Emily Johnson & Victoria Binet

Semester 2 Week 7 Translation

It always happened that at a certain point he would raise his head and he would see her. It’s

a difficult thing to understand. I mean there were more than 1000 of us there on that ship, we

were among rich travellers, migrants, and foreigners. But yet there was always one, just one,

one that would be the first to see her. Perhaps he was there eating or casually walking on the

deck, perhaps he was there adjusting his trousers and raised his head for a moment, casting

a glance over the sea and saw her. And it was there he was nailed to the spot with his heart

starting to race and always, all the damn time, he turned to us, to the ship, to everyone and

shouted (deeply and slowly) America! Then he remained there motionless, as if he had been

frozen in a photograph, with the face of one who had made it to America. In the evenings

after work and on Sundays he was helped by his brother-in-law, a mason, a good man….

Before it had only been an idea in his mind, then…. He took the bull by the horns, he made

America…

He who first sees America. There is one on every ship. And you needn’t think that these things

happen by chance, no… and not even a matter of good eye sight, it is fate that