"Once a group of Icelandic farmers found a very thick skull in the cemetery in which the poet Egil was buried. Its enormous thickness made them be sure that it was the skull of a great man, without doubt the very Egil. For doubly sure they put up a wall and gave strong hammer. White was placed where he fell the blows, but not started, and became convinced that it was indeed the skull of the poet, and worthy of all honors. In Ireland we have many affinities with the Icelanders, or "Danes", as we call them, and all the other inhabitants of Scandinavia. In some of our mountains and barren landscapes, and in our coastal villages, we still we test each the others so much as the Icelanders were tested Egil head. We may have acquired the habit of those old Danish pirates, whose descendants, I have the people of Rosses, still remember each and every one of the fields and hillocks of Ireland one day belonged to their ancestors, and are able to describe himself Rosses as well as any native. There is a seaside neighborhood known as Roughley, which is not known that men never shave or trim their beards rebellious red, and there is always a fight in progress. I have been bumping into each other in a race, and after much shouting Gaelic, hitting each other with the oars. The first boat had run aground, and Blows base with long oars, prevented the second pass, just to give victory to the party. One day, say the people of Sligo, a man was tried in Roughley from Sligo by a skull in a fight, and used the defense, not unknown in Ireland, that some heads are so inconsistent that one can not be responsible for them. Having turned to the prosecutor with a look of intense scorn, and have exclaimed: "The skull of this little one, had one hit, it would open like an eggshell," the judge gave him a big smile, and he wheedling voice said: "But your lordship could be a giving blows two weeks. "
WB Yeats," The large skull of the lucky ones "in Celtic Twilight, translation Javier Marias, Madrid, Alfaguara, 1985.
0 comments:
Post a Comment