Recompense

Weird Tales ~ Recompense   Robert Ervin Howard

First published in Weird Tales, November 1938

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I have not heard lutes beckon me, nor the brazen bugles call,
But once in the dim of a haunted lea I heard the silence fall.
I have not heard the regal drum, nor seen the flags unfurled,
But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world.

I have not seen the horsemen fall before the hurtling host,
But I have paced a silent hall where each step waked a ghost.
I have not kissed the tiger-feet of a strange-eyed golden god,
But I have walked a city's street where no man else had trod.

I have not raised the canopies that shelter revelling kings,
But I have fled from crimson eyes and black unearthly wings.
I have not knelt outside the door to kiss a pallid queen,
But I have seen a ghostly shore that no man else has seen.

I have not seen the standards sweep from keep and castle wall,
But I have seen a woman leap from a dragon's crimson stall,
And I have heard strange surges boom that no man heard before,
And seen a strange black city loom on a mystic night-black shore.

And I have felt the sudden blow of a nameless wind's cold breath,
And watched the grisly pilgrims go that walk the roads of Death,
And I have seen black valleys gape, abysses in the gloom,
And I have fought the deathless Ape that guards the Doors of Doom.

I have not seen the face of Pan, nor mocked the Dryad's haste,
But I have trailed a dark-eyed Man across a windy waste.
I have not died as men may die, nor sin as men have sinned,
But I have reached a misty sky upon a granite wind.

Oryginalne dzieła tego autora są własnością publiczną w krajach, w których prawa autorskie wygasają po 89 latach (lub mniej) od jego śmierci. cs | de | en | eo | es | fr | he | pl | ru | zh

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Ten utwór, wydany po raz pierwszy po śmierci autora, jest własnością publiczną w krajach, w których prawa autorskie dla tego typu publikacji wygasają po 70 latach od daty pierwszej jego publikacji, niezależnie od daty śmierci autora.

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