Читать книгу Ashes (Cenere) - Grazia Deledda - Страница 5

Olì's son was born at Fonni in the springtime. He was called Anania by the advice of his godmother, the bandit's widow. He passed his infancy at Fonni, and in his imagination never forgot that strange village perched on the mountain crest, like a slumbering vulture.

During the long winter, Fonni was all snow and fog; but with the spring grass invaded even the steep village street, where beetles slept among the big, sun-warmed cobblestones, and ants ran confidingly in and out of their holes. The meagre brown houses with their roofs of scandule (wooden tiles overlapping each other like fish-scales), showed on the street side narrow black doorways, balconies of rotten wood, little stairs often vine-garlanded. The Basilica of the Martyrs, with its picturesque belfry, rose among the green oaks of the old Convent court, dominating the whole little town and carved against a sky of crystalline blue. Fabulous beauty reigned on all sides. The tall mountains of the Gennargentu, their luminous summits outlined as it were with silver, crowned the great Barbagia valley, which in a succession of immense green shells rose to the hill-tops; among these Fonni with its scaled roofs and stony streets, defied the thunder and the winds. The district was in winter almost deserted, for its numerous population of wandering shepherds (men strong as the blast, and astute as foxes) descended with their flocks to the warm southern plains. But in the fine weather, a continuous coming and going of horses, dogs, shepherds, old and young, animated the mountain paths. Zuanne, the widow's son, at eleven years old was already a herdsman. He led goats belonging to different persons to pasture on the far side of the wilderness which surrounded the village. At dawn, he passed down the street whistling, and the goats knowing the sound came leaping out of the houses to follow him. Towards evening he brought them back to the entrance of the village; from there the intelligent creatures went off by themselves to the houses of their masters. Zuanne of the big ears, was generally accompanied by his friend and brother, the little Anania. They were barefoot and wore jackets and cloaks of orbace, long breeches of coarse cloth, sheepskin caps. Anania had watering eyes and a perpetual cold in his head. With tongue or finger he rubbed his dirty face into strange patterns of moustachios and whiskers.

While the goats fed among the rocks, green with eglantine and aromatic herbs, the two children roamed about. They descended to the road and threw stones at the passers-by; they penetrated into potato plantations where strong wary women were at work; they sought wind-falls in the great damp shadows of the gigantic walnut trees. Zuanne was tall and lithe: Anania stronger and for his age bolder. They were both story-tellers of extraordinary ingenuity, and were excited by strange fancies. Zuanne was always talking of his father, boasting of him, resolving to follow his example, and to avenge his memory. Anania meant to be a soldier.

"I'll catch you," he said calmly, and Zuanne the brigand replied with alacrity, "I'll murder you."

They often played at banditti, armed with guns of cane. They had a suitable den, and Anania the soldier never succeeded in discovering the robber, though the latter cried Cuckoo from the thicket in which he crouched. A real cuckoo would answer from the distance, and often the children, forgetting their murderous intent, would go off in search of the melancholy bird—a search no more successful than the search for the robber. When they seemed quite close to the mysterious voice, it would sob further off, and still further. Then the little brothers in ill luck, buried in the grass, or outstretched on the mossy rock, would punish the cuckoo with questions. Zuanne being shy only said—

Cuccu bellu agreste	Cuckoo, beautiful wild thing,
Natami itte ora est.	Tell me what o'clock doth ring.

and the bird would call seven times when he ought to have answered ten. Nevertheless Anania ventured bolder demands.

Cuccu bellu e' mare	Cuckoo, beauty of the sea,
Cantos annos bi cheret a	How many years shall marry
m'isposare?	me?

"Cu—cu—cu—cu."

"Four years, you little devil! You're going to marry young!" sang out Zuanne.

"Be quiet. He didn't hear me."

Cuccu bellu 's lizu	Cuckoo, beauty of lily fair,
Cantos annos bi cheret a fagher	In how many years shall my
fixu?	son be here?

This time the cuckoo gave a reasonable answer, and the children in the great silence, broken only by the melancholy oracle, went on with questions not entirely merry.

Cuccu, bellu e sorre	Cuckoo, beauty and sister dear.
Cantos annos bi cheret a mi	In how many years will my
morrer?	death draw near?

Once Anania went away by himself. He walked along the high road, up and up; then crossed the copses and climbed among the granite boulders, traversing long hollows covered with the little violet flowers of the heather. At last he reached the top of what seemed an immense mountain. The sun had vanished, but he fancied there were great fires flaming behind the purple hills of the horizon, and sending up burning light over the whole sky. Anania was frightened by the red heaven; by the height he had reached, and the terrible silence which surrounded him. He thought of Zuanne's father and looked round in a panic. Ah! though he meant to be a soldier he was mortally afraid of robbers! and the long black cloak on the sooty wall at home gave him spasms of terror. Almost head over heels he fled from his peak and was glad when he heard Zuanne calling him. Zuanne's great wish was to see the brigands; so Anania told him where he had been and described the black mountains and the flaming sky; then added that he had seen them. The widow's son was first contemptuous, then excited. He looked at Anania with respect, as thoughtful and taciturn they returned home together, followed by the goats whose little bells tinkled plaintively in the silence of the twilight.

When he was not running beside Zuanne, little Anania passed the day in the great court of the church of the Martyrs. He played with the sons of the wax-candle-maker, who had his workshop close by. The quiet Courtyard was shadowed by great trees, and surrounded by an arcade falling into ruin. A little stone stair led to the church, on the simple facade of which a cross was painted. Anania and the candlemaker's children spent hours on the little stair, playing with the pebbles and making little candles of chalk. A yawning carabiniere[8] used to stand at the window of the ancient convent; in the cells military boots and tunics were visible; and a voice might be heard singing in falsetto with a Neapolitan accent—