Waltey
Onkraj razvodja
226 Over the Divide
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
Onkraj razvodja
- 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
- 226 Over the Divide
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
Onkraj razvodja
Upanje, da bodo našli El Dorado, ki je gnalo pustolovske Špance na prvih zabeleženih plovbah v Ameriko, je v dušah gorjanov ameriškega Zahoda živelo še v prvi polovici tega stoletja. Bogata najdišča zlata v Kaliforniji in Koloradu so utrjevala vero v to deželo bogastva, in ljudje so kljubovali lakoti, bolezni, pomanjkanju, preganjanju divjakov in sami smrti, da bi dosegli in odprli zemeljske votline z zakladi. Dokler rudarjenje ni postalo načrtna dejavnost, iskalci zlata niso bili zadovoljni z manjšimi nahajališči plemenite kovine in so sanjali o zlatih gričih nekje v daljavi. Domišljija je neznane pokrajine onkraj Skalnega gorovja polnila z veličastnimi možnostmi, rudar pa je upal, da bo prodrl v divjino, »naletel na bogato žilo« in »si nagrabil bogastvo«.
Tako je pokrajina, označena kot »onkraj razvodja« — mišljeno je bilo celinsko razvodje — ali »onkraj gorovja«, začela pomeniti ne le čudovite dežele, temveč tudi skupek čudovitih življenjskih razmer in nazadnje kraj posmrtnih radosti. Od tod izraz, ki je v rabi še danes: »Ubogi Bill! Odšel je onkraj razvodja.«
Podoben pomen ima indijansko ime za nebesa — »srečna lovišča« — in pri mnogih plemenih so ta imela svoje določeno mesto na daljnem jugozahodu, kamor so njihove duše odplule na splavih iz pajčevine. Tik preden so jih dosegle, so prišle do temne reke, ki so jo morale prečkati po deblu. Če so bile v svetu živih dobre, jim skale in valovi niso mogli škodovati; če pa so živele hudobno, nikoli niso dosegle drugega brega, saj jih je odneslo v kraj vrtincev, kjer jih je hudournik na veke vekov premetaval med tisoči kač, ki so se jih oklepale in jih pikale, ter jatami gnilih rib. Z daljnega severa in vzhoda je prek razvodja vodila zvezdna pot Rimske ceste.
Izvirnik
226 Over the Divide
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
The hope of finding El Dorado, that animated the adventurous Spaniards who made the earlier recorded voyages to America, lived in the souls of Western mountaineers as late as the first half of this century. Ample discoveries of gold in California and Colorado gave color to the belief in this land of riches, and hunger, illness, privation, the persecutions of savages, and death itself were braved in the effort to reach and unlock the treasure caves of earth. Until mining became a systematic business, prospectors were dissatisfied with the smaller deposits of precious metal and dreamed of golden hills farther away. The unknown regions beyond the Rocky Mountains were filled by imagination with magnificent possibilities, and it was the hope of the miner to penetrate the wilderness, “strike it rich,” and “make his pile.”
Thus, the region indicated as “over the divide” meaning the continental water-shed-or “over the range” came to signify not a delectable land alone, but a sum of delectable conditions, and, ultimately, the goal of posthumous delights. Hence the phrase in use to-day: “Poor Bill! He's gone over the divide.”
The Indian's name of heaven--“the happy hunting ground”--is of similar significance, and among many of the tribes it had a definite place in the far Southwest, to which their souls were carried on cobweb floats. Just before reaching it they came to a dark river that had to be crossed on a log. If they had been good in the world of the living they suffered no harm from the rocks and surges, but if their lives had been evil they never reached the farther shore, for they were swept into a place of whirlpools, where, for ever and ever, they were tossed on the torrent amid thousands of clinging, stinging snakes and shoals of putrid fish. From the far North and East the Milky Way was the star-path across the divide.
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