(Edward John Moreton Drax
Plunkett,
24 luglio 1878 – Dublin, 25 ottobre 1957)
The emperor's crystal
The ibex-hunter found it
among incredible pinnacles, a crystal with water in it; and took it to the
Emperor. He had found it just before dawn in a white cliff facing eastwards;
for hundreds of centuries it had glistened there, giving back rays to the
sunrise, where the gods or the sea had left it, who knows when ?
The Emperor had treasured
it, turning it over often in that small fat palm of his, with the whimsical way
he had; and none knew what he was thinking. For years he had treasured it, till
the little waves that rocked in the crystal's heart had reflected for thousands
of times that brooding look. And then one day he sent if as a gift to the King
of Mesch. He called Alhoderic who came with his scimitar and his camel and took
the huge hollow crystal in both his hands, kneeling before the Emperor. None
knew for what strange service he sent such a gift to that king, he had told
none, that was not the way of the Emperor. Or, perhaps, he had merely wearied
of that crystal and those little waves that rocked.
Alhoderic did not ask, did
not wonder; a duty, that was all; others would go on guard alternate days for
seven weeks on the Gateway. Alhoderic rode to the desert. It was wrapped in
many silks, deep in a wallet lined with soft wool and hair, the silks to please
the eye of the King of Mesch, but the wool and hair were put there by Alhoderic
to protect him from the wrath that would come if the crystal broke, and death
at the hands of the slave of the Emperor's dwarf, whose moods were mostly
maniacal. Alhoderic rode alone. Whenever he halted he drew the crystal forth to
see how it fared, and the waves had sight of the desert's sun, and twinkled
back to the desert's stars at night, a secret they seemed to Alhoderic to have
only amongst themselves.
He rode on. Nine days he
rode, being near the midst of his journey; and then, a menace, no more than
that, a menace, but very near, the siroc rode by from the north-west. It did
not touch Alhoderic and his camel : both saw it, both knew it, both felt the
flick of its skirts. In the desert all those days such knowledge as one must
have was equal with Alhoderic and his camel, as needs were equal. Of the things
that were needful to know, neither knew more than the other. The camel eyed the
siroc, as it rode north-west, at once; made a half turn and galloped. Alhoderic
did not guide him. The long legs splayed over the desert, and the king of those
lands rode by.
For three days they sped
away from the desert's deadly visitor. And then far off, for love of the golden
sand, in an unknown hollow of sand, the siroc whispered; stooped and whispered
and slept; and roared no more. Alhoderic turned again to the camel-track.
Things are hard to find in
cities, harder to find in the desert. Many things are lost in cities; all
Alhoderic needed now was the camel-track.
Amongst the inscrutable
ways of so vast a desert he wandered and did not find it. Five days passed, and
the water was growing low in the saddle-flasks. Three more days and, the water
being now very low, Alhoderic perceived one evening how weak was the wit of
man; he perceived this and thought on it, then left it all to his camel.
Dawn came and he said
whatever he had to say to his camel; I know not how he said it; but the
guiding-rope was slack for three days on the camel's neck; and the wise beast
went on, searching.
And the desert was wiser
than that camel. He gets by inscrutable means through unreckoned ages a wisdom from
older gods that the camel knew.
And one day, just at dawn,
they found the camel track, overcoming no wiles of the desert, that he learned
from ferocious gods ; for the desert smiled for miles, knowing they were too
late.
Alhoderic knew, and the
camel knew, that the water was gone. The journey's end, and lakes, lay only two
days ahead. One more drink might do it, but the saddle-flasks were dry.
Alhoderic thought of the huge crystal he carried, warmed for so many years by
the Emperor's sacred palm, into which the imperial eyes so often gazed : far
off there seemed to await it dim spires in the city of Mesch.
Alhoderic thought of it and
drew it out and looked — though a man hitherto with little imagination — with
that intense, far-off look with which the Emperor himself had gazed. Who knows
what dreams the Emperor had had as he looked in the crystal ? Alhoderic dreamed
of water. And there were the little waves rocking and smiling at him.
Many dreams had Alhoderic
had as a boy, many far thoughts and fancies : he had loved many women, many had
smiled at him; he had seen dawns in war, had had hopes and ambitions, and now
he looked at the rocking, smiling water and knew no hope nor ambition, no
dreams, no love any more, save the wish for that smiling water.
The camel thought the last
thought that camels have, whatever that thought may be.
The water gurgled and
winked at Alhoderic and smiled at him with its waves; a drink, enough for two
days. The desert saw those careless smiles and wondered, for they mocked his grasping
sands as they used to mock the Emperor.
Alhoderic, seated on the
sand by his dead camel raised up the hilt of his curved scimitar, with its
little gems that his fathers had long since gripped in battle, and broke, very
gently, the top of the Emperor's crystal. The water was salt.
*
The opening paragraph of "The Hoard of
the Gibbelins" from The Book of Wonder, (1912)
gives a good indication of both the tone and
tenor of Dunsany's style at the time:
The Gibbelins eat, as is well known,
nothing less good than man. Their evil tower is joined to Terra Cognita, to the
lands we know, by a bridge. Their hoard is beyond reason; avarice has no use
for it; they have a separate cellar for emeralds and a separate cellar for
sapphires; they have filled a hole with gold and dig it up when they need it.
And the only use that is known for their ridiculous wealth is to attract to
their larder a continual supply of food. In times of famine they have even been
known to scatter rubies abroad, a little trail of them to some city of Man, and
sure enough their larders would soon be full again.*
tuttilibri o quasi
racconti brevi
·
Gli
dei di Pegana (The gods of Pegāna, 1905);
·
Il
tempo e gli dei (Time and the gods, 1906);
·
La spada di Welleran (The sword
of Welleran, 1908);
·
Racconti
di un sognatore (A dreamer's tales, 1910)
·
Il libro delle meraviglie (The book
of wonder, 1912)
·
Cinquantuno storie (Fifty-one
tales, aka The food of death, 1915);
·
Racconti
del meraviglioso (Tales of wonder, 1916);
·
Racconti
dei tre emisferi (Tales of three hemispheres, 1919);
·
L'uomo
che mangiò la fenice (The man who ate the phoenix, 1947);
·
Le
piccole storie di Smethers (The little tales of Smethers, 1952);
·
Selezione delle opere di lord Dunsany (Selections
from the writings of lord Dunsany, 1912,
edito da William
Butler Yeats);
·
Racconti
di un sognatore e altre storie (A dreamer's tales & other
stories, 1917);
·
Libro
del meraviglioso (Book of wonder, 1918);
·
La spada di Welleran e altre storie di
incantesimo (The
sword of Welleran and other tales of enchantment, 1954);
·
Al termine del mondo (At the
edge of the world, 1970);
·
Oltre i confini che conosciamo (Beyond
the fields we know, 1972);
·
Dei, uomini e fantasmi (Gods, men
and ghosts, 1972);
·
Sulle colline ed oltre (Over the
hills and far away, 1974);
·
Bethmoora e altre storie (Bethmoora
and other stories, 1993);
·
Il club dell'esilio e altre storie (The
Exiles Club and other stories, 1993);
·
Le terre del meraviglioso (The lands
of wonder, 1994);
·
The Hashish Man and other stories (1996);
·
The
complete Pegana (1998);
·
Il
tempo e gli dei (Time and the gods, 2000);
·
Nella
terra del tempo (In the land of time, 2004);
·
The travel tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens (1931);
·
Jorkens remembers Africa (1934);
·
Jorkens has a large whiskey (1940);
·
The fourth book of Jorkens (1948);
·
Jorkens borrows another whiskey (1954);
·
The last book of Jorkens (2002);
romanzi
·
Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley aka The chronicles of
Rodriguez (1922);
·
La figlia del Re degli Elfi (The King
of Elfland's Daughter 1924);
·
The charwoman's shadow (1926),
seconda parte delle Shadow
Valley Chronicles;
·
The blessing of Pan (1927);
·
La maledizione della veggente (The curse
of the wise woman (1933);
·
My talks with Dean Spanley (1936);
·
The strange journeys of Colonel Polders (1950);
·
Up in the hills (1935);
·
Rory and Bran (1936);
·
The story of Mona Sheehy (1939);
·
Guerilla (1944);
·
The last revolution (1951);
·
His fellow men (1952);
·
The pleasures of a futuroscope (2003);
opere
teatrali
·
Five
plays (1914);
·
Plays of gods and men (1917);
·
If (1921);
·
Plays of near and far (1922);
·
Alexander and Three small plays (1925);
·
Seven modern comedies (1928);
·
The old folk of the centuries (1930);
·
Mr. Faithful (1935);
·
Plays for earth and air (1937);
poesia
Fifty poems (1929)
·
Mirage water (1938);
·
War poems (1941);
·
Wandering songs (1943);
·
A journey (1944);
·
The year (1946);
·
The odes of Horace (1947);
·
To awaken Pegasus (1949);
saggi
·
Nowadays (1918)
·
Tales of war (1918);
·
Unhappy far-off things (1919);
·
If I were dictator (1934);
·
My Ireland (1937);
·
The Donnellan Lectures 1943 (1945);
·
A glimpse from a watchtower (1947);
·
The jest of Hahalaba (1929);
Opere
autobiografiche
·
Patches of sunlight (1938);
·
While the sirens slept (1944);
·
The sirens wake (1945);
