"Smith, Clark Ashton - The Dead Will Cuckold You" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Clark Ashton)

And make them run to passion's turgid sluice.
How long have you been here ?

Galeor: A month.

Smaragad: It has been
A summer moon full-digited. How many
Of my hot court-ladies have you already bedded ?
Or should I ask how many have bedded you?

Galeor: None, and I swear it by the crescent horns
O Ililot herself, who fosters love
And swells the pulse of lovers.

Smaragad: By my troth,
I would confirm you in such continence,
It is rare in Yoros. Even I when young
Delved deep in whoring and adultery. (Turning to the queen)
Somelis, have you wine? I would we drank
To a chastity so rathe and admirable
In one whose years can hardly have chastened him. (The queen indicates a
silver ewer standing on a taboret together with goblets of the same metal.
Smaragad turns his back to the others and pours wine into three goblets,
opening, as if casually the palm of his free hand over one of them. This he
gives to Galeor. He serves another to the queen, and raises the third to his
lips. )
See, I have served you with my royal hand,
Doing you honor, and we all must drink
To Galeor that he persevere in virtue,
And he must drink with us. (He drinks deeply. The queen raises her goblet to
her lips but barely tastes it. Galeor lifts the wine, then pauses, looking
in to it.)

Galeor: How strangely it foams.

Smaragad: Indeed, such bubbles seem
To rise as if from lips of a drowning man
In some dark purple sea.

Somelis: Your humor is strange,
Nor are there bubbles in the cup you gave me.

Smaragad: Perhaps it was poured more slowly. (To Galeor)
Drink the wine,
It is old and cordial, made by men long dead.
(The poet still hesitates, then empties his goblet at one draught. )
How does it taste to you?

Galeor: It tastes as I have thought that love might taste,
Sweet on the lips, and bitter in the throat. (He reels, then sinks to his