"Mary Stewart - The Arthurian Saga 01 - The Crystal Cave" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

 TheCrystalCave




Merlin 01




Mary Stewart




(1970)




To the Memory of MOLLIE CRAIG

with my love

MERLIN

O Merlin in your crystal cave
Deep in the diamond of the day,
Will there ever be a singer
Whose music will smooth away
The furrow drawn by Adam's finger
Across the meadow and the wave?
Or a runner who'll outrun
Man's long shadow driving on,
Burst through the gates of history,
And hang the apple on the tree?
Will your sorcery ever show
The sleeping bride shut in her bower,
The day wreathed in its mound of snow,
And Time locked in his tower?

тАФ Edwin Muir

PROLOGUE

THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS
 I am an old man now, but then I was already past my prime when Arthur was crowned King. The years
since then seem to me now more dim and faded than the earlier years, as if my life were a growing tree
which burst to flower and leaf with him, and now has nothing more to do than yellow to the grave.