Yeats Poems

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-98744-900-0
Verlag: OTB eBook publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 133 Seiten

Reihe: Classics To Go

As well as being one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century and the recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is the greatest lyric poet that Ireland has produced.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Yeats, W. B.

Leseproben

THE COUNTESS CATHLEEN
"The sorrowful are dumb for thee" Lament of Morion Shehone for Miss Mary Bourke TO
MAUD GONNE Shemus Rua A Peasant Mary His Wife Teig His Son Aleel A Poet The Countess Cathleen Oona Her Foster Mother Two Demons disguised as Merchants Peasants, Servants, Angelical Beings The Scene is laid in Ireland and in old times SCENE I
Scene.—A room with lighted fire, and a door into the open air, through which one sees, perhaps, the trees of a wood, and these trees should be painted in flat colour upon a gold or diapered sky. The walls are of one colour. The scent should have the effect of missal painting. Mary, a woman of forty years or so, is grinding a quern. MARY What can have made the grey hen flutter so? (TEIG, a boy of fourteen, is coming in with turf, which he lays beside the hearth.) TEIG They say that now the land is famine struck
The graves are walking. MARY There is something that the hen hears. TEIG And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanach
A woman met a man with ears spread out,
And they moved up and down like a bat's wing. MARY What can have kept your father all this while? TEIG Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard,
A herdsman met a man who had no mouth,
Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh;
He saw him plainly by the light of the moon. MARY Look out, and tell me if your father's coming. (TEIG goes to door.) TEIG Mother! MARY What is it? TEIG In the bush beyond,
There are two birds—if you can call them birds—
I could not see them rightly for the leaves.
But they've the shape and colour of horned owls
And I'm half certain they've a human face. MARY Mother of God, defend us! TEIG They're looking at me.
What is the good of praying? father says.
God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep.
What do they care, he says, though the whole land
Squeal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth? MARY You'll bring misfortune with your blasphemies
Upon your father, or yourself, or me.
I would to God he were home—ah, there he is. (SHEMUS comes in.) What was it kept you in the wood? You know
I cannot get all sorts of accidents
Out of my mind till you are home again. SHEMUS I'm in no mood to listen to your clatter.
Although I tramped the woods for half a day,
I've taken nothing, for the very rats,
Badgers, and hedgehogs seem to have died of drought,
And there was scarce a wind in the parched leaves. TEIG Then you have brought no dinner. SHEMUS After that
I sat among the beggars at the cross-roads,
And held a hollow hand among the others. MARY What, did you beg? SHEMUS I had no chance to beg,
For when the beggars saw me they cried out
They would not have another share their alms,
And hunted me away with sticks and stones. TEIG You said that you would bring us food or money. SHEMUS What's in the house? TEIG A bit of mouldy bread. MARY There's flour enough to make another loaf. TEIG And when that's gone? MARY There is the hen in the coop. SHEMUS My curse upon the beggars, my curse upon them! TEIG And the last penny gone. SHEMUS When the hen's gone,
What can we do but live on sorrel and dock,
And dandelion, till our mouths are green? MARY God, that to this hour's found bit and sup,
Will cater for us still. SHEMUS His kitchen's bare.
There were five doors that I looked through this day
And saw the dead and not a soul to wake them. MARY Maybe He'd have us die because He knows,
When the ear is stopped and when the eye is stopped,
That every wicked sight is hid from the eye,
And all fool talk from the ear. SHEMUS Who's passing there?
And mocking us with music? (A stringed instrument without.) TEIG A young man plays it,
There's an old woman and a lady with him. SHEMUS What is the trouble of the poor to her?
Nothing at all or a harsh radishy sauce
For the day's meat. MARY God's pity on the rich.
Had we been through as many doors, and seen
The dishes standing on the polished wood
In the wax candle light, we'd be as hard,
And there's the needle's eye at the end of all. SHEMUS My curse upon the rich. TEIG They're coming here. SHEMUS Then down upon that stool, down quick, I say,
And call up a whey face and a whining voice,
And let your head be bowed upon your knees. MARY Had I but time to put the place to rights. (CATHLEEN, OONA, and ALEEL enter.) CATHLEEN God save all here. There is a certain house,
An old grey castle with a kitchen garden,
A cider orchard and a plot for flowers,
Somewhere among these woods. MARY We know it, lady.
A place that's set among impassable walls
As though world's trouble could not find it out. CATHLEEN It may be that we are that trouble, for we—
Although we've wandered in the wood this hour—
Have lost it too, yet I should know my way,
For I lived all my childhood in that house. MARY Then you are Countess Cathleen? CATHLEEN And this woman,
Oona, my nurse, should have remembered it,
For we were happy for a long time there. OONA The paths are overgrown with thickets now,
Or else some change has come upon my sight. CATHLEEN And this young man, that should have known the woods—
Because we met him on their border but now,
Wandering and singing like a wave of the sea—
Is so wrapped up in dreams of terrors to come
That he can give no help. MARY You have still some way,
But I can put you on the trodden path
Your servants take when they are marketing.
But first sit down and rest yourself awhile,
For my old fathers served your fathers, lady,
Longer than books can tell—and it were strange
If you and yours should not be welcome here. CATHLEEN And it were stranger still were I ungrateful
For such kind welcome—but I must be gone,
For the night's gathering in. SHEMUS It is a long while
Since I've set eyes on bread or on what buys it. CATHLEEN So you are starving even in this wood,
Where I had thought I would find nothing changed.
But that's a dream, for the old worm o' the world
Can eat its way into what place it pleases. (She gives money.) TEIG Beautiful lady, give me something too;
I fell but now, being weak with hunger and thirst
And lay upon the threshold like a log. CATHLEEN I gave for all and that was all I had.
Look, my purse is empty. I have passed
By starving men and women all this day,
And they have had the rest; but take the purse,
The silver clasps on't may be worth a trifle.
But if you'll come to-morrow to my house
You shall have twice the sum. (ALEEL begins to play.) SHEMUS (muttering) What, music, music! CATHLEEN Ah, do not blame the finger on the string;
The doctors bid me fly the unlucky times
And find distraction for my thoughts, or else
Pine to my grave. SHEMUS I have said nothing, lady.
Why should the like of us complain? OONA Have done.
Sorrows that she's but read of in a book
Weigh on her mind as if they had been her own. (OONA, MARY, and CATHLEEN go out. ALEEL looks defiantly at SHEMUS.) ALEEL (singing) Were I but crazy for love's sake
I know who'd measure out his length,
I know the heads that I should break,
For crazy men have double strength.
There! all's out now to leave or take,
And who mocks music mocks at love;
And when I'm crazy for love's sake
I'll not go far to choose. (Snapping his fingers in SHEMUS' face.) Enough!
I know the heads that I shall break. (He takes a step towards the door and then turns again.) Shut to the door before the night has fallen,
For who can say what walks, or in what...