"Lord Dunsany - Poltarnees, Beholder Of Ocean (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

Poltarnees, BeholderOf Ocean

byLordDunsany




Toldees,Mondath ,Arizim , these are the Inner Lands, the
landswhose sentinels upon their borders do not behold the
sea. Beyond them to the east there lies a desert, for ever
untroubledby man: all yellow it is, and spotted with
shadowsof stones, and Death is in it, like a leopard lying
in the sun. To the south they are bounded by magic, to the
westby a mountain, and to the north by the voice and anger
of the Polar wind. Like a great wall is the mountain to the
west. It comes up out of the distance and goes down into
thedistance again, and it is namedPoltarnees , Beholder of
Ocean. To the northward red rocks, smooth andbare of soil,
andwithout any speck of moss or herbage, slope up to the
verylips of the Polar wind, and there is nothing else there
but the noise of his anger. Very peaceful are the Inner
Lands, and very fair are their cities, and there is no war
among them, but quiet and ease. And they have no enemy but
age, for thirst and fever lie sunning themselves out in the
mid-desert, and never prowl into the Inner Lands. And the
ghoulsand ghosts, whose highway is the night, are kept in
the south by the boundary of magic. And very small are
theirpleasant cities, and all men are known to one another
therein, and bless one another by name as they meet in the
streets. And they have a broad, green way in every city
thatcomes in out of some vale or wood ordownland , and
wandersin and out about the city between the houses and
acrossthe streets; and the people walk along it never at
all, but every year at her appointed time Spring walks along
itfrom the flowery lands, causing the anemone to bloom on
thegreen way and all the early joys of hidden woods, or
deep, secluded vales, or triumphantdownlands , whose heads
liftup so proudly, far up aloof from cities.
Sometimeswaggoners or shepherds walk along this way,
theythat have come into the city from over cloudy ridges,
andthe townsmen hinder them not, for there is a tread that
troubleththe grass and a tread thattroubleth it not, and
each man in his own heartknoweth which tread he hath. And
inthe sunlit spaces of the weald and in thewold's dark
places, afar from the music of cities and from the dance of
thecities afar, they make there the music of the country
places and dance the country dance. Amiable, near and
friendlyappears to these men the sun, and as he is genial
tothem and tends their younger vines, so they are kind to
thelittle woodland things and any rumour of the fairies or