The Complete Works. William Butler Yeats

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      It’s certain they are leading you to death.

      None but the dead, or those that never lived,

      Can know that ecstasy. Forgael! Forgael!

      They have made you follow the man-headed birds,

      And you have told me that their journey lies

      Towards the country of the dead.

      FORGAEL.

      What matter

      If I am going to my death, for there,

      Or somewhere, I shall find the love they have promised.

      That much is certain. I shall find a woman,

      One of the ever-living, as I think—

      One of the laughing people—and she and I

      Shall light upon a place in the world’s core,

      Where passion grows to be a changeless thing,

      Like charmed apples made of chrysoprase,

      Or chrysoberyl, or beryl, or chrysolite;

      And there, in juggleries of sight and sense,

      Become one movement, energy, delight,

      Until the overburthened moon is dead.

      [A number of SAILORS enter hurriedly.]

      FIRST SAILOR.

      Look there! there in the mist! a ship of spice!

      And we are almost on her!

      SECOND SAILOR.

      We had not known

      But for the ambergris and sandalwood.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      No; but opoponax and cinnamon.

      FORGAEL.

       [Taking the tiller from AIBRIC.]

      The ever-living have kept my bargain for me,

      And paid you on the nail.

      AIBRIC.

      Take up that rope

      To make her fast while we are plundering her.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      There is a king and queen upon her deck,

      And where there is one woman there’ll be others.

      AIBRIC.

      Speak lower, or they’ll hear.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      They cannot hear;

      They are too busy with each other. Look!

      He has stooped down and kissed her on the lips.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      When she finds out we have better men aboard

      She may not be too sorry in the end.

      FIRST SAILOR.

      She will be like a wild cat; for these queens

      Care more about the kegs of silver and gold,

      And the high fame that come to them in marriage,

      Than a strong body and a ready hand.

      SECOND SAILOR.

      There’s nobody is natural but a robber,

      And that is why the world totters about

      Upon its bandy legs.

      AIBRIC.

      Run at them now,

      And overpower the crew while yet asleep!

      [The SAILORS go out.

      [Voices and the clashing of swords are heard from the other ship, which cannot be seen because of the sail.

      A VOICE.

      Armed men have come upon us! O, I am slain!

      ANOTHER VOICE.

      Wake all below!

      ANOTHER VOICE.

      Why have you broken our sleep?

      FIRST VOICE.

      Armed men have come upon us! O, I am slain!

      FORGAEL.

       [Who has remained at the tiller.]

      There! there they come! Gull, gannet, or diver,

      But with a man’s head, or a fair woman’s,

      They hover over the masthead awhile

      To wait their friends; but when their friends have come

      They’ll fly upon that secret way of theirs.

      One—and one—a couple—five together;

      And I will hear them talking in a minute.

      Yes, voices! but I do not catch the words.

      Now I can hear. There’s one of them that says:

      ‘How light we are, now we are changed to birds!’

      Another answers: ‘Maybe we shall find

      Our heart’s desire now that we are so light.’

      And then one asks another how he died,

      And says: ‘A sword-blade pierced me in my sleep.’

      And now they all wheel suddenly and fly

      To the other side, and higher in the air.

      And now a laggard with a woman’s head

      Comes crying, ‘I have run upon the sword.

      I have fled to my beloved in the air,

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