The Song of Hugh Glass. John G. Neihardt

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СКАЧАТЬ mellow mood those days; and truly so,

      For when the tempering Southwest wakes to blow

      A phantom April over melting snow,

      Deep in the North some new white wrath is brewed.

      Out of a dim-trailed inner solitude

      The old man summoned many a stirring story,

      Lived grimly once, but now shot through with glory

      Caught from the wondering eyes of him who heard—

      Tales jaggéd with the bleak unstudied word,

      Stark saga-stuff. “A fellow that I knew,”

      So nameless went the hero that was Hugh—

      A mere pelt merchant, as it seemed to him;

      Yet trailing epic thunders through the dim,

      Whist world of Jamie’s awe.

      And so they went,

      One heart, it seemed, and that heart well content

      With tale and snatch of song and careless laughter.

      Never before, and surely never after,

      The gray old man seemed nearer to his youth—

      That myth that somehow had to be the truth,

      Yet could not be convincing any more.

      Now when the days of travel numbered four

      And nearer drew the barrens with their need,

      On Glass, the hunter, fell the task to feed

      Those four score hungers when the game should fail.

      For no young eye could trace so dim a trail,

      Or line the rifle sights with speed so true.

      Nor might the wistful Jamie go with Hugh;

      “For,” so Hugh chaffed, “my trick of getting game

      Might teach young eyes to put old eyes to shame.

      An old dog never risks his only bone.”

      ‘Wolves prey in packs, the lion hunts alone’

      Is somewhat nearer what he should have meant.

      And so with merry jest the old man went;

      And so they parted at an unseen gate

      That even then some gust of moody fate

      Clanged to betwixt them; each a tale to spell—

      One in the nightmare scrawl of dreams from hell,

      One in the blistering trail of days a-crawl,

      Venomous footed. Nor might it ere befall

      These two should meet in after days and be

      Graybeard and Goldhair riding knee to knee,

      Recounting with a bluff, heroic scorn

      The haps of either tale.

      ’Twas early morn

      When Hugh went forth, and all day Jamie rode

      With Henry’s men, while more and more the goad

      Of eager youth sore fretted him, and made

      The dusty progress of the cavalcade

      The journey of a snail flock to the moon;

      Until the shadow-weaving afternoon

      Turned many fingers nightward—then he fled,

      Pricking his horse, nor deigned to turn his head

      At any dwindling voice of reprimand;

      For somewhere in the breaks along the Grand

      Surely Hugh waited with a goodly kill.

      Hoofbeats of ghostly steeds on every hill,

      Mysterious, muffled hoofs on every bluff!

      Spurred echo horses clattering up the rough

      Confluent draws! These flying Jamie heard.

      The lagging air droned like the drowsy word

      Of one who tells weird stories late at night.

      Half headlong joy and half delicious fright,

      His day-dream’s pace outstripped the plunging steed’s.

      Lean galloper in a wind of splendid deeds,

      Like Hugh’s, he seemed unto himself, until,

      Snorting, a-haunch above a breakneck hill,

      The horse stopped short—then Jamie was aware

      Of lonesome flatlands fading skyward there

      Beneath him, and, zigzag on either hand,

      A purple haze denoted how the Grand

      Forked wide ’twixt sunset and the polar star.

      A-tiptoe in the stirrups, gazing far,

      He saw no Hugh nor any moving thing,

      Save for a welter of cawing crows, a-wing

      About some banquet in the further hush.

      One faint star, set above the fading blush

      Of sunset, saw the coming night, and grew.

      With hand for trumpet, Jamie gave halloo;

      And once again. For answer, the horse neighed.

      Some vague mistrust now made him half afraid—

      Some formless dread that stirred beneath the will

      As far as sleep from waking.

      Down the hill,

      Close-footed in the skitter of the shale,

      The spurred horse floundered to the solid vale

      And galloped to the northwest, whinnying.

      The outstripped air moaned like a wounded thing;

      But СКАЧАТЬ