Chapter X Chapter X of «Irish Fairy Tales» by James Stephens: the whole text, 11 sentences and 323 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself.
1 “Delight and strength came to me again, and now I explored all the inland ways, the great lakes of Ireland, and her swift brown rivers. 2 “What a joy to lie under an inch of water basking in the sun, or beneath a shady ledge to watch the small creatures that speed like lightning on the rippling top. 3 I saw the dragon-flies flash and dart and turn, with a poise, with a speed that no other winged thing knows: I saw the hawk hover and stare and swoop: he fell like a falling stone, but he could not catch the king of the salmon: I saw the cold-eyed cat stretching along a bough level with the water, eager to hook and lift the creatures of the river. 4 And I saw men. 5 “They saw me also. 6 They came to know me and look for me. 7 They lay in wait at the waterfalls up which I leaped like a silver flash. 8 They held out nets for me; they hid traps under leaves; they made cords of the colour of water, of the colour of weeds--but this salmon had a nose that knew how a weed felt and how a string--they drifted meat on a sightless string, but I knew of the hook; they thrust spears at me, and threw lances which they drew back again with a cord. 9 Many a wound I got from men, many a sorrowful scar. 10 “Every beast pursued me in the waters and along the banks; the barking, black-skinned otter came after me in lust and gust and swirl; the wild cat fished for me; the hawk and the steep-winged, spear-beaked birds dived down on me, and men crept on me with nets the width of a river, so that I got no rest. 11 My life became a ceaseless scurry and wound and escape, a burden and anguish of watchfulness--and then I was caught.” ← previous Chapter IXnext → Chapter XI↑ back to Irish Fairy Tales This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg2892/11/