Читать книгу Taliessin through Logres - Charles Williams - Страница 6

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Arthur was young; Merlin met him on the road.

Wolfish, the wizard stared, coming from the wild,

black with hair, bleak with hunger, defiled

from a bed in the dung of cattle, inhuman his eyes.

Bold stood Arthur; the snow beat; Merlin spoke:

Now am I Camelot; now am I to be builded.

King Cradlemas sits by Thames; a mask o’ergilded

covers his wrinkled face, all but one eye.

Cold and small he settles his rump in the cushions.

Through the emerald of Nero one short-sighted eye

peers at the pedlars of wealth that stand plausibly by.

The bleak mask is gilded with a maiden’s motionless smile.

The high aged voice squeals with callous comfort.

He sits on the bank of Thames, a sea-snail’s shell

fragile, fragilely carved, cast out by the swell

on to the mud; his spirit withers and dies.

He withers; he peers at the tide; he squeals.

He warms himself by the fire and eats his food

through a maiden’s motionless mouth; in his mood

he polishes his emerald, misty with tears for the poor.

The waste of snow covers the waste of thorn;

on the waste of hovels snow falls from a dreary sky;

mallet and scythe are silent; the children die.

King Cradlemas fears that the winter is hard for the poor.

Draw now the tide, spring moon, swing now the depth;

under the snow that falls over brick and prickle,

the people ebb; draw up the hammer and sickle.

The banner of Bors is abroad; where is the king?

Bors is up; his wife Elayne behind him

ends the farms, gets food from Gaul; the south

is up with hammer and sickle, and holds Thames mouth.

Lancelot hastens, coming with wagons and ships.

The sea-snail lies by Thames; O wave of Pendragon,

roll it, swallow it; pull the mask o’ergilded

from the one-eyed face that blinks at the comfort builded

in London’s ruins; I am Camelot; Arthur, raise me.

Arthur ran; the people marched; in the snow

King Cradlemas died in his litter; a screaming few

fled; Merlin came; Camelot grew.

In Logres the king’s friend landed, Lancelot of Gaul.