Modern Icelandic Plays - LightNovelsOnl.com
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_Kari._
You must not make me out braver than I am. Part of my courage is recklessness. I close my eyes and let the sun s.h.i.+ne on my face.
_Halla._
Do you never think of the future?
_Kari (earnestly)._
I do.
_Halla._
I have blamed myself much these last days. I ought to have sent you away long ago, but I could not. I had to be sure that you loved me. Last night I heard the hills calling you, and I called against them with all my soul. If you had never come back, I would have forgiven you, though it had broken my heart. (_Exultantly._) And then I saw you coming down the mountain like a G.o.d, driving a white snowslide before you!
_Kari._
Did you think I could have gone without letting you know? I remember once you had fallen asleep in my arms. The night was light. Your eyes were closed, but I could see through your eyelids. I saw a little girl with black hair. (_Fondly stroking her hair._)
_Halla (taking his right hand)._
How well I know this hand! (_Lays it on her heart._) My heart beats with joy.
_Kari._
I am like the man in the fairy-tale who fell down into a deep well. He thought he would never again see the sun, but suddenly he stood in a green meadow. There was a tall castle, and the king's daughter came out to meet him. Halla, do you understand? If I had not stolen, we two should never have met.
_Halla._
That is true.
_Kari._
The year I lived in the hills, I would sometimes get into such a rage that I wanted to give myself a good thras.h.i.+ng. Once I really did it-- I beat myself with a knotted rope.
_Halla._
How you must have suffered!
_Kari._
If anybody had told me in those days that I should ever become a happy man, I would have laughed at him. Then I believed riches and honors meant happiness. I used to dream of riding through the parish where I was born, dressed in fine clothes and with many horses.
_Halla (laughing)._
I did not know you were vain.
_Kari._
Nor am I any more, but I have grown stingy. The minutes are my gold-pieces. (_Takes her hand._) When I hold your hand in mine, I am happy. Before I cared for you, I did not see the sun s.h.i.+ning, and now when it rains, all the drops prattle about you.
_Halla._
You do love me!
_Kari._
I seem to be in a church. I hold a torch in my hand and light one taper after another. For every taper that is lighted, the church grows larger and more beautiful. But I am a thief. If I am caught I must be buried alive, and now the church-bells are ringing. I hear the crowd gathering outside.
_Halla._
You frighten me.
_Kari (taking her face between his hands)._
I must have a long look at your face. If I were to become blind this moment, I should always remember it. Your soul is in your eyes. When you look at me, I feel an unseen hand fondling my face. Whenever the sun s.h.i.+nes, I shall see your eyes. It is hard to tell you, but when the sky grows red to-morrow, I shall be on my way to the hills. I must flee this very night.
_Halla._
I knew it. (_Sits down._) Tell me how you have planned your flight.
_Kari._
I must be off before the winter sets in, and besides the letter from the south may be here any day now.
_Halla._
I know all that.
_Kari (sits down)._
When I come home to-night, I shall say that I have seen the tracks of a flock of sheep farther up in the hills than we usually go to look for them. I shall ask you for two horses. You won't refuse me them? (_Halla shakes her head._) I shall say that I must start at once, this very night, before the tracks disappear. When I don't come back, they will think I have come across outlaws or have met with an accident.
_Halla._
And where shall you go?
_Kari._
To the mountain plain where the warm springs are. I lived there before I came to you.
_Halla._
How long will it take you to reach it?
_Kari._
Three days. It is about in the middle of the country.
