The Epic Song of Hiawatha. Генри Уодсуорт Лонгфелло

Чтение книги онлайн.

       And confusion of the battle,

       And the air was full of shoutings,

       And the thunder of the mountains,

       Starting, answered, “Baim-wawa!”

      Back retreated Mudjekeewis,

       Rushing westward o’er the mountains,

       Stumbling westward down the mountains

       Three whole days retreated fighting,

       Still pursued by Hiawatha

       To the doorways of the West-Wind,

       To the portals of the Sunset,

       To the earth’s remotest border,

       Where into the empty spaces

       Sinks the sun, as a flamingo

       Drops into her nest at nightfall,

       In the melancholy marshes.

      “Hold!” at length cried Mudjekeewis,

       “Hold, my son, my Hiawatha!

       ‘T is impossible to kill me,

       For you cannot kill the immortal.

       I have put you to this trial,

       But to know and prove your courage;

       Now receive the prize of valor!

      “Go back to your home and people,

       Live among them, toil among them,

       Cleanse the earth from all that harms it,

       Clear the fishing-grounds and rivers,

       Slay all monsters and magicians,

       All the giants, the Wendigoes,

       All the serpents, the Kenabeeks,

       As I slew the Mishe-Mokwa,

       Slew the Great Bear of the mountains.

      “And at last when Death draws near you,

       When the awful eyes of Pauguk

       Glare upon you in the darkness,

       I will share my kingdom with you,

       Ruler shall you be thenceforward

       Of the Northwest-Wind, Keewaydin,

       Of the home-wind, the Keewaydin.”

      Thus was fought that famous battle

       In the dreadful days of Shah-shah,

       In the days long since departed,

       In the kingdom of the West-Wind.

       Still the hunter sees its traces

       Scattered far o’er hill and valley;

       Sees the giant bulrush growing

       By the ponds and water-courses,

       Sees the masses of the Wawbeek

       Lying still in every valley.

      Homeward now went Hiawatha;

       Pleasant was the landscape round him,

       Pleasant was the air above him,

       For the bitterness of anger

       Had departed wholly from him,

       From his brain the thought of vengeance,

       From his heart the burning fever.

      Only once his pace he slackened,

       Only once he paused or halted,

       Paused to purchase heads of arrows

       Of the ancient Arrow-maker,

       In the land of the Dacotahs,

       Where the Falls of Minnehaha

       Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,

       Laugh and leap into the valley.

      There the ancient Arrow-maker

       Made his arrow-heads of sandstone,

       Arrow-heads of chalcedony,

       Arrow-heads of flint and jasper,

       Smoothed and sharpened at the edges,

       Hard and polished, keen and costly.

      With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter,

       Wayward as the Minnehaha,

       With her moods of shade and sunshine,

       Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate,

       Feet as rapid as the river,

       Tresses flowing like the water,

       And as musical a laughter;

       And he named her from the river,

       From the water-fall he named her,

       Minnehaha, Laughing Water.

      Was it then for heads of arrows,

       Arrow-heads of chalcedony,

       Arrow-heads of flint and jasper,

       That my Hiawatha halted

       In the land of the Dacotahs?

      Was it not to see the maiden,

       See the face of Laughing Water

       Peeping from behind the curtain,

       Hear the rustling of her garments

       From behind the waving curtain,

       As one sees the Minnehaha

       Gleaming, glancing through the branches,

       As one hears the Laughing Water

       From behind its screen of branches?

      Who shall say what thoughts and visions

       Fill the fiery brains of young men?

       Who shall say what dreams of beauty

       Filled the heart of Hiawatha?

       All he told to old Nokomis,

       СКАЧАТЬ