"Ursula K. LeGuin - Earthsea 4 - Tehanu" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

URSULA K. Le GUIN

TEHANU
The Last Book of Earthsea
A Jean Karl Book
ATHENEUM 1990 NEW YORK
 Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawkтАЩs flight on the empty sky.
-The Creation of Ea




Contents
A Bad Thing
Going to the Falcon's Nest
Ogion
Kalessin
Bettering
Worsening
Mice
Hawks
Finding Words
The Dolphin
Home
Winter
The Master
Tehanu
 A Bad Thing
After Farmer Flint of the Middle Valley died, his widow stayed on at the farmhouse. Her son had gone to
sea and her daughter had married a merchant of Valmouth, so she lived alone at Oak Farm. People said
she had been some kind of great person in the foreign land she came from, and indeed the mage Ogion
used to stop by Oak Farm to see her; but that didnтАЩt count for much, since Ogion visited all sorts of
nobodies.
She had a foreign name, but Flint had called her Goha, which is what they call a little white web-
spinning spider on Gont. That name fit well enough, she being white-skinned and small and a good
spinner of goatтАЩs-wool and sheep-fleece. So now she was FlintтАЩs widow, Goha, mistress of a flock of
sheep and the land to pasture them, four fields, an orchard of pears, two tenantsтАЩ cottages, the old stone
farmhouse under the oaks, and the family graveyard over the hill where Flint lay, earth in his earth.
тАЬIтАЩve generally lived near tombstones,тАЭ she said to her daughter.
тАЬOh, mother, come live in town with us!тАЭ said Apple, but the widow would not leave her solitude.
тАЬMaybe later, when there are babies and youтАЩll need a hand,тАЭ she said, looking with pleasure at her
grey-eyed daughter. тАЬBut not now. You donтАЩt need me, And I like it here.тАЭ
When Apple had gone back to her young husband, the widow closed the door and stood on the stone-
flagged floor of the kitchen of the farmhouse. It was dusk, but she did not light the lamp, thinking of her
own husband lighting the lamp: the hands, the spark, the intent, dark face in the catching glow. The house
was silent.
тАЬI used to live in a silent house, alone,тАЭ she thought. тАЬI will do so again.тАЭ She lighted the lamp.