Читать книгу The City of Dreadful Night - Thomson James - Страница 6

  He stood alone within the spacious square

    Declaiming from the central grassy mound,

  With head uncovered and with streaming hair,

    As if large multitudes were gathered round:

  A stalwart shape, the gestures full of might,

  The glances burning with unnatural light:—

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: All was black,

  In heaven no single star, on earth no track;

  A brooding hush without a stir or note,

  The air so thick it clotted in my throat;

  And thus for hours; then some enormous things

  Swooped past with savage cries and clanking wings:

    But I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: Eyes of fire

  Glared at me throbbing with a starved desire;

  The hoarse and heavy and carnivorous breath

  Was hot upon me from deep jaws of death;

  Sharp claws, swift talons, fleshless fingers cold

  Plucked at me from the bushes, tried to hold:

    But I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: Lo you, there,

  That hillock burning with a brazen glare;

  Those myriad dusky flames with points a-glow

  Which writhed and hissed and darted to and fro;

  A Sabbath of the Serpents, heaped pell-mell

  For Devil's roll-call and some fete of Hell:

    Yet I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: Meteors ran

  And crossed their javelins on the black sky-span;

  The zenith opened to a gulf of flame,

  The dreadful thunderbolts jarred earth's fixed frame;

  The ground all heaved in waves of fire that surged

  And weltered round me sole there unsubmerged:

    Yet I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: Air once more,

  And I was close upon a wild sea-shore;

  Enormous cliffs arose on either hand,

  The deep tide thundered up a league-broad strand;

  White foambelts seethed there, wan spray swept and flew;

  The sky broke, moon and stars and clouds and blue:

    Yet I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: On the left

  The sun arose and crowned a broad crag-cleft;

  There stopped and burned out black, except a rim,

  A bleeding eyeless socket, red and dim;

  Whereon the moon fell suddenly south-west,

  And stood above the right-hand cliffs at rest:

    Yet I strode on austere;

    No hope could have no fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: From the right

  A shape came slowly with a ruddy light;

  A woman with a red lamp in her hand,

  Bareheaded and barefooted on that strand;

  O desolation moving with such grace!

  O anguish with such beauty in thy face!

    I fell as on my bier,

    Hope travailed with such fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: I was twain,

  Two selves distinct that cannot join again;

  One stood apart and knew but could not stir,

  And watched the other stark in swoon and her;

  And she came on, and never turned aside,

  Between such sun and moon and roaring tide:

    And as she came more near

    My soul grew mad with fear.

  As I came through the desert thus it was,

  As I came through the desert: Hell is mild

  And piteous matched with that accursed wild;

  A large black sign was on her breast that bowed,