"Dunsany, Lord - Golden Doom, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

Yet sometimes the gods laugh.

Second Sentry:
At whom?

First Sentry:
At kings.

Second Sentry:
Why have you grown uneasy about this war in the hills?

First Sentry:
Because the King is powerful beyond any of his fathers,
and has more fighting men, more horses, and wealth that
could have ransomed his father and his grandfather and
dowered their queens and daughters; and every year his
miners bring him more from the opal-mines and from the
turquoise-quarries. He has grown very mighty.

Second Sentry:
Then he will the more easily crush the hill-folk in a
little war.

First Sentry:
When kings grow very mighty the stars grow very
jealous.

Boy:
I've written your poem.

Girl:
Oh, have you really?

Boy:
Yes, I'll read it to you. {He reads}
I saw a purple bird
Go up against the sky
And it went up and up
And round about did fly.
I saw it die.

Girl:
It does n't scan.

Boy:
That does n't matter.

{Enter furtively a Spy, who crosses stage and goes
out. The Sentries cease to talk.}