O chamado da selva: o começo do livro em inglês com tradução para o português

“Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom’s chain; Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain.”

Velhos anseios nômades saltam, impacientes com a corrente do costume; de novo do seu sono hibernal desperta a linhagem selvagem.

Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.

Buck não lia os jornais, ou teria sabido que problemas se armavam, não só para ele, mas para todo cão das águas costeiras, forte de músculos e de pelo longo e quente, de Puget Sound a San Diego. Porque os homens, tateando na escuridão do Ártico, haviam encontrado um metal amarelo, e porque as companhias de navegação e transporte alardeavam a descoberta, milhares de homens corriam para o Norte. Esses homens queriam cães, e os cães que queriam eram cães pesados, de músculos fortes para o trabalho, e pelagem espessa para protegê-los da geada.

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller’s place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants’ cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller’s boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

Buck vivia numa grande casa no ensolarado Vale de Santa Clara. Chamavam-na a propriedade do juiz Miller. Ficava afastada da estrada, meio escondida entre as árvores, através das quais se vislumbrava a ampla varanda fresca que corria pelos seus quatro lados. Chegava-se à casa por caminhos de cascalho que serpenteavam por gramados extensos e sob os galhos entrelaçados de altos choupos. Na parte de trás, tudo era ainda mais espaçoso que na frente. Havia grandes estábulos, onde uma dúzia de tratadores e rapazes trabalhavam, fileiras de casinhas de empregados cobertas de vinhas, uma série infinita e ordenada de dependências, longos caramanchões de uvas, pastos verdes, pomares e canteiros de frutas silvestres. Havia também a estação de bombeamento do poço artesiano, e o grande tanque de cimento onde os filhos do juiz Miller tomavam seu mergulho matinal e se refrescavam nas tardes quentes.

And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,—strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

E sobre esse grande domínio Buck reinava. Ali nascera, e ali vivera os quatro anos de sua vida. É verdade que havia outros cães. Não poderia deixar de haver outros cães num lugar tão vasto, mas eles não contavam. Iam e vinham, moravam nos canis populosos, ou viviam obscuramente nos recantos da casa, ao estilo de Toots, o pug japonês, ou Ysabel, a sem pelo mexicana, criaturas estranhas que raramente punham o nariz fora de casa ou tocavam o chão. Por outro lado, havia os fox terriers, pelo menos uns vinte, que latiam ameaças terríveis a Toots e Ysabel quando estes olhavam pelas janelas, protegidos por uma legião de empregadas armadas de vassouras e esfregões.

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king,—king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.

Mas Buck não era cão de casa nem cão de canil. Todo o reino era seu. Mergulhava no tanque de natação ou saía para caçar com os filhos do juiz; escoltava Mollie e Alice, as filhas do juiz, em longos passeios ao crepúsculo ou de manhã cedo; nas noites de inverno, deitava-se aos pés do juiz diante do fogo crepitante da biblioteca; carregava os netos do juiz nas costas, ou rolava com eles na grama, e guardava seus passos em aventuras selvagens até a fonte no pátio dos estábulos, e até além, onde ficavam os cercados e os canteiros de frutas. Entre os terriers, andava imperiosamente, e a Toots e Ysabel ignorava por completo, pois era rei, rei sobre todas as coisas que rastejam, se arrastam e voam na propriedade do juiz Miller, humanos inclusive.