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

therebyare heaped up dry and stranded, and the gods walk
notamong them evermore, because they are hard to their
feet. These are the worlds that have no destiny, whose
people know no god. And the river sweeps onwards ever. And
thename of the river isOriathon , but men call it Ocean.
This is the Lower Faith of the Inner lands. And there is a
Higher Faith which is not told to all. According to the
Higher Faith of the Inner Lands the riverOriathon sweeps on
throughthe forests of Infinity and all at once falls
roaringover an Edge, whence Time has long ago recalled his
hoursto fight in his war with the gods; and falls unlit by
theflash of nights and days, with his flood unmeasured by
miles, into the deeps of nothing.
Now as the centuries went by and the one way by which a
mancould climbPoltarnees became worn with feet, more and
more men surmounted it, not to return. And still they knew
notin the Inner Lands upon what mysteryPoltarnees looked.
For on a still day and windless, while men walked happily
abouttheir beautiful streets or tended flocks in the
country, suddenly the west wind would bestir himself and
come in from the Sea. And he would come cloaked and grey
andmournful and carry to someone the hungry cry of the Sea
calling out for bones of men. And he that heard it would
moverestlessly for some hours, and at last would rise
suddenly, irresistibly up, setting his face toPoltarnees ,
andwould say, as is the custom of those lands when men part
briefly, "Till a man's heartremembereth ," which means,
"Farewell for a while;" but those that loved him, seeing his
eyesonPoltarnees , would answer sadly, "Till the gods
forget," which means "Farewell."
Now the King ofArizim had a daughter who played with the
wildwood flowers, and with the fountains in her father's
court, and with the little blue heaven-birds that came to
her doorway in the winter to shelter from the snow. And she
wasmore beautiful than the wild wood flowers, or than all
thefountains in her father's court, or than the blue
heaven-birdsin their full winter plumage when they shelter
from the snow. The old wise kings ofMondath and ofToldees
sawher once as she went lightly down the little paths of
hergarden, and, turning their gaze into the mists of
thought, pondered the destiny of their Inner Lands. And
theywatched her closely by the stately flowers, and
standingalone in the sunlight, and passing andrepassing
thestrutting purple birds that the king's fowlers had
brought fromAsagehon. When she was of the age of fifteen
years the King ofMondath called a council of kings. And
there met with him the kings ofToldees andArizim. And the
King ofMondath in his Council said:
"The call of the unappeased and hungry Sea" (and at the
word`Sea' the three kings bowed their heads) "lures every