Waltey
Padajoča zvezda
026 The Drop Star
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
Padajoča zvezda
- Vir
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
- Avtor
- Charles M. Skinner
- Jezik branja
- Slovenščina
- Jezik izvirnika
- English
- Čas branja
- 3 min branja
- Obseg
- 2 strani
- Naslov izvirnika
- 026 The Drop Star
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
Padajoča zvezda
Triletna deklica je izginila od doma ob reki Genesee. Šla je nabirat lokvanje in se ni vrnila. Njena mati, od žalosti skoraj ob pamet, jo je iskala dneve, tedne, mesece, preden se je lahko sprijaznila z mislijo, da se je njena deklica — Kayutah, Zvezdna kaplja, kot so ji pravili Indijanci — zares utopila. Leta so minevala. Ženin dom je bil zdaj varen pred plenjenjem, saj ni bil več edina hiša belske družine v tistih krajih, Indijanci pa so se umikali vse globlje v divjino. Nekega dne je k ženi prišel lovec in dejal: »Videl sem starega Skenandoha — zadnjega iz njegovega plemena, hvala Bogu! Naročil mi je, naj vam povem, da se je led prelomil in da ve za snežni hrib, na katerem raste rdeča jagoda, ki bo vaša, če jo pridete iskat.« Ko je žena doumela pomen tega sporočila, je omedlela, ko pa je spet lahko spregovorila, je poslala nečaka v kočo ostarelega poglavarja in tisto noč prebedela v molitvi.
Mladenič je odrinil ob sončnem zahodu in po naporni ježi po komaj razločnih stezah, ki so jih osvetljevale le zvezde, v sivini zore prispel do pokončnega lesenega droga, pobarvanega rdeče in ovešenega s skalpi, odrezanimi z glav belcev med pokolom v Wyomingu. Kraj še danes imenujejo Painted Post. Ne da bi pritegnil vajeti, je hitel vzdolž gričev, ki obdajajo jezero Seneca, nato pa zavil globlje v divjino, dokler ni dosegel manjšega jezera in pred preprostim šotorom blizu obale skoraj omahnil iz sedla. V bližini je bil izkopan svež grob in zdrznil se je ob misli, da je morda prišel prepozno, toda prav tedaj je iz šotora stopil zguban Indijanec in čakal, da spregovori.
»Prišel sem,« je vzkliknil mladenič, »da bi videl jagodo, ki raste iz snega.« »Prišel si pravočasno,« je odgovoril Skenandoh. »Ne, ni v tistem grobu. Tam je pokopan moj otrok. Bila je kakor sestra tisti, ki jo iščeš, in naročila mi je, naj Zvezdno kapljo vrnem njeni materi — beli ženi, ki jo poznamo kot Svetlobo mlade lune.«
Stopil je v vigvam in se spet prikazal, držeč za zapestje osemnajstletno dekle. Pri vratu ji je raztrgal oblačilo in razkril bele prsi, na njih pa rdeče materino znamenje; nato jo je pripeljal k mladeniču in dejal: »Zdaj pa moram k zahajajočemu soncu.« Čez ramo si je obesil torbo, napolnjeno ne z orožjem in hrano, temveč s kamenjem, stopil v kanu in odveslal na jezero, medtem pa pel otožen napev — svojo smrtno pesem. Ko je dosegel sredino jezera, je zamahnil s tomahavkom in preklal dno krhkega čolna, tako da se je ta v hipu napolnil z vodo in poglavar je izginil pod gladino. Mladenič je sestrično odpeljal k njeni presrečni materi, ji pomagal, da se je spet privadila navadam omikanega življenja, in se nazadnje z njo poročil. Znova je prevzela svoje krščansko ime, jezeru, ob katerem je tako dolgo živela, pa pustila svoje indijansko ime Zvezdna kaplja — Kayutah.
Izvirnik
026 The Drop Star
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
A little maid of three years was missing from her home on the Genesee. She had gone to gather water-lilies and did not return. Her mother, almost crazed with grief, searched for days, weeks, months, before she could resign herself to the thought that her little one--Kayutah, the Drop Star, the Indians called her--had indeed been drowned. Years went by. The woman's home was secure against pillage, for it was no longer the one house of a white family in that region, and the Indians had retired farther and farther into the wilderness. One day a hunter came to the woman and said, “I have seen old Skenandoh,--the last of his tribe, thank God! who bade me say this to you: that the ice is broken, and he knows of a hill of snow where a red berry grows that shall be yours if you will claim it.” When the meaning of this message came upon her the woman fainted, but on recovering speech she despatched her nephew to the hut of the aged chief and passed that night in prayer.
The young man set off at sunset, and by hard riding, over dim trails, with only stars for light, he came in the gray of dawn to an upright timber, colored red and hung with scalps, that had been cut from white men's heads at the massacre of Wyoming. The place they still call Painted Post. Without drawing rein he sped along the hills that hem Lake Seneca, then, striking deeper into the wilds, he reached a smaller lake, and almost fell from his saddle before a rude tent near the shore. A new grave had been dug close by, and he shuddered to think that perhaps he had come too late, but a wrinkled Indian stepped forth at that moment and waited his word.
“I come,” cried the youth,--“to see the berry that springs from snow.”
“You come in time,” answered Skenandoh. “No, 'tis not in that grave. It is my own child that is buried there. She was as a sister to the one you seek, and she bade me restore the Drop Star to her mother,--the squaw that we know as the New Moon's Light.”
Stepping into the wigwam, he emerged again, clasping the wrist of a girl of eighteen, whose robe he tore asunder at the throat, showing the white breast, and on it a red birth-mark; then, leading her to the young man, he said,--“And now I must go to the setting sun.” He slung a pouch about him, loaded, not with arms and food, but stones, stepped into his canoe, and paddled out upon the water, singing as he went a melancholy chant--his deathsong. On gaining the middle of the lake he swung his tomahawk and clove the bottom of the frail boat, so that it filled in a moment and the chief sank from sight. The young man took his cousin to her overjoyed mother, helped to win her back to the ways of civilized life, and eventually married her. She took her Christian name again, but left to the lake on whose banks she had lived so long her Indian name of Drop Star--Kayutah.
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