''Pawana'' (or: ''Awaité Pawana'') is a short story written in French by French
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
J. M. G. Le Clézio
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (; 13 April 1940), usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, of French and Mauritian nationality, is a writer and professor. The author of over forty works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel ''Le P ...
.
Historical basis
According to the author this is a true story about the
whaler
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
Terminology
The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...
Charles Melville Scammon
Charles Melville Scammon (1825–1911) was a 19th-century whaleman, naturalist, and author. He was the first to hunt the gray whales of both Laguna Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio Lagoon, the former also known as "Scammon's Lagoon" after him. In ...
(1825–1911). In December 1857, Charles Scammon, in the brig ''Boston'', along with his schooner-tender ''Marin'', entered
Laguna Ojo de Liebre
Ojo de Liebre Lagoon (also known as Scammon's Lagoon), translated into English as "hare eye lagoon", is a coastal lagoon located in Mulegé Municipality near the town of Guerrero Negro in the northwestern Baja California Sur state of Mexico. I ...
(Jack-Rabbit Spring Lagoon), later known as Scammon's Lagoon, and found one of the
Gray Whale
The gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), also known as the grey whale,Britannica Micro.: v. IV, p. 693. gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, Korean gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and bree ...
's last refuges. The story resembles the tale of Captain Ahab in
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
's
Moby-Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler, whaling ship ''Pequod (Moby- ...
, who was also on the deck of a wooden ship searching for a white whale.
Pawana is about the discovery of a lagoon in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
at the end of the 19th century where gray whales went to reproduce. After Captain Scammon mistakenly decided to exterminate the whales, he realized that he had made a mistake so terrible it could become irreparable. Captain Scammon then set about dedicating his life's work to saving these whales (and was helped by a Mexican revolutionary in doing so).
Meaning of "Awaité Pawana"
"Awaité Pawana" is the cry uttered by the
lookout
A lookout or look-out is a person in charge of the observation of hazards. The term originally comes from a naval background, where lookouts would watch for other ships, land, and various dangers. The term has now passed into wider parlance.
...
when he spies the whales.
Narrative
Araceli, the old Indian slave from
Nantucket
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
tells a young cabin boy about the exploits of the Indians of the past through mime and gesture. John, the eighteen-year-old cabin boy and Captain Scammon alternate in recounting a journey.
Adaptions
Georges Lavaudant staged ''Pawana'' for the
Festival d'Avignon
The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vila ...
Reviews
Read a ten page review of "Awaite Pawana" online
Publication history
First French edition
*
Second French edition
*
Third French edition
*
First English translation
"Awaité Pawana" was translated into English as "Pawana" by Christophe Brunski
(AGNI Magazine:published at Boston University (2008). There is a translation available online.
References
{{J. M. G. Le Clézio
1992 short stories
Works by J. M. G. Le Clézio
French short stories
Fiction about whales