Universit di Firenze Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Studi

Interculturali
Corso di Traduzione in Lingua inglese John Gilbert

From The Lord of The Flies (1954, translation by Filippo Donnini, 1966) by
William Golding (1911-1993)

()

The officer smiled cheerfully at Ralph.

We saw your smoke. What you have been doing? A sort of war?

Ralph nodded.

The officer examined the little bogeyman standing in front of him. That boy
needed a

bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe and lots of ointment.

I hope you havent killed anybody. Are there any dead?

Only two. The sea swept them away. ()

The officer turned to Ralph again. We will bring you with us. How many of you
are there?

Ralph shook his head. The officer looked at the group of painted boys behind
him. ()

We saw your smoke. And you dont know how many of you are there?

No, Sir.

I should have thought, said the officer foreseeing the search he would have
to carry out

I should have thought that a group of English boysAre you all English, arent
you?...

would have been able to do something betterI mean

It was like this in the beginning, Ralph said, Before ()

Ralph looked at him without speaking. For a moment he caught a

glimpse of

the strange halo of adventure that once shone on the island. But the island was
burning
like dry wood, Simon was dead and Jack had He burst into tears and he was
shaken by

sobs. For the first time since he was on the island he abandoned himself to the
crying

to a great spasm of sorrow that shook all over him. His crying resounded below
the black

smoke, in front of the fire that was destroying the island, and overcome by the
same emotion

also the other children started sobbing. Amongst them with a dirty body, the
hair on his

forehead and the nose in need to be wiped, Ralph wept for the end of
innocence, the

hardness of the human heart and the fall into the void of his true friend, the
wise friend

called Piggy.

The officer, in front of that scene, was moved and a bit embarrassed. He
turned

to the other way, to let the recover and waited, turning his glance to the
beautiful

cruiser afar.