Читать книгу Кельтские сумерки. Уровень 1 / The Celtic Twilight - Уильям Батлер Йейтс - Страница 11

One day, a friend of mine was drawing a picture of my Knight of the Sheep. The old man’s daughter was there, and when the conversation turned to love, she said, “Oh, father, tell him about your love story.” The old man took his pipe out of his mouth and said, “Nobody marries the person they love,” and then chuckled[79], “There were fifteen women I liked more than the woman I married,” and he mentioned many women’s names. He then told me that when he was a little boy he had worked for his grandfather. And at that time he was called by his grandfather’s name, which we will say was Doran.He had a close friend named John Byrne, and one day they went to Queenstown[80] to wait for a ship that would take John Byrne to America. While walking along the quay, they saw a girl sitting and crying, with two men arguing in front of her. Doran said, “I think I know what’s wrong. That man must be her brother, and the other man must be her lover. The brother is sending her to America to separate her from the lover. She’s crying so much, but I think I could comfort her myself.” Eventually, the lover and brother left, and Doran started talking to her, saying things like, “Nice weather, Miss.” She responded after a while, and the three of them began talking. The ship didn’t arrive for a few days, so the three of them happily explored the area in horse-drawn carriages. When the ship finally came, Doran had to tell her that he wasn’t going to America. She cried more for him than she did for her first lover. Before boarding the ship, Doran whispered to Byrne, “Now, Byrne, I don’t envy you, but don’t get married young.”

He continued the story, telling how he wrote Byrne the same advice when he received a letter about Byrne’s engagement to the girl. Years passed, and he heard nothing. Finally, he went to America to find out, but he couldn’t find any information. More years went by, his wife passed away, and he grew older, becoming a rich farmer with many responsibilities. He found an excuse to go back to America and resume his search. One day, he struck up a conversation with an Irishman on a train and asked about emigrants from certain places, including the miller’s daughter from Innis Rath[81], mentioning her name. The man replied, “Oh yes, she’s married to my friend, John MacEwing. She lives on such-and-such street in Chicago.” Doran went to Chicago and knocked on her door. She opened it herself and hadn’t changed a bit. He told her his real name, which he started using again after his grandfather passed away, and the name of the man he met on the train. She didn’t recognize him but invited him to stay for dinner, saying her husband would be happy to meet someone who knew his old friend. They talked about many things, but for some reason, he never revealed his true identity to her. During dinner, he asked about Byrne, and she put her head down on the table and started crying. He was worried that her husband might get angry, so he didn’t dare ask what had happened to Byrne. He left shortly after and never saw her again.

1902.