admiralty Range discovered by Ross – Адмиралтейские горы, открытые Россом

123

Cape Adare – мыс Адэр (мыс и полуостров, расположенные на крайнем северо-востоке региона Земля Виктории, Восточная Антарктида)

124

Victoria Land – Земля Виктории (район Антарктиды)