The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats

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      Whether he will or no; and better still

      To make an end while he is sleeping there.

      If we were of one mind I’d do it.

      SAILOR TWO.

      Were’t not

      That there is magic in that harp of his,

      That makes me fear to raise a hand against him,

      I would be of your mind; but when he plays it

      Strange creatures flutter up before one’s eyes,

      Or cry about one’s ears.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      Nothing to fear.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      Do you remember when we sank that galley

      At the full moon?

      FIRST SAILOR.

      He played all through the night.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      Until the moon had set; and when I looked

      Where the dead drifted, I could see a bird

      Like a grey gull upon the breast of each.

      While I was looking they rose hurriedly,

      And after circling with strange cries awhile

      Flew westward; and many a time since then

      I’ve heard a rustling overhead in the wind.

      FIRST TWO.

      I saw them on that night as well as you.

      But when I had eaten and drunk a bellyful

      My courage came again.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      But that’s not all.

      The other night, while he was playing it,

      A beautiful young man and girl came up

      In a white, breaking wave; they had the look

      Of those that are alive for ever and ever.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      I saw them, too, one night. Forgael was playing,

      And they were listening there beyond the sail.

      He could not see them, but I held out my hands

      To grasp the woman.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      You have dared to touch her?

      FIRST SAILOR.

      O, she was but a shadow, and slipped from me.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      But were you not afraid?

      FIRST SAILOR.

      Why should I fear?

      SAILOR TWO.

      ’Twas Aengus and Edain, the wandering lovers,

      To whom all lovers pray.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      But what of that?

      A shadow does not carry sword or spear.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      My mother told me that there is not one

      Of the ever-living half so dangerous

      As that wild Aengus. Long before her day

      He carried Edain off from a king’s house,

      And hid her among fruits of jewel-stone

      And in a tower of glass, and from that day

      Has hated every man that’s not in love,

      And has been dangerous to him.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      I have heard

      He does not hate seafarers as he hates

      Peaceable men that shut the wind away,

      And keep to the one weary marriage-bed.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      I think that he has Forgael in his net,

      And drags him through the sea.

      FIRST TWO.

      Well, net or none,

      I’d kill him while we have the chance to do it.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      It’s certain I’d sleep easier o’ nights

      If he were dead; but who will be our captain,

      Judge of the stars, and find a course for us?

      FIRST SAILOR.

      I’ve thought of that. We must have Aibric with us,

      For he can judge the stars as well as Forgael.

      [Going towards AIBRIC.

      Become our captain, Aibric. I am resolved

      To make an end of Forgael while he sleeps.

      There’s not a man but will be glad of it

      When it is over, nor one to grumble at us.

      You’ll have the captain’s share of everything.

      AIBRIC.

      Silence! for you have taken Forgael’s pay.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      We joined him for his pay, but have had none

      This long while now; we had not turned against him

      If he had brought us among peopled seas,

      For that was in the bargain when we struck it.

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