"Dunsany, Lord - Time and the Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

Time went forth into the worlds to obey the commands of the
gods, yet he cast furtive glances at his masters, and the
gods distrusted Time because he had known the worlds or ever
the gods became.
One day when furtive Time had gone into the worlds to
nimbly smite some city whereof the gods were weary, the gods
above the twilight speaking to one another said:
"Surely we are the lords of Time and gods of the worlds
besides. See how our city Sardathrion lifts over other
cities. Others arise and perish but Sardathrion standeth
yet, the first and the last of cities. Rivers are lost in
the sea and streams forsake the hills, but ever
Sardathrion's fountains arise in our dream city. As was
Sardathrion when the gods were young, so are her streets
to-day as a sign that we are the gods."
Suddenly the swart figure of Time stood up before the
gods, with both hands dripping with blood and a red sword
dangling idly from his fingers, and said:
"Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!"
And the gods said:
"Sardathrion? Sardathrion, the marble city? Thou, thou
hast overthrown it? Thou, the slave of the gods?"
And the oldest of the gods said:
"Sardathrion, Sardathrion, and is Sardathrion gone?"
And furtively Time looked him in the face and edged
towards him fingering with his dripping fingers the hilt of
his nimble sword.
Then the gods feared with a new fear that he that had
overthrown Their city would one day slay the gods. And a
new cry went wailing through the Twilight, the lament of the
gods for Their dream city, crying:
"Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.
"But this the gods may do who have seen, and seen with
unrelenting eyes, the sorrows of ten thousand worlds -- thy
gods may weep for thee.
"Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.
"Believe it not, Sardathrion, that ever thy gods sent
this doom to thee; he that hath overthrown thee shall
overthrow thy gods.
"How oft when Night came suddenly on Morning playing in
the fields of Twilight did we watch thy pinnacles emerging
from the darkness, Sardathrion, Sardathrion, dream city of
the gods, and thine onyx lions looming limb by limb from the
dusk.
"How often have we sent our child the Dawn to play with
thy fountain tops; how often hath Evening, loveliest of our
goddesses, strayed long upon thy balconies.
"Let one fragment of thy marbles stand up above the dust
for thine old gods to caress, as a man when all else is lost
treasures one lock of the hair of his beloved.