The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš

Author:Danilo Kiš
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780141396996
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2015-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

16

‘O thou who art blessed, thou shalt stand before the Emperor!’ No, it was no dream. He could still recall the voice, perhaps not the face, but the voice bursting with exaltation, a voice cracking with fear or fervor. ‘O thou who art blessed!’

And lying there motionless, in the cart, he saw the red beard and light blue eyes of a young man leaning over him, from behind, in such a way that his face, upside down, hovered directly above him and blocked the sun. ‘O thou who art blessed!’ Was the young man saying that to him, Dionysius, or were dream and reality still toying with his consciousness?

Staring into the young man’s eyes, he noted with mistrust that they were observing and following his own, timidly and apprehensively perhaps, but with a certain youthful insolence.

And looking up at him mutely, Dionysius saw his thin lips and red beard begin to move, and he read the words from those lips before his ears brought them to his consciousness: ‘O thou who art blessed!’

Was it not mockery and scorn? Was it not the voice of his dream, the voice of his illusions?

And Dionysius said, ‘Who art thou?’ – his voice emerging abruptly, scarcely audible. The insolence in those light blue eyes now seemed to have vanished, and the young man quickly turned away, his red-tipped eyelashes coming down over his eyes and his lips beginning to move again.

‘O thou who art blessed! I am thy slave and the slave of thy master!’

Were they, too, a dream? Those stuttering lips, that quivering beard?

‘Decius is not my master!’ he uttered, expecting a lion’s roar in return. But lo! just as he closed his eyes the better to hear the lion roar, the face of the young man with the red beard vanished, leaving only the vast heavens spread out above him.

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