Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. TITELBLATT

2. IMPRESSUM

3. CHAPTER I — THE GIFT BESTOWED

4. CHAPTER II — THE GIFT DIFFUSED

5. CHAPTER III — THE GIFT REVERSED

6. THE HAUNTED MAN (ENGLISCH)

Charles Dickens
The Haunted Man / Der heimgesuchte Mann
Zweisprachige Ausgabe
Übersetzt von Margit Meyer

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CHAPTER I — THE GIFT BESTOWED

ERSTES KAPITEL – DIE VERLIEHENE GABE

EVERYBODY said so.

Jeder sagte es.

Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right.

Es sei mir fern zu behaupten, daß alles wahr sein muß, was jeder sagt. Oft hat jeder wahrscheinlich ebenso recht wie unrecht.

In the general experience, everybody has been wrong so often,

Erfahrungsgemäß hat jeder so oft unrecht gehabt,

and it has taken, in most instances, such a weary while to find out how wrong, that the authority is proved to be fallible.

und es hat in den meisten Fällen so lange gedauert, bis man herausfand, wie unrecht, daß die gerichtliche Entscheidung nachweislich fehlbar war.

Everybody may sometimes be right; “but that’s no rule,” as the ghost of Giles Scroggins says in the ballad.

Jeder kann manchmal recht haben, »aber das ist nicht die Regel«, wie der Geist von Giles Scroggins in der Ballade sagt.

The dread word, GHOST, recalls me.

Das schreckliche Wort Geist bringt mich auf das Thema.

Everybody said he looked like a haunted man. The extent of my present claim for everybody is, that they were so far right. He did.

Jeder sagte, er sehe wie ein heimgesuchter Mann aus. Gegenwärtig würde ich den Anspruch erheben, daß jeder diesbezüglich recht hatte. Er sah so aus.

Who could have seen his hollow cheek; his sunken brilliant eye;

Wer hätte seine hohlen Wangen ansehen können, seine eingesunkenen, leuchtenden Augen,

his black-attired figure, indefinably grim, although well-knit and well-proportioned;

seine schwarz gekleidete, unerklärlich düstere, doch kräftige und gutgebaute Gestalt,

his grizzled hair hanging, like tangled sea-weed, about his face,

sein graues Haar, das ihm wie verflochtener Seetang ins Gesicht hing

— as if he had been, through his whole life, a lonely mark for the chafing and beating of the great deep of humanity,—

– als wäre er sein Leben lang ein einsames Zeichen im Toben und Wüten des weiten Meeres der Menschheit gewesen –,

but might have said he looked like a haunted man?

ohne zu sagen, daß er wie ein heimgesuchter Mann aussah?

Who could have observed his manner, taciturn, thoughtful, gloomy, shadowed by habitual reserve, retiring always and jocund never,

Wer hätte sein schweigsames, gedankenvolles, schwermütiges Verhalten bemerken können, das gewöhnlich von Verschlossenheit überschattet, stets zurückhaltend, doch nie fröhlich war,

with a distraught air of reverting to a bygone place and time, or of listening to some old echoes in his mind,

mit verwirrtem Ausdruck zu vergangenen Orten und Zeiten zurückkehrte oder auf frühere Echos in seinem Herzen lauschte,

but might have said it was the manner of a haunted man?

ohne zu sagen, daß es das Verhalten eines heimgesuchten Mannes war?

Who could have heard his voice, slow-speaking, deep, and grave, with a natural fulness and melody in it which he seemed to set himself against and stop,

Wer hätte seine langsame, tiefe und ernste Stimme mit einem natürlichen Wohlklang, gegen den er sich selbst stellte und den er zu unterbinden schien, hören können,

but might have said it was the voice of a haunted man?

ohne zu sagen, daß es die Stimme eines heimgesuchten Mannes war?

Who that had seen him in his inner chamber, part library and part laboratory,—

Wer ihn in seiner verborgenen Kammer gesehen hatte, die teils Bibliothek, teils Labor war –

for he was, as the world knew, far and wide, a learned man in chemistry,

denn er war, wie man weit und breit wußte, ein gelehrter Chemiker

and a teacher on whose lips and hands a crowd of aspiring ears and eyes hung daily,

und ein Lehrer, an dessen Lippen und Händen täglich eine Menge wißbegieriger Ohren und Augen hingen –;

— who that had seen him there, upon a winter night, alone, surrounded by his drugs and instruments and books;

wer ihn dort an einem Winterabend gesehen hatte: allein, von seinen Drogen, Instrumenten und Büchern umgeben;

the shadow of his shaded lamp a monstrous beetle on the wall,

der Schatten seines Lampenschirmes ein riesiger Käfer an der Wand,

motionless among a crowd of spectral shapes raised there by the flickering of the fire upon the quaint objects around him;

reglos zwischen einer Menge geisterhafter Gebilde, die dort vom Aufflackern des Feuers auf den wunderlichen Gegenständen um ihn herum hervorgerufen wurden;

some of these phantoms (the reflection of glass vessels that held liquids), trembling at heart like things

einige dieser Gespenster (die Widerspiegelung von Glasgefäßen, die Flüssigkeiten enthielten) zitterten im Herzen wie Dinge,

that knew his power to uncombine them, and to give back their component parts to fire and vapour;

die seine Macht, sie freizulassen und ihre Bestandteile an Feuer und Dampf zurückzugeben, kannten;

— who that had seen him then, his work done, and he pondering in his chair before the rusted grate and red flame,

wer ihn dann nach getaner Arbeit gesehen hatte, wie er vor dem verrosteten Kamingitter und der roten Flamme grübelte,

moving his thin mouth as if in speech, but silent as the dead, would not have said that the man seemed haunted and the chamber too?

seinen schmalen Mund bewegte, als ob er spräche, aber wie ein Grab schwieg, hätte nicht gesagt, daß dieser Mann und auch die Kammer heimgesucht seien?

Who might not, by a very easy flight of fancy, have believed

Wer hätte nicht ohne allzu große Einbildungskraft geglaubt,

that everything about him took this haunted tone, and that he lived on haunted ground?

daß alles um ihn herum diesen heimgesuchten Charakter annahm und daß er auf einem heimgesuchten Gelände wohne?

His dwelling was so solitary and vault-like,— an old, retired part of an ancient endowment for students,

Seine Behausung war einsam und glich einer Gruft; sie lag im entlegenen Teil einer ehrwürdigen Stiftung für Studenten,

once a brave edifice, planted in an open place, but now the obsolete whim of forgotten architects;

einst ein kühner Bau, der an einer freien Stelle errichtet worden, doch jetzt die veraltete Laune vergessener Architekten war.

smoke-age-and-weather-darkened, squeezed on every side by the overgrowing of the great city, and choked, like an old well, with stones and bricks;

Rauch, Alter und Wetter hatten ihn geschwärzt, das schnelle Wachsen der großen Stadt hatte ihn zusammengepreßt und wie einen alten Brunnen mit Steinen und Ziegeln verstopft.

its small quadrangles, lying down in very pits formed by the streets and buildings, which, in course of time, had been constructed above its heavy chimney stalks;

Seine kleinen Höfe lagen in regelrechten Schächten aus Straßen und Gebäuden, die im Laufe der Zeit über seine wuchtigen Schornsteine hinaus gebaut worden waren.

its old trees, insulted by the neighbouring smoke, which deigned to droop so low when it was very feeble and the weather very moody;

Seine alten Bäume wurden vom Rauch der Nachbarschaft angegriffen, der bis zu dieser Tiefe sank, wenn er schwach und das Wetter launisch war.

its grass-plots, struggling with the mildewed earth to be grass, or to win any show of compromise;

Seine Rasenplätze rangen mit der von Meltau befallenen Erde darum, Gras zu sein oder irgendeinen Kompromiß zu erreichen.

its silent pavements, unaccustomed to the tread of feet, and even to the observation of eyes,

Sein stummes Pflaster war nicht an Schritte und selbst ein Betrachten gewöhnt,

except when a stray face looked down from the upper world, wondering what nook it was;

außer wenn ein vereinzeltes Gesicht aus der oberen Welt herabblickte und sich über diesen Winkel wunderte.

its sun-dial in a little bricked-up corner, where no sun had straggled for a hundred years,

Seine Sonnenuhr befand sich in einer kleinen, von Ziegeln eingefaßten Ecke, wohin sich seit hundert Jahren kein Sonnenstrahl verirrt hatte,

but where, in compensation for the sun’s neglect, the snow would lie for weeks when it lay nowhere else,

wo aber zum Ausgleich dafür der Schnee wochenlang liegenblieb, wenn nirgendwo mehr welcher lag,

and the black east wind would spin like a huge humming-top, when in all other places it was silent and still.

und wo der grimmige Ostwind wie ein riesiger Brummkreisel herumwirbelte, wenn es überall still und ruhig war.

His dwelling, at its heart and core — within doors — at his fireside — was so lowering and old, so crazy, yet so strong,

Seine Behausung war im eigentlichen Herzstück, an seinem Kamin, düster und alt, rissig und doch stabil

with its worn-eaten beams of wood in the ceiling, and its sturdy floor shelving downward to the great oak chimney-piece;

mit ihren wurmstichigen Holzbalken an der Decke und ihrem massiven Regal, das bis zum großen eichenen Kaminsims herabreichte.

so environed and hemmed in by the pressure of the town yet so remote in fashion, age, and custom;

Sie war vom Druck der Stadt umgeben und eingeschlossen, doch in Stil, Zeit und Gewohnheit weit entfernt.

so quiet, yet so thundering with echoes when a distant voice was raised or a door was shut,

Sie war ruhig, doch von lauten Echos erfüllt, wenn sich in der Ferne eine Stimme erhob oder eine Tür geschlossen wurde,

— echoes, not confined to the many low passages and empty rooms, but rumbling and grumbling

von Echos, die nicht auf die zahlreichen niedrigen Korridore und leeren Räume beschränkt waren, sondern polterten und dröhnten,

till they were stifled in the heavy air of the forgotten Crypt where the Norman arches were half-buried in the earth.

bis sie in der dunstigen Luft der vergessenen Krypta, wo die normannischen Rundbögen halb in der Erde versunken waren, erstickt wurden.

You should have seen him in his dwelling about twilight, in the dead winter time.

Sie hätten ihn in seiner Behausung bei Dämmerlicht, mitten im tiefen Winter, sehen sollen.

CHAPTER I — THE GIFT BESTOWED

EVERYBODY said so.

Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right. In the general experience, everybody has been wrong so often, and it has taken, in most instances, such a weary while to find out how wrong, that the authority is proved to be fallible. Everybody may sometimes be right; “but that’s no rule,” as the ghost of Giles Scroggins says in the ballad.

The dread word, GHOST, recalls me.

Everybody said he looked like a haunted man. The extent of my present claim for everybody is, that they were so far right. He did.

Who could have seen his hollow cheek; his sunken brilliant eye; his black-attired figure, indefinably grim, although well-knit and well-proportioned; his grizzled hair hanging, like tangled sea-weed, about his face, — as if he had been, through his whole life, a lonely mark for the chafing and beating of the great deep of humanity,— but might have said he looked like a haunted man?

Who could have observed his manner, taciturn, thoughtful, gloomy, shadowed by habitual reserve, retiring always and jocund never, with a distraught air of reverting to a bygone place and time, or of listening to some old echoes in his mind, but might have said it was the manner of a haunted man?

Who could have heard his voice, slow-speaking, deep, and grave, with a natural fulness and melody in it which he seemed to set himself against and stop, but might have said it was the voice of a haunted man?

Who that had seen him in his inner chamber, part library and part laboratory,— for he was, as the world knew, far and wide, a learned man in chemistry, and a teacher on whose lips and hands a crowd of aspiring ears and eyes hung daily, — who that had seen him there, upon a winter night, alone, surrounded by his drugs and instruments and books; the shadow of his shaded lamp a monstrous beetle on the wall, motionless among a crowd of spectral shapes raised there by the flickering of the fire upon the quaint objects around him; some of these phantoms (the reflection of glass vessels that held liquids), trembling at heart like things that knew his power to uncombine them, and to give back their component parts to fire and vapour; — who that had seen him then, his work done, and he pondering in his chair before the rusted grate and red flame, moving his thin mouth as if in speech, but silent as the dead, would not have said that the man seemed haunted and the chamber too?

Who might not, by a very easy flight of fancy, have believed that everything about him took this haunted tone, and that he lived on haunted ground?

His dwelling was so solitary and vault-like,— an old, retired part of an ancient endowment for students, once a brave edifice, planted in an open place, but now the obsolete whim of forgotten architects; smoke-age-and-weather-darkened, squeezed on every side by the overgrowing of the great city, and choked, like an old well, with stones and bricks; its small quadrangles, lying down in very pits formed by the streets and buildings, which, in course of time, had been constructed above its heavy chimney stalks; its old trees, insulted by the neighbouring smoke, which deigned to droop so low when it was very feeble and the weather very moody; its grass-plots, struggling with the mildewed earth to be grass, or to win any show of compromise; its silent pavements, unaccustomed to the tread of feet, and even to the observation of eyes, except when a stray face looked down from the upper world, wondering what nook it was; its sun-dial in a little bricked-up corner, where no sun had straggled for a hundred years, but where, in compensation for the sun’s neglect, the snow would lie for weeks when it lay nowhere else, and the black east wind would spin like a huge humming-top, when in all other places it was silent and still.

His dwelling, at its heart and core — within doors — at his fireside — was so lowering and old, so crazy, yet so strong, with its worn-eaten beams of wood in the ceiling, and its sturdy floor shelving downward to the great oak chimney-piece; so environed and hemmed in by the pressure of the town yet so remote in fashion, age, and custom; so quiet, yet so thundering with echoes when a distant voice was raised or a door was shut, — echoes, not confined to the many low passages and empty rooms, but rumbling and grumbling till they were stifled in the heavy air of the forgotten Crypt where the Norman arches were half-buried in the earth.

You should have seen him in his dwelling about twilight, in the dead winter time.