The Epic Song of Hiawatha. Генри Уодсуорт Лонгфелло

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      IV.

       Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis.

       Table of Contents

      Out of childhood into manhood

       Now had grown my Hiawatha,

       Skilled in all the craft of hunters,

       Learned in all the lore of old men,

       In all youthful sports and pastimes,

       In all manly arts and labors.

      Swift of foot was Hiawatha;

       He could shoot an arrow from him,

       And run forward with such fleetness,

       That the arrow fell behind him!

       Strong of arm was Hiawatha;

       He could shoot ten arrows upward,

       Shoot them with such strength and swiftness,

       That the tenth had left the bow-string

       Ere the first to earth had fallen!

      He had mittens, Minjekahwun,

       Magic mittens made of deer-skin;

       When upon his hands he wore them,

       He could smite the rocks asunder,

       He could grind them into powder.

       He had moccasins enchanted,

       Magic moccasins of deer-skin;

       When he bound them round his ankles,

       When upon his feet he tied them,

       At each stride a mile he measured!

      Much he questioned old Nokomis

       Of his father Mudjekeewis;

       Learned from her the fatal secret

       Of the beauty of his mother,

       Of the falsehood of his father;

       And his heart was hot within him,

       Like a living coal his heart was.

      Then he said to old Nokomis,

       “I will go to Mudjekeewis,

       See how fares it with my father,

       At the doorways of the West-Wind,

       At the portals of the Sunset!”

      From his lodge went Hiawatha,

       Dressed for travel, armed for hunting;

       Dressed in deer-skin shirt and leggings,

       Richly wrought with quills and wampum

       On his head his eagle-feathers,

       Round his waist his belt of wampum,

       In his hand his bow of ash-wood,

       Strung with sinews of the reindeer;

       In his quiver oaken arrows,

       Tipped with jasper, winged with feathers;

       With his mittens, Minjekahwun,

       With his moccasins enchanted.

      Warning said the old Nokomis,

       “Go not forth, O Hiawatha!

       To the kingdom of the West-Wind,

       To the realms of Mudjekeewis,

       Lest he harm you with his magic,

       Lest he kill you with his cunning!”

      But the fearless Hiawatha

       Heeded not her woman’s warning;

       Forth he strode into the forest,

       At each stride a mile he measured;

       Lurid seemed the sky above him,

       Lurid seemed the earth beneath him,

       Hot and close the air around him,

       Filled with smoke and fiery vapors,

       As of burning woods and prairies.

       For his heart was hot within him,

       Like a living coal his heart was.

      So he journeyed westward, westward,

       Left the fleetest deer behind him,

       Left the antelope and bison;

       Crossed the rushing Esconaba,

       Crossed the mighty Mississippi,

       Passed the Mountains of the Prairie,

       Passed the land of Crows and Foxes,

       Passed the dwellings of the Blackfeet,

       Came unto the Rocky Mountains,

       To the kingdom of the West-Wind,

       Where upon the gusty summits

       Sat the ancient Mudjekeewis,

       Ruler of the winds of heaven.

      Filled with awe was Hiawatha

       At the aspect of his father.

       On the air about him wildly

       Tossed and streamed his cloudy tresses,

       Gleamed like drifting snow his tresses,

       Glared like Ishkoodah, the comet,

       Like the star with fiery tresses.

      Filled with joy was Mudjekeewis

       When he looked on Hiawatha,

       Saw his youth rise up before him

       In the face of Hiawatha,

       Saw the beauty of Wenonah

       From the grave rise up before him.

      “Welcome!” said he, “Hiawatha,

       To the kingdom of the West-Wind!

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