Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

Author:Colin Thubron
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780061809620
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1989-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

In the black silence, while I lie exhausted without sleep, and there is nothing more to do, the Sogdian trader stirs, closer in times of stress.

What about those you love? What about all you’ve left undone? You could have been killed. Don’t you think about death?

Yes, it’s never far. You, whose lives were shorter than ours, harder, what did you think?

We sacrificed to our gods, and did not think. That’s how we are, humans. [Pause.] But we paid our debts.

What do you mean?

I would have slit that throat in the moonlight.

No, he was only drunk. And these people are like those mine once enslaved. Poor people. So there are things we can’t say, can’t do. Our values are imperialist. This is guilt because of our ancestors. You will understand.

You must learn to slit his throat, idiot. Pay him that compliment. [He fingers his own neck.] When those lights came for you, weren’t you afraid?

I have to think, then answer: No, just numb.

Ah yes. Death is like that. I knew a glass-trader from Yarkand who told me death would be momentous, that just before the end, everything would be revealed. He leant over a well in the Rafad caravanserai by night, and fell in. That was his revelation. Water drowns you.

Why do these ironies please you?

Because of you. You want significance; but it doesn’t come. Death is not beautiful. It’s nothing. Death for the dead does not exist. [Silence.] And you put yourself at the mercy of a drunk! I’d rather trust a lame donkey. [Pause.] But we do what we are born to. I’ve known caravans disappear under the sand. The merchants walk on over them.

[Bitterly:] Business as usual.

When the trade in sable dried up at Itil, they said the town was finished. But then honey came in from Siberia, and amber… [His voice starts to fade.] Did you know that amber embalms? You can see…bees in it…and tigers’ eyes…eternal life…

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.