"Dunsany, Lord - Idle Days On The Yann" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

the gipsies, for the mere bread to live by, but beyond that
would never abate her pride to dance for a fragment more.
And the butterflies sung of strange and painted things,
of purple orchids and of lost pink cities and the monstrous
colours of the jungle's decay. And they, too, were among
those whose voices are not discernible by human ears. And
as they floated above the river, going from forest to
forest, their splendour was matched by the inimical beauty
of the birds who darted out to pursue them. Or sometimes
they settled on the white and wax-like blooms of the plant
that creeps and clambers about the trees of the forest; and
their purple wings flashed out on the great blossoms as,
when the caravans go from Nurl to Thace, the gleaming silks
flash out upon the snow, where the crafty merchants spread
them one by one to astonish the mountaineers of the Hills of
Noor.
But upon men and beasts the sun sent drowsiness. The
river monsters along the river's marge lay dormant in the
slime. The sailors pitched a pavillion, with golden
tassels, for the captain upon the deck, and then went, all
but the helmsman, under a sail that they had hung as an
awning between two masts. Then they told tales to one
another, each of his own city or of the miracles of his god,
until all were fallen asleep. The captain offered me the
shade of his pavillion with the gold tassels, and there we
talked for awhile, he telling me that he was taking
merchandise to Perdondaris, and that he would take back to
fair Belzoond things appertaining to the affairs of the
sea. Then, as I watched through the pavillion's opening the
brilliant birds and butterflies that crossed and recrossed
over the river, I fell asleep, and dreamed that I was a
monarch entering his capital underneath arches of flags, and
all the musicians of the world were there, playing
melodiously their instruments; but no one cheered.
In the afternoon, as the day grew cooler again, I awoke
and found the captain buckling on his scimitar, which he had
taken off him while he rested.
And now we were approaching the wide court of Astahahn,
which opens upon the river. Strange boats of antique design
were chained there to the steps. As we neared it we saw the
open marble court, on three sides of which stood the city
fronting on colonnades. And in the court and along the
colonnades the people of that city walked with solemnity and
care according to the rites of ancient ceremony. All in
that city was of ancient device; the carving on the houses,
which, when age had broken it, remained unrepaired, was of
the remotest times, and everywhere were represented in stone
beasts that have long since passed away from Earth -- the
dragon, the griffin, the hippogriffin, and the different
species of gargoyle. Nothing was to be found, whether