"Alexander Green - The ships in Liss" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Alexander)

II


Just as there are such people, so are there families houses, and even
cities and harbours that are guided by a spirit all their own.
There is no port more disorderly and marvellous than Liss, except of
course Zurbagan. The international, multilingual city strongly reminds
one of a tramp who has finally decided to bury himself in the fog of a
settled life. The homes straggle helter-skelter along the vague suggestions
of streets, but streets in the proper sense of the word could not exist in
Liss, if only because the city emerged on the sides of cliffs and hills,
connected by steps, bridges, and spiral-shaped pathways. All of this is
covered by a solid mass of tropical greenery, in the fan-shaped shadow of
which glitter the childlike, blazing eyes of women. A yellow rock, a blue
shadow, and picturesque cracks in old walls; in some knoll-shaped yard a
huge boat is being repaired by a barefoot, unsociable person smoking a
pipe; there is distant singing and its echo in a ravine; a market on piles
beneath tents and huge umbrellas; a weapon's gleam, bright frocks, the
fragrance of flowers and greenery that gives rise to a dull yearning, as in a
dream, for love and trysts; the harbour, as filthy as a young chimney
sweep; sails furled in sleep and a winged morning, green water, coves, and
the ocean's expanse; at night, the magnetic conflagration of stars and
boats with laughing voices-such is Liss. There are two hotels here: the
Prickly Pillow and the Heaven Help Us. The sailors naturally crowded
more thickly in the one that was nearer at hand. It is hard to say which
was nearer in the beginning, but as a result of their competition these
venerable institutions began to skip towards the harbour- in the literal
sense of the word. They moved, rented new quarters, and even built them.
The Heaven Help Us won. A deft move on its part left the Prickly Pillow
rooted amidst some barely negotiable ravines, while the triumphant
Heaven Help Us, after a ten-year struggle and having been the ruin of
three eating houses, settled down to reign right beside the harbour.
Liss's population consists of adventurers, smugglers, and sailors. The
women are divided into angels and shrews; the angels of course are young,
searingly beautiful and tender, while the shrews are old-but one must not
forget that even a shrew can be useful. Take for instance a happy wedding
during which a shrew who had previously concocted infernal
machinations repents and begins a better life.
We will not investigate the reasons why Liss was and is visited
exclusively by sailing vessels. These reasons are of a geographic and
hydrographic nature; altogether, everything in this town produced on us
precisely that impression of independence and poetic rhythm that we
tried to elucidate through the example of a person with pure and clear
needs.