Rasskazy by Jeff Parker

Author:Jeff Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tin House Books
Published: 2010-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

XII

Spring has come to St. Petersburg...

There are puddles and mud outside. But in the sky the sun is warm.Yes, the world still has a sun, and not just a white stain above us, as it was in the winter. It gives off heat like a country stove.

Probably I need to wander through the lanes and courtyards, breathe in the smells of thawing refuse, listen to the loud, springtime cawing of the crows. I did all this in my previous lives and perhaps I’ll do it in the next.

In this one, I sit in the old building. I look into the flickering glow of the monitor. Sometimes I read books, books on history, books about times long since past. It is absurd. Now things are different. Everything is entirely different. Now things are utterly different.

... And there was the land of Sim Sim to the north of the Great Mountains. It was settled by people who cultivated the earth and worked metal. The large city in the heart of the land of Sim Sim had ornate walls and tall towers. The people of Sim Sim never attacked anyone, never started wars.

But others attacked them. The land of Sim Sim occupied a site at the gateway between north and south, and conquerors from each side strove to break through. Alexander the Two-Horned, Timur the Lame, Khan Baty . . . The proud people of Sim Sim would not swear allegiance to the empires, they went out to battle against the enormous armies. And they fell in battle.

Sim Sim became deserted . . . The remnants of its people hid in the mountains. Centuries passed, and they returned to their native land, but a new conqueror once more eliminated the rebellious.

There is an ancient song about Bird’s Wing Tower . . . Timur the Lame, the great conqueror, was so embittered at the resistance of the little nation that he sent a reprisal expedition to the mountains. Timur’s warriors threw from the tall cliffs everyone they found in the mountains. Thus had Timur commanded, for the only good Chechen is a peaceful Chechen, and the only peaceful Chechen is a dead Chechen.

Three times the warriors of Sim Sim went out to battle with the army of the Golden Horde. They were betrayed by all their allies, who had been bought by the Tatar khans.Yet only when not a single warrior was left living could the Horde break through the gateway to the north and attack the kingdom of Rus. The years passed. Mothers nursed their children, and ere their beards were grown, they had raised a revolt against the khan’s rule.

To quell the uprising of the rebellious Chechens the khan appointed his faithful vassals—the Russian princes. The princes and their retinues hurried to help the Tatars deal with the people who had stood till their last breath on the frontline, shielding Rus and Europe from the Horde. Thus Russians first came to the land of Sim Sim. They burned the villages and killed the people—men, women, children, and the elderly.

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.