other. I'll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy
Water in the dark nights after Samhain, and I won't care what

way the sea is when the other women will be keening. To Nora].
Give me the Holy Water, Nora, there's a small sup still on the

dresser.
[Nora gives it to her.]

MAURYA
[Drops Michael's clothes across Bartley's feet, and sprinkles

the Holy Water over him.]
It isn't that I haven't prayed for you, Bartley, to the

Almighty God. It isn't that I haven't said prayers in the dark
night till you wouldn't know what I'ld be saying; but it's a

great rest I'll have now, and it's time surely. It's a great
rest I'll have now, and great sleeping in the long nights after

Samhain, if it's only a bit of wet flour we do have to eat, and
maybe a fish that would be stinking.

[She kneels down again, crossing herself, and saying prayers
under her breath.]

CATHLEEN
[To an old man.]

Maybe yourself and Eamon would make a coffin when the sun
rises. We have fine white boards herself bought, God help her,

thinking Michael would be found, and I have a new cake you can
eat while you'll be working.

THE OLD MAN
[Looking at the boards.]

Are there nails with them?
CATHLEEN

There are not, Colum; we didn't think of the nails.
ANOTHER MAN

It's a great wonder she wouldn't think of the nails, and all
the coffins she's seen made already.

CATHLEEN
It's getting old she is, and broken.

[Maurya stands up again very slowly and spreads out the pieces
of Michael's clothes beside the body, sprinkling them with the

last of the Holy Water.]
NORA

[In a whisper to Cathleen.]
She's quiet now and easy; but the day Michael was drowned you

could hear her crying out from this to the spring well. It's
fonder she was of Michael, and would any one have thought that?

CATHLEEN
[Slowly and clearly.]

An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do, and
isn't it nine days herself is after crying and keening, and

making great sorrow in the house?
MAURYA

[Puts the empty cup mouth downwards on the table, and lays her
hands together on Bartley's feet.]

They're all together this time, and the end is come. May the
Almighty God have mercy on Bartley's soul, and on Michael's

soul, and on the souls of Sheamus and Patch, and Stephen and
Shawn (bending her head]); and may He have mercy on my soul,

Nora, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world.
[She pauses, and the keen rises a little more loudly from the

women, then sinks away.]
MAURYA

[Continuing.]
Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of

the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the
white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we

want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we
must be satisfied.

[She kneels down again and the curtain falls slowly.]
End

• sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• coffin [´kɔfin] n.棺材，柩 (高中英语单词)
• downwards [´daunwədz] ad.向下，以下 (英语四级单词)
• almighty [ɔ:l´maiti] a.万能的；全能的 (英语四级单词)