"Lord Dunsany - Idle Days On The Yann (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

Idle Days On The Yann

by Lord Dunsany



So I came down through the wood to the bank of Yann and
found, as had been prophesied, the ship "Bird of the River"
about to loose her cable.
The captain sate cross-legged upon the white deck with
his scimitar lying beside him in its jewelled scabbard, and
the sailors toiled to spread the nimble sails to bring the
ship into the central stream of Yann, and all the while sang
ancient soothing songs. And the wind of the evening
descending cool from the snowfields of some mountainous
abode of distant gods came suddenly, like glad tidings to an
anxious city, into the wing-like sails.
And so we came into the central stream, whereat the
sailors lowered the greater sails. But I had gone to bow
before the captain, and to inquire concerning the miracles,
and appearances among men, of the most holy gods of whatever
land he had come from. And the captain answered that he
came from fair Belzoond, and worshipped gods that were the
least and humblest, who seldom sent the famine or the
thunder, and were easily appeased with little battles. And
I told how I came fromIreland , which is ofEurope , whereat
the captain and all the sailors laughed, for they said,
"There are no such places in all the land of dreams." When
they had ceased to mock me, I explained that my fancy mostly
dwelt in thedesertofCuppar-Nombo , about a beautiful blue
city called Golthoth the Damned, which was sentinelled all
round by wolves and their shadows, and had been utterly
desolate for years and years, because of a curse which the
gods once spoke in anger and could never since recall. And
sometimes my dreams took me as far as Pungar Vees, the red
walled city where the fountains are, which trades with the
Isles and Thul. When I said this they complimented me upon
the abode of my fancy, saying that, though they had never
seen these cities, such places might well be imagined. For
the rest of that evening I bargained with the captain over
the sum that I should pay him for my fare if God and the
tide of Yann should bring us safely as far as the cliffs by
the sea, which are named Bar-Wul-Yann, the Gate of Yann.
And now the sun had set, and all the colors of the world
and heaven had held a festival with him, and slipped one by
one away before the imminent approach of night. The parrots
had all flown home to the jungle on either bank, the monkeys
in rows in safety on high branches of the trees were silent
and asleep, the fireflies in the deeps of the forest were
going up and down, and the great stars came gleaming out to