Free The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas Page A

never even looked at them. Something unusual happened that made him forget everything. As he came down the path – what was it he saw:
    A bird.
    There was a big, shining bird standing right in the middle of the path.
    An unfamiliar bird. Its head raised high and turned toward Mattis who was coming down the path.
    Who’s this? he thought, spellbound.
    He felt strange and empty inside. He stood very still – and the bird stood very still. What is it I’m seeing?
    The bird stood there, but it couldn’t stay any longer now that it had been seen – it rose. On silent wings it disappeared among the trees. It wasn’t the woodcock, it was a much larger bird, and very different, too, from the woodcock. And what was it doing here?
    What’s going on? he thought. Anything the matter with Hege! It was the only thing he could think of. He ran down the path to find out.
    No. He soon caught sight of Hege, in the place where she usually sat on the lookout for him whenever he’d gone off somewhere. She was like a little bundle on the steps. Her fingers were moving busily. He sensed rather than actually saw this from where he was.
    Mattis went down to her and said, wide-eyed: “Who is it up there?”
    She gave him a quick glance, didn’t understand.
    “What’s the matter with you?”
    “There’s a strange bird up there,” he stuttered.
    She went on working again. It was as if he wanted to stop these knitting needles, just for a little while; deeply moved, he said: “I’ve seen a wonderful big bird! It was walking around just up the path here.”
    “Really,” she replied, rather curtly. All the same her tone wasn’t as blunt as usual. There must have been something in his voice that told her how beautiful the bird had been. And that for somebody in their house it was beautiful. A silence followed. An unexpected pause. Something that had no name.
    Mattis explained:
    “It flew off almost before I had a chance to see it.”
    There wouldn’t be long to wait for it now, he thought, the impatient question as to why he was back as early as this when he was supposed to be at work. Best to take the bull by the horns.
    “I just came back home, there didn’t seem to be any work. I knew it would be like that anyway. And somebody said there was going to be a thunderstorm too. But that didn’t come to anything either.”
    “No,” said Hege.
    “But a girl I know waved to me,” he said. He translated his wish into reality then and there. It was real, he felt.
    “Really,” said Hege.
    She wasn’t angry, she was moved. The shining bird had been reflected so beautifully in his face.

14
    IN THE MORNING he thought, full of emotion:
    Today it’s me and the woodcock.
    He couldn’t explain how. Nor did he need any explanation. After all, there were streaks in the air above the house – left by the woodcock flying across while he was asleep, last night and every night now. It seemed almost a sin to sleep.
    The more Mattis thought about the woodcock, the more he felt sure something good was going to happen. Something different. That was why the woodcock was flying across here morning and night, but always while people were hidden away inside their houses.
    This made good sense, he felt. He himself could go outside and sit there watching, following the flight through the air as often as he liked. It was the woodcock and him.
    Today was a new day with her.
    Mattis was full of the woodcock. He couldn’t resist telling Hege about it again and again. Hege was tired of it, but he felt he could twist his words so that she didn’t realize what he was talking about, and yet find an outlet for his emotions.
    Early in the morning, while Hege was getting him his breakfast, he said to her: “It’s away and back with me now.”
    “What do you mean?” she asked patiently.
    “Like this.”
    With his finger he drew lines in the air above his head, in the same direction as the woodcock had been flying.
    Hege was already busy with her next task.