THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF R. L. STEVENSON. Robert Louis Stevenson

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       Soon as the oven was open, the fish smelt excellent good.

       In the shade, by the house of Rahéro, down they sat to their food,

       And cleared the leaves, in silence, or uttered a jest and laughed

       And raising the cocoanut bowls, buried their faces and quaffed.

       But chiefly in silence they ate; and soon as the meal was done,

       Rahéro feigned to remember and measured the hour by the sun

       And “Támatéa,” quoth he, “it is time to be jogging, my lad.”

       So Támatéa arose, doing ever the thing he was bade,

       And carelessly shouldered the basket, and kindly saluted his host;

       And again the way of his going was round by the roaring coast.

      Long he went; and at length was aware of a pleasant green,

       And the stems and shadows of palms, and roofs of lodges between.

       There sate, in the door of his palace, the king on a kingly seat,

       And aitos stood armed around, and the yottowas sat at his feet.

       But fear was a worm in his heart: fear darted his eyes;

       And he probed men’s faces for treasons and pondered their speech for lies.

       To him came Támatéa, the basket slung in his hand,

       And paid him the due obeisance standing as vassals stand.

       In silence hearkened the king, and closed the eyes in his face,

       Harbouring odious thoughts and the baseless fears of the base;

       In silence accepted the gift and sent the giver away.

       So Támatéa departed, turning his back on the day.

       And lo! as the king sat brooding, a rumour rose in the crowd;

       The yottowas nudged and whispered, the commons murmured aloud;

       Tittering fell upon all at sight of the impudent thing,

       At the sight of a gift unroyal flung in the face of a king.

       And the face of the king turned white and red with anger and shame

       In their midst; and the heart in his body was water and then was flame;

       Till of a sudden, turning, he gripped an aito hard,

       A youth that stood with his ómare, one of the daily guard,

       And spat in his ear a command, and pointed and uttered a name,

       And hid in the shade of the house his impotent anger and shame.

      Now Támatéa the fool was far on his homeward way,

       The rising night in his face, behind him the dying day.

       Rahéro saw him go by, and the heart of Rahéro was glad,

       Devising shame to the king and nowise harm to the lad;

       And all that dwelt by the way saw and saluted him well,

       For he had the face of a friend and the news of the town to tell;

       And pleased with the notice of folk, and pleased that his journey was done,

       Támatéa drew homeward, turning his back to the sun.

       And now was the hour of the bath in Taiárapu: far and near

       The lovely laughter of bathers rose and delighted his ear.

       Night massed in the valleys; the sun on the mountain coast

       Struck, endlong; and above the clouds embattled their host,

       And glowed and gloomed on the heights; and the heads of the palms were gems,

       And far to the rising eve extended the shade of their stems;

       And the shadow of Támatéa hovered already at home.

       And sudden the sound of one coming and running light as the foam

       Struck on his ear; and he turned, and lo! a man on his track,

       Girded and armed with an ómare, following hard at his back.

       At a bound the man was upon him; — and, or ever a word was said,

       The loaded end of the ómare fell and laid him dead.

      II

      THE VENGING OF TÁMATÉA

       Table of Contents

      Thus was Rahéro’s treason; thus and no further it sped.

       The king sat safe in his place and a kindly fool was dead.

       But the mother of Támatéa arose with death in her eyes.

       All night long, and the next, Taiárapu rang with her cries.

       As when a babe in the wood turns with a chill of doubt

       And perceives nor home, nor friends, for the trees have closed her about,

       The mountain rings and her breast is torn with the voice of despair:

       So the lion-like woman idly wearied the air

       For a while, and pierced men’s hearing in vain, and wounded their hearts.

       But as when the weather changes at sea, in dangerous parts,

       And sudden the hurricane wrack unrolls up the front of the sky,

       At once the ship lies idle, the sails hang silent on high,

       The breath of the wind that blew is blown out like the flame of a lamp,

       And the silent armies of death draw near with inaudible tramp:

       So sudden, the voice of her weeping ceased; in silence she rose

       And passed from the house of her sorrow, a woman clothed with repose,

       Carrying death in her breast and sharpening death in her hand.

       Hither she went and thither in all the coasts of the land.

       They tell that she feared not to slumber alone, in the dead of night,

       In accursed places; beheld, unblenched, the ribbon of light

      Spin from temple to temple; guided the perilous skiff,

       Abhorred not СКАЧАТЬ