"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
And utmost Indian Isle Taprobane...

(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