The Lighthouse - eschenzweig (good novels to read in english .txt) 📗

Alphabetische Übersetzungshilfe am Textende.

The lonely island was not far away from the cool New Brunswick shore. Cragged white rocks lifted itself over the heavy grey waves of the Gulf of Main. Strong winds blew over the sharp rock needles and threw the salty water in big gushes against the coast. A lonely lighthouse stood strong against the angry weather, two lights shining from the tower. The large beacon at the top, and a smaller one illuminating the lighthouse keeper’s living room at the bottom.

The retired fisherman sat in a cosy wing chair and red a book about seafaring. Occasionally he looked up from his reading and glanced through the window into the darkness of the stormy night. With joy he looked at the various pictures of sailing ships and fisher boats when he heard a distinct knocking at the door. At first he thought he had just imagined the knocking. He looked up and waited. No one was on the island except for him and this night was certainly not suitable for happy family reunions, so who would knock at his door? Yet after a few seconds he heard it again.
Knock! Knock! Knock!

The lighthouse ward began to feel strange, he put his book aside, stood up and walked to the door. Carefully he looked through the door viewer but saw nothing. Yet the knocking continued. Not as loud as before but still there. Slowly he opened the door, holding it back so the cold wind wouldn’t rush into the warm house. He looked into the night, looked left and right but he saw no one.
He closed the door, sat down in his chair and took his book. Just when he had finished looking at the pictures of a Dutch two-master he heard the knocking again.
Knock, knock!

He wondered where the knocking came from. After a few seconds the knocking paused, then it started again more furiously. Again he put the book away, walked to the door and opened it. He even stepped outside a bit to take a better look. Intensively he looked into the black night. He could hear the waves and the howling of the wind, but no sound of a human being. “Hello?” he asked into the blackness that began only a few meters in front of his door. “Hello? Is there someone?” No answer. He closed the door and went back inside, shrugged his shoulders thinking that it might have been the wind.
He walked over to the window on the right side of the door and peeked outside. His breath steamed up at the cool glass. He stood there for some minutes observing the area in front of the door, but he saw nothing and the knocking didn’t reoccur.
Relieved he went back to his chair, took his book, opened the right page…and he heard the knocking again! This time it came clearly from the window. The same window where he had just stood to peek outside. “Damn, I’ll get nuts with this.” He murmured. Slightly annoyed he got up again, walked to the window and looked outside. Of course he saw no one. He opened the window, bend over the sill and looked into the night, left and right, even up and down, no one there.
Confused and angry he closed the window again and heard the knocking at the door. As fast as he could he ran to the door, reached for the door handle opened the door wide and ran outside. “Hello! Hello!! Whoever you are just stop it!” But nothing.
He walked back into the house and closed the door. Just as the door snapped close all lights went off.
And this time he heard the knocking sound coming from the staircase that lead up to the beacon light!
As silently as possible he stepped to the left until he reached a small cupboard where his torchlight was. He switched it on but to his surprise the light was dull and blinked weakly. Barely enough to illuminate the area around the stairs. At that second the knocking stopped. He saw nothing. He illuminated his living room in faint light. The light cone moved over his wing chair, over the little table standing by it, over his book that reflected the light eerily. Nothing and no one. Complete silence.
From the corner of his eyes he saw the window curtains move. “Damn”, he said loud to break the silence, “I didn‘t close the window tight.” He walked over to the window and corrected it. And to his relieve the curtains stopped moving.
While he stood at the window he noticed a hardly audible noise coming from the staircase again.
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock …knock …knock..
He immediately moved the cone of the poor torch light towards the stairs, his heart raced wild but the knocking continued as he made a few steps forward to see better when he also heard a much louder knocking from the window. A flash enlightened the pitch black night outside of the house and he saw a cable dangling down from the lighthouse knocking at the window. “Oh my! That was it!” He breathed out several times, trying to calm down.
Relieved and happy to know the reason for the eerie knocking he walked to the stairs. The lighthouse keeper lived for more then twenty years in the light house. He had no problems finding the stairs with only the faint light from the torch. He knew every stair and made his way up to the beacon balcony safely. He opened the heavy metal door, stepped onto the platform and walked behind the beacon light towards the fuse box.
He knelt down in front of the fuse box and opened the door, the main fuse was out. Just when he reached his hand out for it he heard the knocking again, this time louder, closer, directly behind him. His heart stopped for a second, he held his breath and turned around. The beacon light bulb was moving slightly in the wind, and every time when there was a stronger gust the light bulb moved and the electric cable knocked at the metal bracket, sometimes on the left side sometimes right side. The various directions of the light bulb hitting the bracket made the knocking seem to come from various directions. Very relieved to have finally solved the mystery of the knocking he turned back to the fuse box and switches on the energy.
The light bulb flashed on. But the heat from the light flash made the light bulb burst into a thousand pieces, and one piece, sharp like a razor blade flew directly into the direction of the lighthouse ward! The ward could hardly believe what just had happened!! There was no time to escape. He screamed out loud, but no use!
The sharp glass blade was coming directly towards his face...”No!”

The ward jumped out of his bed, sweating. His heart beating fast. He was safe.
But, he couldn’t believe it. He reached up with his hand to touch his face and neck, wiping his eyes. He realized it was a dream.
He reached over to turn on the light, looked at the clock, 3 am, tired he sat back into his comfortable cushions and listened to the heavy storm outside. Then he heard a loud knock, knock, knock and all lights went off!


beacon - Signal
bracket - Klammer, Befestigungsteil, -ausleger, Abstützbock
cone - Kegel
confuse - verwirren
cosy - gemütlich
craggy - felsig
curtain - Vorhang
dangling - baumeln
Door viewer - Tür Spion
dull - trübe
Dutch - Dänisch
errie - schaurig
faint - schwach
flew - Verg.Form to fly: fliegen
fuse - Sicherung
fuse box - Sicherungskasten
glance - blicken, Streifblick
grey - Grau: Brittish E.: grey; American E:gray
gush - Schwall
gust - Windböe, Windstoß
illuminate - ausleuchten
immediately - sofort, unverzüglich
knelt - Verg.Form von to kneel: knien
Lighthouse - Leuchturm
lighthouse keeper - Leuchturmwärter
observe - beobachten
occur - erscheinen
razor blade - Rasierklinge
relieved - erleichtert
retired - pensionierte, in Rente
reunion - Wiedervereinigung
shore - Ufer, Küste
shrugg - zucken (mit den Schultern)
sill, window sill - Fensterbank
snap close - zu schlagen (einer Tür)
Steam - Dampf
to anoy - nerven
torchlight - Taschenlampe / Stablampe
two-master - Zweimaster (Schiffsart)
ward - Wächter
wing chair - Ohrensessel
wiping - wischen
Yet - Doch, jedoch