He who is Sultan so remote to the East that his dominions were deemed
fabulous in Babylon, whose name is a by-word for distance today in the
streets of Bagdad, whose capital bearded travellers invoke by name in
the gate at evening to gather hearers to their tales when the smoke of
tobacco arises, dice rattle and taverns shine; even he in that very
city made mandate, and said: "Let there be brought hither all my
learned men that they may come before me and rejoice my heart with
learning."
Men ran and clarions sounded, and it was so that there came before the
Sultan all of his learned men. And many were found wanting. But of
those that were able to say acceptable things, ever after to be named
The Fortunate, one said that to the South of the Earth lay a Land--
said Land was crowned with lotus--where it was summer in our winter
days and where it was winter in summer.
And when the Sultan of those most distant lands knew that the Creator
of All had contrived a device so vastly to his delight his merriment
knew no bounds. On a sudden he spake and said, and this was the gist
of his saying, that upon that line of boundary or limit that divided
the North from the South a palace be made, where in the Northern
courts should summer be, while in the South was winter; so should he
move from court to court according to his mood, and dally with the
summer in the morning and spend the noon with snow. So the Sultan's
poets were sent for and bade to tell of that city, foreseeing its
splendour far away to the South and in the future of time; and some
were found fortunate. And of those that were found fortunate and were
crowned with flowers none earned more easily the Sultan's smile (on
which long days depended) than he that foreseeing the city spake of it
thus:
"In seven years and seven days, O Prop of Heaven, shall thy builders
build it, thy palace that is neither North nor South, where neither
summer nor winter is sole lord of the hours. White I see it, very
vast, as a city, very fair, as a woman, Earth's wonder, with many
windows, with thy princesses peering out at twilight; yea, I behold
the bliss of the gold balconies, and hear a rustling down long
galleries and the doves' coo upon its sculptured eaves. O Prop of
Heaven, would that so fair a city were built by thine ancient sires,
the children of the sun, that so might all men see it even today, and
not the poets only, whose vision sees it so far away to the South and
in the future of time.
"O King of the Years, it shall stand midmost on that line that
divideth equally the North from the South and that parteth the seasons
asunder as with a screen. On the Northern side when summer is in the
North thy silken guards shall pace by dazzling walls while thy
spearsmen clad in furs go round the South. But at the hour of noon in
the midmost day of the year thy chamberlain shall go down from his
high place and into the midmost court, and men with trumpets shall go
down behind him, and he shall utter a great cry at noon, and the men
with trumpets shall cause their trumpets to blare, and the spearsmen
clad in furs shall march to the North and thy silken guard shall take
their place in the South, and summer shall leave the North and go to
the South, and all the swallows shall rise and follow after. And alone
in thine inner courts shall no change be, for they shall lie narrowly
along that line that parteth the seasons in sunder and divideth the
North from the South, and thy long gardens shall lie under them.
"And in thy gardens shall spring always be, for spring lies ever at
the marge of summer; and autumn also shall always tint thy gardens,
for autumn always flares at winter's edge, and those gardens shall lie
apart between winter and summer. And there shall be orchards in thy
garden, too, with all the burden of autumn on their boughs and all the
blossom of spring.
"Yea, I behold this palace, for we see future things; I see its white
wall shine in the huge glare of midsummer, and the lizards lying along
it motionless in the sun, and men asleep in the noonday, and the
butterflies floating by, and birds of radiant plumage chasing
marvellous moths; far off the forest and great orchids glorying there,
and iridescent insects dancing round in the light. I see the wall upon
the other side; the snow has come upon the battlements, the icicles
have fringed them like frozen beards, a wild wind blowing out of
lonely places and crying to the cold fields as it blows has sent the
snowdrifts higher than the buttresses; they that look out through
windows on that side of thy palace see the wild geese flying low and
all the birds of the winter, going by swift in packs beat low by the
bitter wind, and the clouds above them are black, for it is midwinter
there; while in thine other courts the fountains tinkle, falling on
marble warmed by the fire of the summer sun.
"Such, O King of the Years, shall thy palace be, and its name shall be
Erlathdronion, Earth's Wonder; and thy wisdom shall bid thine
architects build at once, that all may see what as yet the poets see
only, and that prophecy be fulfilled."
And when the poet ceased the Sultan spake, and said, as all men
hearkened with bent heads:
"It will be unnecessary for my builders to build this palace,
Erlathdronion, Earth's Wonder, for in hearing thee we have drunk
already its pleasures."
And the poet went forth from the Presence and dreamed a new thing.
. . . . .