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Heather Ale
A GALLOWAY LEGEND
From the bonny bells of heather
They brewed a drink long-syne,
Was sweeter far then honey,
Was stronger far than wine.
They brewed it and they drank it,
And lay in a blessed swound
For days and days together
In their dwellings underground.
There rose a king in Scotland,
A fell man to his foes,
He smote the Picts in battle,
He hunted them like roes.
Over miles of the red mountain
He hunted as they fled,
And strewed the dwarfish bodies
Of the dying and the dead.
Summer came in the country,
Red was the heather bell;
But the manner of the brewing
Was none alive to tell.
In graves that were like children's
On many a mountain head,
The Brewsters of the Heather
Lay numbered with the dead.
The king in the red moorland
Rode on a summer's day;
And the bees hummed, and the curlews
Cried beside the way.
The king rode, and was angry,
Black was his brow and pale,
To rule in a land of heather
And lack the Heather Ale.
It fortuned that his vassals,
Riding free on the heath,
Came on a stone that was fallen
And vermin hid beneath.
Rudely plucked from their hiding,
Never a word they spoke;
A son and his aged father --
Last of the dwarfish folk.
The king sat high on his charger,
He looked on the little men;
And the dwarfish and swarthy couple
Looked at the king again.
Down by the shore he had them;
And there on the giddy brink --
"I will give you life, ye vermin,
For the secret of the drink."
There stood the son and father,
And they looked high and low;
The heather was red around them,
The sea rumbled below.
And up and spoke the father,
Shrill was his voice to hear:
"I have a word in private,
A word for the royal ear.
"Life is dear to the aged,
And honour a little thing;
I would gladly sell the secret,"
Quoth the Pict to the king.
His voice was small as a sparrow's,
And shrill and wonderful clear:
"I would gladly sell my secret,
Only my son I fear.
"For life is a little matter,
And death is nought to the young;
And I dare not sell my honour
Under the eye of my son.
Take him, O king, and bind him,
And cast him far in the deep;
And it's I will tell the secret
That I have sworn to keep."
They took the son and bound him,
Neck and heels in a thong,
And a lad took him and swung him,
And flung him far and strong,
And the sea swallowed his body,
Like that of a child of ten; --
And there on the cliff stood the father,
Last of the dwarfish men.
"True was the word I told you:
Only my son I feared;
For I doubt the sapling courage
That goes without the beard.
But now in vain is the torture,
Fire shall never avail:
Here dies in my bosom
Th
e secret of Heather Ale."
Роберт Льюис Стивенсон
ВЕРЕСКОВЫЙ МЕД
пер. С.Маршака
Из вереска напиток
Забыт давным-давно,
А был он слаще меда,
Пьянее, чем вино.
В котлах его варили
И пили всей семьей
Малютки-медовары
В пещерах под землей.
Пришел король шотландский
Безжалостный к врагам.
Погнал он бедных пиктов
К скалистым берегам.
На вересковом поле
На поле боевом
Лежал живой на мертвом
И мертвый на живом.
Лето в стране настало,
Вереск опять цветет,
Но некому готовить
Вересковый мед.
В своих могилах тесных
В горах родной земли
Малютки-медовары
Приют себе нашли.
Король по склону едет
Над морем на коне,
А рядом реют чайки
С дорогой на равне.
Король глядит угрюмо
И думает: "Кругом
Цветет медовый вереск,
А меда мы не пьем."
Но вот его вассалы
Заметили двоих -
Последних медоваров,
Оставшихся в живых.
Вышли они из-под камня,
Щурясь на белый свет, -
Старый горбатый карлик
И мальчик пятнадцати лет.
К берегу моря крутому
Их привели на допрос,
Но никто из пленных
Слова не произнес.
Сидел король шотландский
Не шевелясь в седле,
А маленькие люди
Стояли на земле.
Гневно король промолвил:
- Плетка обоих ждет,
Если не скажете, черти,
Как вы готовите мед!
Сын и отец смолчали,
Стоя у края скалы.
Вереск шумел над ними,
В море катились валы.
И вдруг голосок раздался:
- Слушай, шотландский король,
Поговорить с тобою
С глазу на глаз позволь.
Старость боится смерти,
Жизнь я изменой куплю,
Выдам заветную тайну,-
Карлик сказал королю.
Голос его воробьиный
Резко и четко звучал.
- Тайну давно бы я выдал,
Если бы сын не мешал.
Мальчику жизни не жалко,
Гибель ему нипочем.
Мне продавать свою совесть
Совестно будет при нем.
Пусть его крепко свяжут
И бросят в пучину вод
И я научу шотландцев
Готовить старинный мед.
Сильный шотландский воин
Мальчика крепко связал
И бросил в открытое море
С прибрежных отвесных скал.
Волны над ним сомкнулись,
Замер последний крик.
И эхом ему ответил
С обрыва отец-старик:
- Правду сказал я, шотландцы,
От сына я ждал беды,
Не верил я в стойкость юных,
Не бреющих бороды.
А мне костер не страшен,
Пусть со мною умрет
Моя святая тайна,
Мой вересковый мед.
NOTE TO HEATHER ALE
Among the curiosities of human nature this legend claims a high place. It is needless to remind the reader that the Picts were never exterminated, and form to this day a large proportion of the folk of Scotland, occupying the eastern and the central parts, from the Firth of Forth, or perhaps the Lammermoors, upon the south, to the Ord of Caithness on the north. That the blundering guess of a dull chronicler should have inspired men with imaginary loathing for their own ancestors is already strange; that it should have begotten this wild legend seems incredible. Is it possible the chronicler's error was merely nominal? that what he told, and what the people proved themselves so ready to receive, about the Picts, was true or partly true of some anterior and perhaps Lappish savages, small of stature, black of hue, dwelling underground -- possibly also the distillers of some forgotten spirit? See Mr. Campbell's Tales of the West Highlands.