My Watch: An Instructive Little Tale

My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its constitution and its anatomy imperishable. But at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognized messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by guess, and commanded my bodings and superstitions to depart.

Jam tangan baruku yang indah sudah berjalan delapan belas bulan tanpa terlambat atau lebih cepat, dan tanpa ada satu bagian pun dari mesinnya yang rusak atau berhenti. Aku sudah percaya bahwa jam itu tak pernah salah soal waktu, dan menganggap struktur serta mekanismenya akan bertahan selamanya. Tapi akhirnya, suatu malam, aku membiarkannya kehabisan tenaga sampai berhenti. Aku bersedih karenanya seolah itu pertanda dan pembawa bencana. Tapi lama-kelamaan aku kembali riang, memutar jam itu dengan menebak-nebak waktunya, dan memerintahkan segala firasat dan takhayulku untuk pergi.

Next day I stepped into the chief jeweler's to set it by the exact time, and the head of the establishment took it out of my hand and proceeded to set it for me. Then he said, “She is four minutes slow—regulator wants pushing up.” I tried to stop him—tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect time. But no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little; and so, while I danced around him in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the shameful deed.

Esok harinya aku mampir ke toko perhiasan terkemuka untuk menyetel waktunya dengan tepat, dan pemilik tokonya mengambil jam itu dari tanganku dan mulai menyetelnya untukku. Lalu ia berkata, "Ini terlambat empat menit—pengatur wakunya perlu didorong naik." Aku mencoba menghentikannya—mencoba membuatnya mengerti bahwa jam itu menyimpan waktu dengan sempurna. Tapi tidak; semua yang bisa dilihat oleh manusia berkepala kubis ini hanyalah bahwa jam itu terlambat empat menit, dan pengatur wakunya harus didorong naik sedikit; dan begitulah, sementara aku menari-nari mengelilinginya dalam kepedihan, dan memohon padanya untuk membiarkan jam itu saja, ia dengan tenang dan kejam melakukan perbuatan memalukan itu.

My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within the week it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade. At the end of two months it had left all the timepieces of the town far in the rear, and was a fraction over thirteen days ahead of the almanac. It was away into November enjoying the snow, while the October leaves were still turning. It hurried up house rent, bills payable, and such things, in such a ruinous way that I could not abide it.

Jam tanganku mulai berjalan lebih cepat. Semakin cepat setiap harinya. Dalam waktu seminggu ia sudah seperti demam tinggi, dan denyutnya mencapai seratus lima puluh di tempat teduh. Pada akhir dua bulan ia sudah jauh meninggalkan semua jam di kota itu, dan lebih cepat sepersekian dari tiga belas hari dibanding almanak. Ia sudah masuk ke bulan November menikmati salju, sementara daun-daun Oktober masih berguguran. Ia mempercepat sewa rumah, tagihan yang harus dibayar, dan hal-hal semacam itu, dengan cara yang begitu merugikan sampai aku tak tahan lagi.

I took it to the watchmaker to be regulated. He asked me if I had ever had it repaired. I said no, it had never needed any repairing. He looked a look of vicious happiness and eagerly pried the watch open, and then put a small dice-box into his eye and peered into its machinery. He said it wanted cleaning and oiling, besides regulating—come in a week. After being cleaned and oiled, and regulated, my watch slowed down to that degree that it ticked like a tolling bell.

Aku membawanya ke tukang jam untuk disetel ulang. Ia bertanya apakah jam itu pernah diperbaiki. Aku bilang belum pernah, tidak pernah perlu diperbaiki. Ia menampakkan raut kesenangan jahat dan dengan gembira membuka jam itu, lalu menaruh kotak dadu kecil ke matanya dan mengintip ke dalam mesinnya. Ia berkata jam itu perlu dibersihkan dan diberi minyak, selain disetel—datang lagi seminggu lagi. Setelah dibersihkan, diberi minyak, dan disetel, jam tanganku melambat sedemikian rupa sampai berdetik seperti lonceng yang berdentang pelan.

I began to be left by trains, I failed all appointments, I got to missing my dinner; my watch strung out three days' grace to four and let me go to protest; I gradually drifted back into yesterday, then day before, then into last week, and by and by the comprehension came upon me that all solitary and alone I was lingering along in week before last, and the world was out of sight. I seemed to detect in myself a sort of sneaking fellow-feeling for the mummy in the museum, and a desire to swap news with him. I went to a watchmaker again.

Aku mulai ketinggalan kereta, aku gagal memenuhi semua janji, aku mulai melewatkan makan malamku; jam tanganku memperpanjang tiga hari masa tenggang menjadi empat hari dan membiarkanku kena denda; aku perlahan-lahan mundur ke hari kemarin, lalu ke lusa sebelumnya, lalu ke minggu lalu, dan lama-kelamaan aku sadar bahwa aku sendirian tertinggal di minggu sebelum minggu lalu, dan dunia sudah tak terlihat lagi. Aku merasa seolah punya semacam kesamaan nasib dengan mumi di museum, dan ingin bertukar kabar dengannya. Aku pergi ke tukang jam lagi.

He took the watch all to pieces while I waited, and then said the barrel was “swelled.” He said he could reduce it in three days. After this the watch averaged well, but nothing more. For half a day it would go like the very mischief, and keep up such a barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting, that I could not hear myself think for the disturbance; and as long as it held out there was not a watch in the land that stood any chance against it. But the rest of the day it would keep on slowing down and fooling along until all the clocks it had left behind caught up again.

Ia membongkar jam itu sepenuhnya sementara aku menunggu, lalu berkata tabungnya "membengkak". Ia bilang bisa memperbaikinya dalam tiga hari. Setelah itu jam itu rata-rata bagus, tapi tidak lebih dari itu. Selama setengah hari ia akan berjalan seperti setan, dan terus menggonggong dan mendengus dan mengaum dan bersin dan mendengkur, sampai aku tak bisa berpikir karena keributannya; dan selama itu berlangsung tak ada jam lain di negeri ini yang bisa menandinginya. Tapi sisa harinya ia akan terus melambat dan bermalas-malasan sampai semua jam yang tadinya ia tinggalkan jauh di belakang menyusulnya kembali.

So at last, at the end of twenty-four hours, it would trot up to the judges' stand all right and just in time. It would show a fair and square average, and no man could say it had done more or less than its duty. But a correct average is only a mild virtue in a watch, and I took this instrument to another watchmaker. He said the king-bolt was broken. I said I was glad it was nothing more serious. To tell the plain truth, I had no idea what the king-bolt was, but I did not choose to appear ignorant to a stranger.

Jadi akhirnya, setelah dua puluh empat jam, ia akan tiba di garis penilaian tepat waktu dan pas. Ia akan menunjukkan rata-rata yang adil dan seimbang, dan tak ada orang yang bisa bilang ia berbuat lebih atau kurang dari tugasnya. Tapi rata-rata yang benar hanyalah kebajikan kecil bagi sebuah jam tangan, dan aku membawa alat ini ke tukang jam lain. Ia bilang baut utamanya patah. Aku bilang aku lega itu tidak lebih serius dari itu. Sejujurnya, aku sama sekali tak tahu apa itu baut utama, tapi aku tak mau kelihatan bodoh di depan orang asing.

He repaired the king-bolt, but what the watch gained in one way it lost in another. It would run awhile and then stop awhile, and then run awhile again, and so on, using its own discretion about the intervals. And every time it went off it kicked back like a musket. I padded my breast for a few days, but finally took the watch to another watchmaker. He picked it all to pieces, and turned the ruin over and over under his glass; and then he said there appeared to be something the matter with the hair-trigger. He fixed it, and gave it a fresh start.

Ia memperbaiki baut utamanya, tapi apa yang didapat jam itu di satu sisi hilang di sisi lain. Ia akan berjalan sebentar lalu berhenti sebentar, lalu berjalan lagi sebentar, begitu seterusnya, dengan sesuka hatinya sendiri soal jeda waktunya. Dan setiap kali ia mulai berjalan lagi ia akan menyentak ke belakang seperti senapan. Aku menahan diri selama beberapa hari, tapi akhirnya membawa jam itu ke tukang jam lain lagi. Ia membongkarnya semua, dan membolak-balik reruntuhannya di bawah kacanya; lalu ia berkata sepertinya ada masalah dengan pelatuk rambutnya. Ia memperbaikinya, dan memberinya awal yang baru.

It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors, and from that time forth they would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired. This person said that the crystal had got bent, and that the mainspring was not straight. He also remarked that part of the works needed half-soling.

Sekarang ia berjalan baik, hanya saja setiap pukul sepuluh kurang sepuluh menit kedua jarumnya akan menutup seperti sepasang gunting, dan sejak saat itu keduanya akan bergerak bersamaan. Orang tertua di dunia pun tak akan bisa memahami waktu dari jam macam itu, jadi aku pergi lagi untuk memperbaikinya. Orang ini berkata kacanya sudah melengkung, dan per utamanya tidak lurus. Ia juga bilang sebagian mesinnya perlu diganti separuh.

He made these things all right, and then my timepiece performed unexceptionably, save that now and then, after working along quietly for nearly eight hours, everything inside would let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee, and the hands would straightway begin to spin round and round so fast that their individuality was lost completely, and they simply seemed a delicate spider's web over the face of the watch. She would reel off the next twenty-four hours in six or seven minutes, and then stop with a bang. I went with a heavy heart to one more watchmaker, and looked on while he took her to pieces.

Ia memperbaiki semua itu, lalu jam tanganku berjalan tanpa cela, kecuali sesekali, setelah berjalan tenang hampir delapan jam, semuanya di dalamnya tiba-tiba lepas dan mulai berdengung seperti lebah, dan kedua jarumnya langsung berputar begitu cepat sampai bentuknya sendiri hilang sama sekali, dan mereka tampak hanya seperti jaring laba-laba halus di permukaan jam itu. Ia akan melewati dua puluh empat jam berikutnya dalam enam atau tujuh menit, lalu berhenti dengan sentakan keras. Aku pergi dengan hati berat ke satu tukang jam lagi, dan menyaksikan ketika ia membongkarnya.

Then I prepared to cross-question him rigidly, for this thing was getting serious. The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have paid out two or three thousand for repairs. While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old acquaintance—a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.

Lalu aku bersiap untuk menanyainya dengan tegas, sebab hal ini sudah mulai serius. Jam itu awalnya seharga dua ratus dolar, dan sepertinya aku sudah membayar dua atau tiga ribu dolar untuk perbaikan. Sementara aku menunggu dan menyaksikan, aku akhirnya mengenali tukang jam ini sebagai kenalan lama—seorang insinyur kapal uap di masa lalu, dan bukan insinyur yang baik juga. Ia memeriksa semua bagiannya dengan teliti, sama seperti tukang-tukang jam lainnya, lalu memberikan penilaiannya dengan keyakinan yang sama.

He said:

Ia berkata:

“She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!”

"Ini menghasilkan terlalu banyak uap—kau perlu menggantungkan kunci pas di katup pengamannya!"

I brained him on the spot, and had him buried at my own expense.

Aku langsung menghajar kepalanya di tempat, dan menguburkannya dengan biayaku sendiri.

My uncle William (now deceased, alas!) used to say that a good horse was, a good horse until it had run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a chance at it. And he used to wonder what became of all the unsuccessful tinkers, and gunsmiths, and shoemakers, and engineers, and blacksmiths; but nobody could ever tell him.

Pamanku William (kini telah tiada, sayang sekali!) dulu sering berkata bahwa kuda yang baik tetaplah kuda yang baik sampai ia lari sekali saja, dan jam yang baik tetaplah jam yang baik sampai tukang-tukang reparasi mendapat kesempatan mengutak-atiknya. Dan ia sering heran apa yang terjadi pada semua tukang reparasi, pandai besi senjata, tukang sepatu, insinyur, dan pandai besi yang gagal itu; tapi tak ada yang pernah bisa menjawabnya.