Waltey
Brzice reke Kolumbije
251 Cascades of the Columbia
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
Brzice reke Kolumbije
- Vir
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
- Avtor
- Charles M. Skinner
- Jezik branja
- Slovenščina
- Jezik izvirnika
- English
- Čas branja
- 2 min branja
- Obseg
- 2 strani
- Naslov izvirnika
- 251 Cascades of the Columbia
O izvirniku
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
Obsežna zgodovinska zbirka ameriških legend, ki jih je Skinner zbral in avtorsko rekonstruiral. Bralni jezik je Slovenščina, izvirnik pa prihaja iz vira Myths and Legends of Our Own Land v jeziku English.
Besedilo
Brzice reke Kolumbije
Ko je bilo Siwashov, kakor so se imenovali Indijanci severozahoda, še malo, je nad goro Mount Hood bdel Duh neviht, ki je s stresanjem svojega plašča nad deželo priklical dež ali sneg, medtem ko je Duh ognja z gore Mount Adams bliskal s svojimi strelami. Čez dolino med njima se je razpenjal mogočen kamnit most, ki je povezoval vrhova, in nanj so Siwashi polagali darove lososov in strojenih kož. Tu so obhajali tudi plemenske praznike. Svečenica oboka, Mentonee, ki je vzdrževala ogenj na plemenskem oltarju, »ne da bi jo razvnel utrip smrtnega srca«, je osvojila ljubezen divjih gorskih tamanousov, vendar se ni menila ne za prilizovanje ne za grožnje in njeno srce je bilo zanje kakor marmor.
Duhova sta se iz ljubosumja drug do drugega spopadla in Indijanci so, zgroženi nad vrtincem ognja in oblakov, nad lomljenjem dreves in krušenjem skal, v strahu zbežali v nižavje. Ona pa je nepoškodovana in neustrašna ostala na svojem mestu ter še naprej slavila edinega boga. Vendar ni bila sama, kajti v senci skale je čuječe stal bojevnik, ki jo je tako dolgo ljubil brez upanja, kakršno gojijo zaljubljenci, da je tudi sam prerasel strah. Čeprav mu je namenila le bežne besede in nikoli nasmeha, je bilo njegovo srce zaradi bremena, ki ga je nosilo, še toplejše in težje; po svoji navadi jo je vselej opazoval od nekod, kjer je pogled nanj ne bi vznemirjal.
Boj je postajal vse silovitejši in naposled sta se duhova srečala na sredi oboka; med rjovenjem, potresi in nalivom se je veliki most zamajal in razpokal. Mladenič je planil naprej. Mentonee je zgrabil v naročje. Ostalo je ravno še dovolj časa za en objem, ki je smrti izmaknil bridkost. Nato so se ob grmenju, kakor da se razletava ves svet, milje kamnitega zidovja zrušile in oba za vselej pokopale pod seboj. Reka Columbia preskakuje ruševine mostu v brzicah, ki jim pravijo Cascades, in vode še vedno bučijo, medtem ko čemerni tamanousi s svojih gorskih vrhov opazujejo razpenjene tokove, vedoč, da nikoli več ne bodo videli bitja, tako lepega, kot je bila Mentonee.
Izvirnik
251 Cascades of the Columbia
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
When the Siwash, as the Northwestern Indians called themselves, were few, Mount Hood was kept by the Spirit of Storms, who when he shook his robe caused rain or snow to fall over the land, while the Fire Spirit flashed his lightnings from Mount Adams. Across the vale between them stretched a mighty bridge of stone, joining peak to peak, and on this the Siwash laid his offering of salmon and dressed skins. Here, too, the tribal festivals were kept. The priestess of the arch-Mentonee, who fed the fire on the tribal altar “unimpassioned by a mortal throb”--had won the love of the wild tamanouses of the mountains, but she was careless alike of coaxing and threats, and her heart was as marble to them.
Jealous of each other, these two spirits fell to fighting, and, appalled by the whirl of fire and cloud, of splintering trees and crumbling rocks, the Indians fled in terror toward the lowlands, but she, unhurt and undaunted, kept in her place, and still offered praise to the one god. Yet she was not alone, for watchful in the shadow of a rock stood a warrior who had loved her so long, without the hope of lovers, that he, too, had outgrown fear. Though she had given him but passing words and never a smile, his own heart was the warmer and the heavier with its freight, and it was his way to be ever watching her in some place where she might not be troubled by the sight of him.
The war waxed fiercer, and at last the spirits met at the centre of the arch, and in roar and quake and deluge the great bridge swayed and cracked. The young man sprang forward. He seized Mentonee in his arms. There was time for one embrace that cheated death of sorrow. Then, with a thunder like a bursting world, the miles of masonry crashed down and buried the two forever. The Columbia leaps the ruins of the bridge in the rapids that they call the Cascades, and the waters still brawl on, while the sulky tamanouses watch the whitened floods from their mountain-tops, knowing that never again will they see so fair a creature as Mentonee.
Nadaljuj z branjem
