Poems. W. B. Yeats

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СКАЧАТЬ it call devils?

       Call devils from the wood, call them in here?

      SHEMUS

      So you'd stand up against me, and you'd say

       Who or what I am to welcome here. (He hits her.) That is to show who's master.

      TEIG

      Call them in.

      MARY

      God help us all!

      SHEMUS

      Pray, if you have a mind to.

       It's little that the sleepy ears above

       Care for your words; but I'll call what I please.

      TEIG

      There is many a one, they say, had money from them.

      SHEMUS (at door)

      Whatever you are that walk the woods at night,

       So be it that you have not shouldered up

       Out of a grave—for I'll have nothing human—

       And have free hands, a friendly trick of speech,

       I welcome you. Come, sit beside the fire.

       What matter if your head's below your arms

       Or you've a horse's tail to whip your flank,

       Feathers instead of hair, that's but a straw,

       Come, share what bread and meat is in the house,

       And stretch your heels and warm them in the ashes.

       And after that, let's share and share alike

       And curse all men and women. Come in, come in.

       What, is there no one there? (Turning from door) And yet they say They are as common as the grass, and ride Even upon the book in the priest's hand.

      (TEIG lifts one arm slowly and points toward the door and begins moving backwards. SHEMUS turns, he also sees something and begins moving backward. MARY does the same. A man dressed as an Eastern merchant comes in carrying a small carpet. He unrolls it and sits cross-legged at one end of it. Another man dressed in the same way follows, and sits at the other end. This is done slowly and deliberately. When they are seated they take money out of embroidered purses at their girdles and begin arranging it on the carpet.)

      TEIG

      You speak to them.

      SHEMUS

      No, you.

      TEIG

      'Twas you that called them.

      SHEMUS (coming nearer)

      I'd make so bold, if you would pardon it,

       To ask if there's a thing you'd have of us.

       Although we are but poor people, if there is,

       Why, if there is——

      FIRST MERCHANT

      We've travelled a long road,

       For we are merchants that must tramp the world,

       And now we look for supper and a fire

       And a safe corner to count money in.

      SHEMUS

      I thought you were … but that's no matter now—

       There had been words between my wife and me

       Because I said I would be master here,

       And ask in what I pleased or who I pleased

       And so … but that is nothing to the point,

       Because it's certain that you are but merchants.

      FIRST MERCHANT

      We travel for the Master of all merchants.

      SHEMUS

      Yet if you were that I had thought but now

       I'd welcome you no less. Be what you please

       And you'll have supper at the market rate,

       That means that what was sold for but a penny

       Is now worth fifty.

      (MERCHANTS begin putting money on carpet.)

      FIRST MERCHANT

      Our Master bids us pay

       So good a price, that all who deal with us

       Shall eat, drink, and be merry.

      SHEMUS (to MARY)

      Bestir yourself,

       Go kill and draw the fowl, while Teig and I

       Lay out the plates and make a better fire.

      MARY

      I will not cook for you.

      SHEMUS

      Not cook! not cook!

       Do not be angry. She wants to pay me back

       Because I struck her in that argument.

       But she'll get sense again. Since the dearth came

       We rattle one on another as though we were

       Knives thrown into a basket to be cleaned.

      MARY

      I will not cook for you, because I know

       In what unlucky shape you sat but now

       Outside this door.

      TEIG

      It's this, your honours:

       Because of some wild words my father said

       She thinks you are not of those who cast a shadow.

      SHEMUS

      I said I'd make the devils of the wood

       Welcome, if they'd a mind to eat and drink;

       But it is certain that you are men like us.

      FIRST СКАЧАТЬ