Jules Verne: Die geheimnisvolle Insel (The mysterious Island) illustrated by Zdenek Burian

The first edition of Jules Verne's The  Mysterious Island  (L'Ile Mysterieuse) appeared in 1874-75. It contained 154 pictures by Jules Ferat. Ferat's illustrations will be shown in a later post. The Czech edition Tajuplný ostrov illustrated with 16 full page pictures by Zdenek Burian was published in 1939. Ten years later editions appeared with with newly added text illustrations by Zdenek Burian.

 Title page of the French edition (Titelblatt der franzüsischen Erstausgabe)

Die erste Ausgabe von Jules Vernes L'Ile Mysterieuse erschien in den Jahren 1874-75. Sie enthielt 154 Bilder von Jules Ferat. Seine Illustrationen werden wir in einem späteren Beitrag zeigen. Die tschechische Ausgabe mit dem Titel Tajuplný ostrov mit 16 ganzseitigen Bildern von Zdenek Burian wurde 1939 veröffentlicht. Zehn Jahre später erschienen weitere Burian Ausgaben mit kleineren Zeichnungen im Text, die aber nicht die Qualität der ersten Ausgabe erreichten. Zudem illustrierten diese nur den ersten Teil der Erzählung, die in drei Teilen erschienen war. Die ganze Abenteuergeschichte erreicht den Umfang von ca. 500 Seiten.

Five prisoners of war (Captain Cyrus Smith, Gideon Spilett reporter of  the New York Herald,  Smith's black servant Nebuchadnezza, a sailor named Pencroff, and the young  Harbet Brown, who all were detained in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, which was the principal stronghold of the South during the War of Secession, escaped from the town by the unusual means of hijacking a balloon.. After flying in stormy weather for several days, the group crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown (and fictitious) island. There begins a Roninsonade. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's Twenty Thousend Leagues Under the Sea. 
Some english editions changed the names of persons mentionned above. Since the reasons are incomprehensible, I have used the original names of the French edition.

The five voyagers had hoisted themselves into the net, and clung to the meshes, gazing at the abyss.

... A loud barking was heard. A dog accompanied the voyagers, and was held pressed close to his master in the meshes of the net. "Top has seen something, " cried one of the men. Then immediately a loud voice shouted, --  "Land! Land!" 

Die fünf Passagiere hingen in den Schnüren oberhalb des Ringes und hielten sich über der entsetzlichen Tiefe an den Netzmaschen.... Da erschallte ein lautes Gebell. In Begleitung  der Passagiere befand sich auch ein Hund, der neben seinem Herrn in den Maschen des Netzes hing. "Top muss etwas gesehen haben!" rief einer der Passagiere. Bald darauf ertönte eine markige Stimme: "Land! Land!"

One of the most distinguished was Captain Cyrus Smith. He was a native of Massachusetts, a first-class engineer, to whom the government had confided, during the war, the direction of the railways, which were so important at that time. A true Northerner, thin, bony, lean, about forty-five years of age; his close-cut hair and his beard, of which he only kept a thick mustache, were already getting gray...
Cyrus Smith, gebürtig aus Massachusettes, war Ingenieur ersten Ranges, dem die Bundesregierung während des Krieges die Leitung des Eisenbahnwesens, das eine so wichtige Rolle spielte, anvertraute. Durch und durch ein Amerikaner des Nordens, mager, knochig und etwa fünfundvierzig Jahre alt, zeigten sein Haar und sein starker Schnurrbart schon eine recht gräuliche Färbung.

Five minutes after having left the beach, the reporter and his two companions arrived at a sort of excavation, hollowed out at the back of a high mound. There Top stopped, and gave a loud, clear bark. Spilett, Harbert, and Pencroff dashed into the cave. Neb was there, kneeling beside a body extended on a bed of grass.
The body was that of the engineer, Cyrus Smith.

Nach etwa fünf Minuten gelangten der Reporter und seine zwei Begleiter zu einer Art Sandhöhle im Rücken einer Düne. Laut bellend stand Top davor. Spilett, Harbert und Pencroff eilten hinein. In ihr befand sich Nab kniend neben einem auf einem Bett aus Laub ausgestrecktem Körper. Es war der des Ingenieurs Cyrus Smith.

Their insufficiency was still more clearly shown when a troop of quadrupeds, jumping, bounding, making leaps of thirty feet, regular flying mammiferae, fled over the thickets, so quickly and at such a height, that one would have thought that they passed from one tree to another like squirrels.
"Kangaroos!" cried Harbert.
 ...als eine hüpfende, springende Gruppe Vierbeiner, die ungefähr bis auf dreissig Fuss Hühe emporschnellten und mit fliegenden Säugetieren zu vergleichen waren, über die Gebüsche weg dahinflogen, und zwar so schnell und in einer solchen Höhe, dass man eher Eichhörnchen zu sehen glaubte, die sich von einem Baum zum andern schwangen. "Das sind Känguruhs!" rief Harbert.

It was not a lamantin, but one of that species of the order of cetaceans, which bear the name of the "dugong," for its nostrils were open at the upper part of its snout. The enormous animal rushed on the dog, who tried to escape by returning towards the shore. His master could do nothing to save him, and before Gideon Spilett or Harbert thought of bending their bows, Top, seized by the dugong, had disappeared beneath the water.
Das gewaltige Tier (Dugong = indianisches Walross) stürzte wütend auf den Hund los, der erschreckt das Ufer wieder zu erreichen suchte.

"What a fine animal!" said Neb; "but how are we to catch it?"
"Nothing is easier, Neb," replied Harbert. "We have only to turn the turtle on its back, and it cannot possibly get away. Take your spear and do as I do."
 "Ein schönes Tier", sagte Nab, "aber wie sollen wir es fangen?" "Nichts leichter als das, Nab", antwortete Harbert. "Wir brauchen die Schildkröte nur auf den Rücken zu wenden, dann kann sie nicht mehr fliehen."

This was not his first tiger, and advancing to within ten feet of the animal he remained motionless, his gun to his shoulder, without moving a muscle. The jaguar collected itself for a spring, but at that moment a shot struck it in the eyes, and it fell dead.
Der Jaguar kauerte sich zusammen, um sich auf den Jäger zu stürzen; aber in dem Moment, als er springen wollte, traf ihn eine wohl gezielte Kugel zwischen den Augen, die ihn tot niederstreckte.

At eight o'clock that evening the cart, after passing over the Mercy bridge, descended the left bank of the river, and stopped on the beach. The onagers being unharnessed, were thence led to their stable...
 Um acht Uhr abends schwankte der Wagen nach Überschreiten der Mercy-Brücke wieder längs des linken Flussufers hinab und hielt am Strand an. Die Onager wurden ausgespannt, zu ihrem Stall zurückgeführt,...

They did well to hasten, for at a turn of the path near a clearing they saw the lad thrown on the ground and in the grasp of a savage being, apparently a gigantic ape, who was about to do him some great harm.
 To rush on this monster, throw him on the ground in his turn, snatch Harbert from him, then bind him securely, was the work of a minute for Pencroff and Gideon Spilett. The sailor was of Herculean strength, the reporter also very powerful, and in spite of the monster's resistance he was firmly tied so that he could not even move.
Wie gut es war, dass sie nicht gezögert hatten, zeigte sich, als sie nahe einer Lichtung den jungen Mann von einem wilden Tier niedergeworfen sahen, scheinbar einem rieseigen Affen, der ihm recht unbarmherzig mitspielte.               

Harbert was there face to face with a fierce jaguar, similar to the one which had been killed on Reptile End. Suddenly surprised, he was standing with his back against a tree, while the animal gathering itself together was about to spring.
But the stranger, with no other weapon than a knife, rushed on the formidable animal, who turned to meet this new adversary.
The struggle was short. The stranger possessed immense strength and activity. He seized the jaguar's throat with one powerful hand, holding it as in a vise, without heeding the beast's claws which tore his flesh, and with the other he plunged his knife into its heart.
 Dort stand Harbert einem Jaguar, ähnlich dem im Schlangenvorgebirge erlegten, gegenüber. Vor Schrecken starr, drückte er sich gegen einen Baum, während das Tier seine Muskeln spannte, um sich auf ihn zu stürzen... Da warf sich der Unbekannte, mit keiner anderen Waffe als einem Messer versehen, der Bestie entgegen, die sich nun gegen den neuen Feind wandte.

      

A fifth shot from Ayrton laid one low, and the others drew back, not understanding what was going on. Ayrton was on deck in two bounds, and three seconds later, having discharged his last barrel in the face of a pirate who was about to seize him by the throat, he leaped over the bulwarks into the sea.
Ein fünfter Revolverschuss Ayrtons streckte den einen nieder, die anderen eilten, ohne zu wissen, was eigentlich vorging, wieder zurück.

The boat was not more than two cables-lengths off the islet when she stopped. The man at the tiller stood up and looked for the best place at which to land.
At that moment two shots were heard. Smoke curled up from among the rocks of the islet. The man at the helm and the man with the lead-line fell backwards into the boat. Ayrton's and Pencroff's balls had struck them both at the same moment.
 Nur zwei Kabellängen von dem Eiland entfernt kam das Boot zum Stillstand; der Steuermann schien nach einem geeigneten Landeplatz auszuspähen. Da krachten plötzlich zwei Gewehrschüsse...

 And he ran round the left corner of the palisade. There he found a convict, who aiming at him, sent a ball through his hat. In a few seconds, before he had even time to fire his second barrel, he fell, struck to the heart by Smith's dagger, more sure even than his gun.
 Er wandte sich nach links, um die Hürdenwand zu umgehen. Dort traf er auf einen Sträfling, der auf ihn anlegte und seinen Hut durchlöcherte....

The boat stopped, and the colonists perceived a bright light illuminating the vast cavern, so deeply excavated in the bowels of the island, of which nothing had ever led them to suspect the existence.
At a height of a hundred feet rose the vaulted roof, supported on basalt shafts. Irregular arches, strange moldings, appeared on the columns erected by nature in thousands from the first epochs of the formation of the globe. The basalt pillars, fitted one into the other, measured from forty to fifty feet in height, and the water, calm in spite of the tumult outside, washed their base. The brilliant focus of light, pointed out by the engineer, touched every point of rocks, and flooded the walls with light.
By reflection the water reproduced the brilliant sparkles, so that the boat appeared to be floating between two glittering zones.Das Boot stand still, und die Kolonisten bemerkten einen gläzenden Lichtschimmer, der die ungeheure, so tief im Innern der Insel ausgebrochene Höhle erhellte.

Stretched on a rich sofa they saw a man, who did not appear to notice their presence.
Then Cyrus Smith raised his voice, and to the extreme surprise of his companions, he uttered these words,—
"Captain Nemo, you asked for us! We are here.—"
 Da nahm Cyrus Smith das Wort und sagte zum grössten Erstaunen seiner Gefährten: "Kapitän Nemo! Sie haben uns gerufen? Hier sind wir!"

But during the night of the 8th an enormous column of vapor escaping from the crater rose with frightful explosions to a height of more than three thousand feet. The wall of Dakkar Grotto had evidently given way under the pressure of gases, and the sea, rushing through the central shaft into the igneous gulf, was at once converted into vapor. But the crater could not afford a sufficient outlet for this vapor. An explosion, which might have been heard at a distance of a hundred miles, shook the air. Fragments of mountains fell into the Pacific, and, in a few minutes, the ocean rolled over the spot where Lincoln island once stood.
 Aber in dieser Nacht vom 8. zum 9. März stieg unter furchtbarem Krachen eine riesige Dampfsäule aus dem Krater wohl bis zu dreitausend Fuss in die Höhe.