Connemara?
CATHLEEN

[Coming down.]
Give it to him, Nora; it's on a nail by the white boards. I

hung it up this morning, for the pig with the black feet was
eating it.

NORA
[Giving him a rope.]

Is that it, Bartley?
MAURYA

You'd do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the
boards (Bartley takes the rope]). It will be wanting in this

place, I'm telling you, if Michael is washed up to-morrow
morning, or the next morning, or any morning in the week, for

it's a deep grave we'll make him by the grace of God.
BARTLEY

[Beginning to work with the rope.]
I've no halter the way I can ride down on the mare, and I must

go now quickly. This is the one boat going for two weeks or
beyond it, and the fair will be a good fair for horses I heard

them saying below.
MAURYA

It's a hard thing they'll be saying below if the body is washed
up and there's no man in it to make the coffin, and I after

giving a big price for the finest white boards you'd find in
Connemara.

[She looks round at the boards.]
BARTLEY

How would it be washed up, and we after looking each day for
nine days, and a strong wind blowing a while back from the west

and south?
MAURYA

If it wasn't found itself, that wind is raising the sea, and
there was a star up against the moon, and it rising in the

night. If it was a hundred horses, or a thousand horses
you had itself, what is the price of a thousand horses against

a son where there is one son only?
BARTLEY

[Working at the halter, to Cathleen.]
Let you go down each day, and see the sheep aren't jumping in

on the rye, and if the jobber comes you can sell the pig with
the black feet if there is a good price going.

MAURYA
How would the like of her get a good price for a pig?

BARTLEY
[To Cathleen]

If the west wind holds with the last bit of the moon let you
and Nora get up weed enough for another cock for the kelp.

It's hard set we'll be from this day with no one in it but one
man to work.

MAURYA
It's hard set we'll be surely the day you're drownd'd with the

rest. What way will I live and the girls with me, and I an old
woman looking for the grave?

[Bartley lays down the halter, takes off his old coat, and puts
on a newer one of the same flannel.]

BARTLEY
[To Nora.]

Is she coming to the pier?
NORA

[Looking out.]
She's passing the green head and letting fall her sails.

BARTLEY
[Getting his purse and tobacco.]

I'll have half an hour to go down, and you'll see me coming
again in two days, or in three days, or maybe in four days if

the wind is bad.
MAURYA

[Turning round to the fire, and putting her shawl over her
head.]

Isn't it a hard and cruel man won't hear a word from an old
woman, and she holding him from the sea?

CATHLEEN
It's the life of a young man to be going on the sea, and who

would listen to an old woman with one thing and she saying it
over?

BARTLEY
[Taking the halter.]

I must go now quickly. I'll ride down on the red mare, and the
gray pony'll run behind me. . . The blessing of God on you.

[He goes out.]
MAURYA

[Crying out as he is in the door.]
He's gone now, God spare us, and we'll not see him again. He's

gone now, and when the black night is falling I'll have no son
left me in the world.

CATHLEEN
Why wouldn't you give him your blessing and he looking round in

the door? Isn't it sorrow enough is on every one in this house
without your sending him out with an unlucky word behind him,

and a hard word in his ear?
[Maurya takes up the tongs and begins raking the fire aimlessly

without looking round.]
NORA

[Turning towards her.]
You're taking away the turf from the cake.

CATHLEEN
[Crying out.]

The Son of God forgive us, Nora, we're after forgetting his bit
of bread.

[She comes over to the fire.]
NORA

And it's destroyed he'll be going till dark night, and he after
eating nothing since the sun went up.

CATHLEEN
[Turning the cake out of the oven.]

It's destroyed he'll be, surely. There's no sense left on any
person in a house where an old woman will be talking for ever.

[Maurya sways herself on her stool.]
CATHLEEN

[Cutting off some of the bread and rolling it in a cloth; to
Maurya.]

Let you go down now to the spring well and give him this and he
passing. You'll see him then and the dark word will be broken,

and you can say "God speed you," the way he'll be easy in his
mind.

MAURYA
[Taking the bread.]

Will I be in it as soon as himself?
CATHLEEN

If you go now quickly.
MAURYA

[Standing up unsteadily.]
It's hard set I am to walk.

CATHLEEN
[Looking at her anxiously.]

Give her the stick, Nora, or maybe she'll slip on the big
stones.

NORA
What stick?

CATHLEEN
The stick Michael brought from Connemara.

MAURYA
[Taking a stick Nora gives her.]

In the big world the old people do be leaving things after them
for their sons and children, but in this place it is the young

men do be leaving things behind for them that do be old.
[She goes out slowly. Nora goes over to the ladder.]

CATHLEEN
Wait, Nora, maybe she'd turn back quickly. She's that sorry,

God help her, you wouldn't know the thing she'd do.
NORA

Is she gone round by the bush?
CATHLEEN

[Looking out.]
She's gone now. Throw it down quickly, for the Lord knows when

she'll be out of it again.
NORA

[Getting the bundle from the loft.]
The young priest said he'd be passing to-morrow, and we might

go down and speak to him below if it's Michael's they are
surely.

CATHLEEN
[Taking the bundle.]

Did he say what way they were found?
NORA

[Coming down.]
"There were two men," says he, "and they rowing round with

poteen before the cocks crowed, and the oar of one of them
caught the body, and they passing the black cliffs of the

north."
CATHLEEN

[Trying to open the bundle.]
Give me a knife, Nora, the string's perished with the salt

water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't loosen in a
week.

NORA
[Giving her a knife.]

I've heard tell it was a long way to Donegal.
CATHLEEN

[Cutting the string.]
It is surely. There was a man in here a while ago -- the man

sold us that knife -- and he said if you set off walking from
the rocks beyond, it would be seven days you'd be in Donegal.

NORA
And what time would a man take, and he floating?

[Cathleen opens the bundle and takes out a bit of a stocking.
They look at them eagerly.]

CATHLEEN
[In a low voice.]

The Lord spare us, Nora! isn't it a queer hard thing to say if
it's his they are surely?

NORA
I'll get his shirt off the hook the way we can put the one

flannel on the other [she looks through some clothes hanging in
the corner.] It's not with them, Cathleen, and where will it

be?
CATHLEEN

I'm thinking Bartley put it on him in the morning, for his own
shirt was heavy with the salt in it [pointing to the corner].

There's a bit of a sleeve was of the same stuff. Give me that
and it will do.

[Nora brings it to her and they compare the flannel.]
CATHLEEN

It's the same stuff, Nora; but if it is itself aren't there
great rolls of it in the shops of Galway, and isn't it many

another man may have a shirt of it as well as Michael himself?
NORA

[Who has taken up the stocking and counted the stitches, crying
out.]

It's Michael, Cathleen, it's Michael; God spare his soul, and

• blessing [´blesiŋ] n.祝福 (初中英语单词)
• forgive [fə´giv] vt.原谅，谅解，宽恕 (初中英语单词)
• bundle [´bʌndl] n.包，捆；包袱(裹) (初中英语单词)
• priest [pri:st] n.教士；牧师；神父 (初中英语单词)
• sleeve [sli:v] n.袖子；袖套 (初中英语单词)
• stocking [´stɔkiŋ] n.长统袜 (初中英语单词)
• hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
• 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)
• loosen [´lu:sən] v.放松；松弛 (高中英语单词)
• unlucky [ʌn´lʌki] a.倒霉的，不幸的 (英语四级单词)
• wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-] a.短缺的；不足的 (英语六级单词)
• halter [´hɔ:ltə] n.缰绳，绞索 (英语六级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)