"Smith, Clark Ashton - The Muse Of Atlantis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Clark Ashton)

The Muse of Atlantis

by Clark Ashton Smith


Will you not join me in Atlantis, where we will go down through streets of blue
and yellow marble to the wharves of orichalch, and choose us a galley with a
golden Eros for figure-head, and sails of Tyrian sendal? With mariners that knew
Odysseus, and beautiful amber-breasted slaves from the mountain-vales of
Lemuria, we will lift anchor for the unknown fortunate isles of the outer sea;
and, sailing in the wake of an opal sunset, will lose that ancient land in the
glaucous twilight, and see from our couch of ivory and satin the rising of
unknown stars and perished planets. Perhaps we will not return, but will follow
the tropic summer from isle to halcyon isle, across the amaranthine seas of myth
and fable; we will eat the lotus, and the fruit of lands whereof Odysseus never
dreamt; and drink the pallid wines of faery, grown in a vale of perpetual
moonlight. I will find for you a necklace of rosy-tinted pearls, and a necklace
of yellow rubies, and crown you with precious corals that have the semblance, of
sanguine-coloured blossoms. We will roam in the marts of forgotten cities of
jasper, and carnelian-builded ports beyond Cathay; and I will buy you a gown of
peacock azure damascened with copper and gold and vermilion; and a gown of black
samite with runes of orange, woven by fantastic sorcery without the touch of
hands, in a dim land of spells and philtres.