"Arthur C. Clarke. The fountains of paradise" - читать интересную книгу автора 55. Hard Dock
56. View from the Balcony 57. The Last Dawn 58. Epilogue: Kalidasa's Triumph Afterword: Sources and Acknowledgments Foreword "From Paradise to Taprobane is forty leagues; there may be heard the sound of the Fountains of Paradise." Traditional: reported by Friar Marignolli (A.D. 1335) The country I have called Taprobane does not quite exist, but is about ninety percent congruent with the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Though the Afterword will make clear what locations, events and personalities are based on fact, the reader will not go far wrong in assuming that the more unlikely the story, the closer it is to reality. The name "Taprobane" is now usually spoken to rhyme with "plain", but the correct classical pronunciation is "Tap-ROB-a-nee" -as Milton, of course, well knew: "From India and the golden Chersoness (Paradise Regained, Book IV) I - THE PALACE 1. Kalidasa The crown grew heavier with each passing year. When the Venerable Bodhidharma Mahanayake Thero had - so reluctantly! - first placed it upon his head, Prince Kalidasa was surprised by its lightness. Now, twenty years later, King Kalidasa gladly relinquished the jewel-encrusted band of gold, whenever court etiquette allowed. There was little of that here, upon the windswept summit of the rock fortress; few envoys or petitioners sought audience on its forbidding heights. Many of those who made the journey to Yakkagala turned back at the final ascent, through the very jaws of the crouching lion, that seemed always about to spring from the face of the rock. An old king could never sit upon this heaven-aspiring throne. One day, Kalidasa might be too feeble to reach his own palace. But he doubted if that day would ever come; his many enemies would spare him the humiliations of age. These enemies were gathering now. He glanced towards the north, as if he could already see the armies of his half-brother, returning to claim the blood-stained throne of Taprobane. But that threat was still far off, across monsoon-riven seas; although Kalidasa put more trust in his spies than his |
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