第 59 节
作者:
空白协议书 更新:2021-02-21 16:29 字数:9321
From the bottom rose the beavers;
Silently above the surface
Rose one head and then another;
Till the pond seemed full of beavers;
Full of black and shining faces。
To the beavers Pau…Puk…Keewis
Spake entreating; said in this wise:
〃Very pleasant is your dwelling;
O my friends! and safe from danger;
Can you not; with all your cunning;
All your wisdom and contrivance;
Change me; too; into a beaver?〃
〃Yes!〃 replied Ahmeek; the beaver;
He the King of all the beavers;
〃Let yourself slide down among us;
Down into the tranquil water。〃
Down into the pond among them
Silently sank Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Black became his shirt of deer…skin;
Black his moccasins and leggings;
In a broad black tail behind him
Spread his fox…tails and his fringes;
He was changed into a beaver。
〃Make me large;〃 said Pau…Puk…Keewis;
〃Make me large and make me larger;
Larger than the other beavers。〃
〃Yes;〃 the beaver chief responded;
〃When our lodge below you enter;
In our wigwam we will make you
Ten times larger than the others。〃
Thus into the clear; brown water
Silently sank Pau…Puk…Keewis:
Found the bottom covered over
With the trunks of trees and branches;
Hoards of food against the winter;
Piles and heaps against the famine;
Found the lodge with arching doorway;
Leading into spacious chambers。
Here they made him large and larger;
Made him largest of the beavers;
Ten times larger than the others。
〃You shall be our ruler;〃 said they;
〃Chief and King of all the beavers。〃
But not long had Pau…Puk…Keewis
Sat in state among the beavers;
When there came a voice of warning
From the watchman at his station
In the water…flags and lilies;
Saying; 〃Here Is Hiawatha!
Hiawatha with his hunters!〃
Then they heard a cry above them;
Heard a shouting and a tramping;
Heard a crashing and a rushing;
And the water round and o'er them
Sank and sucked away in eddies;
And they knew their dam was broken。
On the lodge's roof the hunters
Leaped; and broke it all asunder;
Streamed the sunshine through the crevice;
Sprang the beavers through the doorway;
Hid themselves in deeper water;
In the channel of the streamlet;
But the mighty Pau…Puk…Keewis
Could not pass beneath the doorway;
He was puffed with pride and feeding;
He was swollen like a bladder。
Through the roof looked Hiawatha;
Cried aloud; 〃O Pau…Puk…Keewis
Vain are all your craft and cunning;
Vain your manifold disguises!
Well I know you; Pau…Puk…Keewis!〃
With their clubs they beat and bruised him;
Beat to death poor Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Pounded him as maize is pounded;
Till his skull was crushed to pieces。
Six tall hunters; lithe and limber;
Bore him home on poles and branches;
Bore the body of the beaver;
But the ghost; the Jeebi in him;
Thought and felt as Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Still lived on as Pau…Puk…Keewis。
And it fluttered; strove; and struggled;
Waving hither; waving thither;
As the curtains of a wigwam
Struggle with their thongs of deer…skin;
When the wintry wind is blowing;
Till it drew itself together;
Till it rose up from the body;
Till it took the form and features
Of the cunning Pau…Puk…Keewis
Vanishing into the forest。
But the wary Hiawatha
Saw the figure ere it vanished;
Saw the form of Pau…Puk…Keewis
Glide into the soft blue shadow
Of the pine…trees of the forest;
Toward the squares of white beyond it;
Toward an opening in the forest。
Like a wind it rushed and panted;
Bending all the boughs before it;
And behind it; as the rain comes;
Came the steps of Hiawatha。
To a lake with many islands
Came the breathless Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Where among the water…lilies
Pishnekuh; the brant; were sailing;
Through the tufts of rushes floating;
Steering through the reedy islands。
Now their broad black beaks they lifted;
Now they plunged beneath the water;
Now they darkened in the shadow;
Now they brightened in the sunshine。
〃Pishnekuh!〃 cried Pau…Puk…Keewis;
〃Pishnekuh! my brothers!〃 said he;
〃Change me to a brant with plumage;
With a shining neck and feathers;
Make me large; and make me larger;
Ten times larger than the others。〃
Straightway to a brant they changed him;
With two huge and dusky pinions;
With a bosom smooth and rounded;
With a bill like two great paddles;
Made him larger than the others;
Ten times larger than the largest;
Just as; shouting from the forest;
On the shore stood Hiawatha。
Up they rose with cry and clamor;
With a whir and beat of pinions;
Rose up from the reedy Islands;
From the water…flags and lilies。
And they said to Pau…Puk…Keewis:
〃In your flying; look not downward;
Take good heed and look not downward;
Lest some strange mischance should happen;
Lest some great mishap befall you!〃
Fast and far they fled to northward;
Fast and far through mist and sunshine;
Fed among the moors and fen…lands;
Slept among the reeds and rushes。
On the morrow as they journeyed;
Buoyed and lifted by the South…wind;
Wafted onward by the South…wind;
Blowing fresh and strong behind them;
Rose a sound of human voices;
Rose a clamor from beneath them;
From the lodges of a village;
From the people miles beneath them。
For the people of the village
Saw the flock of brant with wonder;
Saw the wings of Pau…Puk…Keewis
Flapping far up in the ether;
Broader than two doorway curtains。
Pau…Puk…Keewis heard the shouting;
Knew the voice of Hiawatha;
Knew the outcry of Iagoo;
And; forgetful of the warning;
Drew his neck in; and looked downward;
And the wind that blew behind him
Caught his mighty fan of feathers;
Sent him wheeling; whirling downward!
All in vain did Pau…Puk…Keewis
Struggle to regain his balance!
Whirling round and round and downward;
He beheld in turn the village
And in turn the flock above him;
Saw the village coming nearer;
And the flock receding farther;
Heard the voices growing louder;
Heard the shouting and the laughter;
Saw no more the flocks above him;
Only saw the earth beneath him;
Dead out of the empty heaven;
Dead among the shouting people;
With a heavy sound and sullen;
Fell the brant with broken pinions。
But his soul; his ghost; his shadow;
Still survived as Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Took again the form and features
Of the handsome Yenadizze;
And again went rushing onward;
Followed fast by Hiawatha;
Crying: 〃Not so wide the world is;
Not so long and rough the way is;
But my wrath shall overtake you;
But my vengeance shall attain you!〃
And so near he came; so near him;
That his hand was stretched to seize him;
His right hand to seize and hold him;
When the cunning Pau…Puk…Keewis
Whirled and spun about in circles;
Fanned the air into a whirlwind;
Danced the dust and leaves about him;
And amid the whirling eddies
Sprang into a hollow oak…tree;
Changed himself into a serpent;
Gliding out through root and rubbish。
With his right hand Hiawatha
Smote amain the hollow oak…tree;
Rent it into shreds and splinters;
Left it lying there in fragments。
But in vain; for Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Once again in human figure;
Full in sight ran on before him;
Sped away in gust and whirlwind;
On the shores of Gitche Gumee;
Westward by the Big…Sea…Water;
Came unto the rocky headlands;
To the Pictured Rocks of sandstone;
Looking over lake and landscape。
And the Old Man of the Mountain;
He the Manito of Mountains;
Opened wide his rocky doorways;
Opened wide his deep abysses;
Giving Pau…Puk…Keewis shelter
In his caverns dark and dreary;
Bidding Pau…Puk…Keewis welcome
To his gloomy lodge of sandstone。
There without stood Hiawatha;
Found the doorways closed against him;
With his mittens; Minjekahwun;
Smote great caverns in the sandstone;
Cried aloud in tones of thunder;
〃Open! I am Hiawatha!〃
But the Old Man of the Mountain
Opened not; and made no answer
From the silent crags of sandstone;
From the gloomy rock abysses。
Then he raised his hands to heaven;
Called imploring on the tempest;
Called Waywassimo; the lightning;
And the thunder; Annemeekee;
And they came with night and darkness;
Sweeping down the Big…Sea…Water
From the distant Thunder Mountains;
And the trembling Pau…Puk…Keewis
Heard the footsteps of the thunder;
Saw the red eyes of the lightning;
Was afraid; and crouched and trembled。
Then Waywassimo; the lightning;
Smote the doorways of the caverns;
With his war…club smote the doorways;
Smote the jutting crags of sandstone;
And the thunder; Annemeekee;
Shouted down into the caverns;
Saying; 〃Where is Pau…Puk…Keewis!〃
And the crags fell; and beneath them
Dead among the rocky ruins
Lay the cunning Pau…Puk…Keewis;
Lay the handsome Yenadizze;
Slain in his own human figure。
Ended were his wild adventures;
Ended were his tricks and gambols;
Ended all his craft and cunning;