Urien's Voyage Read Online Free PDF Page A

small waves. We would have liked to swim in this ocean fairyland, but we dared not bathe for fear of crabs and lampreys.
    In this manner the queen entertained us; though we continued to resist, our hearts thrilled at the sight of the marvels through which she hoped to seduce us. At night in the boat at sea, watching the stars and constellations wholly unlike those that appear in our skies, we sang:
    â€œQueen! Queen of chimerical islands, queen with necklaces of coral, you whom we would have loved if you had come at dawn, queen of our despair, beautiful Haïatalnefus, oh let us depart!”
    Then she said, “Why? What will you do?” and we did not know the answer. She continued:
    â€œStay with us; I yearn for you. One night, I would have you know, you were sleeping in your rooms; without a sound I came and kissed your eyes, and your soul was refreshed by the kiss that I placed on them. Stay. The winds have fallen, and you no longer have a ship. What will you seek elsewhere?”
    And we did not know what to say, for she could not understand that all of this could not satisfy the vast yearning of our souls. We were weeping in our anxiety.
    â€œMadame, oh what should I say to you? Nobility and supreme beauty always draw our tears. As beautiful as you are, Madame, you are not so beautiful as our lives; and the brave deeds that lie before us illuminate our paths like stars.”
    Then, elated by the night and the ease with which words came, I declaimed, thinking that I could see in the past a reflection of the brave deeds that awaited us:
    â€œOh! Oh, Madame, if only you knew about the missions and cavalcades of our youth: majestic hunts in the forest; glorious deliverances and the return, in the evening, along the same path and through the dust; and the joy of having accomplished our day’s task! And our exhaustion, Madame, and our sad appearance! How serious our lives! And how we bestrode the mountain as the sun sank and shadows claimed the valley; sometimes we felt that we were about to catch our chimeras, and our hearts fluttered with happiness!…
    The queen kept looking at me, the trace of a smile in her eyes, and asking:
    â€œIs that true?”
    But I was so convinced that I said to her:
    â€œOh, yes, Madame.”
    As the moon moved onward I cried out:
    â€œI am so sad for her because of her pallor.”
    Then the queen spoke up:
    â€œWhat does it matter to you?” she asked. And suddenly the aptness of her question forced me to agree.
    And thus the days passed, given over to excursions or festivities.
    One evening the queen had playfully dropped a ring from one of her fingers into the deep sea. It was not an expensive ring but had been given to her, like all her rings, by Camaralzaman, her husband. It was old and had an aventurine set in a bezel supported by plaited strands of pale gold. It could still be seen when plants changed their position on the blue sand where pink anemones glistened, pensive and bewildered. Clarion, Agloval and Morgain equipped themselves for diving and descended; I did not follow them—not because I was too bored but because I was too anxious, for the mysterious depths of the sea had always attracted me. They remained underwater for a long time; as soon as they surfaced I questioned them, but they fell into a deep sleep, and when they were awakened they seemed to remember nothing, or to be unwilling to answer me.
    â€œIt was so dark all around me that I could see nothing,” said Angloval.
    â€œA paralyzing torpor overpowered my thoughts,” said Clarion, “and then I could think only of the relucent sleep that one would sleep in this fresh water, lying on the soft algae.”
    Morgain remained silent and sad, and when I begged him to relate what he had seen, he replied that even if he so willed, he could not find the right words.
    Then came new festivities, decorative lights and dances; in this way still other days passed, and we were