OWEN You're not?! LANCEY D O your job. Translate. OWEN If they still haven't found him in two days' time they'll begin evicting
and levelling every house starting with these townlands.
[LANCEY reads from his list.] LANCEY Swinefort. OWEN Lis na Muc. LANCEY Burnfoot. OWEN Bun na hAbhann. LANCEY Dromduff. OWEN Druim Dubh. LANCEY Whiteplains. OWEN Machaire Ban. LANCEY Kings Head. OWEN Cnoc na Bi. LANCEY If by then the lieutenant hasn't been found, we will proceed until a
complete clearance is made of this entire section. OWEN If Yolland hasn't been got by then, they will ravish the whole parish. LANCEY I trust they know exactly what they've got to do.
[Pointing to BRIDGET.] I know you. I know where you live. [Pointing to SARAH.] Who are you? Name!
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25 10 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
[SARAH'S mouth opens and shuts, opens and shuts. Her face becomes contorted. ]
What's your name?
[Again SARAH tries frantically.]
OWEN Go on, Sarah. You can tell him.
[But SARAH cannot. And she knows she cannot. She closes her mouth. Her head goes down.]
OWEN Her name is Sarah Johnny Sally. LANCEY Where does she live? OWEN Bun na hAbhann. LANCEY Where? OWEN Burnfoot. LANCEY I want to talk to your brother?is he here? OWEN Not at the moment. LANCEY Where is he? OWEN He's at a wake. LANCEY What wake?
[DOALTY, who has been looking out the window all through LANCEY'S announcements, now speaks?calmly, almost casually.]
DOALTY Tell him his whole camp's on fire. LANCEY What's your name? [To OWEN.] Who's that lout? OWEN Doalty Dan Doalty. LANCEY Where does he live? OWEN Tulach Alainn. LANCEY What do we call it? OWEN Fair Hill. He says your whole camp is on fire.
[LANCEY rushes to the window and looks out. Then he wheels on DOALTY.] LANCEY I'll remember you, Mr Doalty. [To OWEN.] YOU carry a big responsi
bility in all this. [He goes off.] BRIDGET Mother of God, does he mean it, Owen? OWEN Yes, he does. BRIDGET We'll have to hide the beasts somewhere?our Seamus'll know
where. Maybe at the back of Lis na nGradh?or in the caves at the far end of the Tra Bhan. Come on, Doalty! Come on! Don't be standing about there!
[DOALTY does not move. BRIDGET runs to the door and stops suddenly. She sniffs the air. Panic. ]
The sweet smell! Smell it! It's the sweet smell! Jesus, it's the potato blight! DOALTY It's the army tents burning, Bridget. BRIDGET Is it? Are you sure? Is that what it is? God, I thought we were
destroyed altogether. Come on! Come on!
[She runs off OWEN goes to SARAH who is preparing to leave.]
OWEN How are you? Are you alright? [SARAH nods: Yes.] OWEN Don't worry. It will come back to you again.
[SARAH shakes her head.]
OWEN It will. You're upset now. He frightened you. That's all's wrong. [Agaiw SARAH shakes her head, slowly, emphatically, and smiles at OWEN. Then she leaves.
OWEN busies himself gathering his belongings, DOALTY leaves the window and goes to him.]
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FRIEL: TRANSLATIONS, ACT 3 / 25 11
DOALTY He'll do it, too. OWEN Unless Yolland's found.
DOALTY Hah!
OWEN Then he'll certainly do it.
DOALTY When my grandfather was a boy they did the same thing. [Simply, altogether without irony. ] And after all the trouble you went to, mapping the place and thinking up new names for it.
[OWEN busies himself. Pause. DOALTY almost dreamily.]
I've damned little to defend but he'll not put me out without a fight. And
there'll be others who think the same as me. OWEN That's a matter for you. DOALTY If we'd all stick together. If we knew how to defend ourselves. OWEN Against a trained army. DOALTY The Donnelly twins know how. HUGH If they could be found. DOALTY If they could be found. [He goes to the door.] Give me a shout after
you've finished with Lancey. I might know something then. [He leaves.] [OWEN picks up the Name-Book. He looks at it momentarily, then puts it on top of the pile he is carrying. It falls to the floor. He stoops to pick it up?hesitates?leaves it. He goes upstairs.
As OWEN ascends, HUGH and JIMMY JACK enter. Both wet and drunk. JIMMY is very unsteady. He is trotting hehind HUGH, trying to break in on HUGH'S declamation.
HUGH is equally drunk but more experienced in drunkenness: there is a portion of his mind which retains its clarity.]
