Already Its Silver Rays
Fell Upon The Ruins Of Karnak; Upon The Thickets Of Lotus Columns;
Upon Solitary Gateways That
Now give entrance to no courts; upon the
sacred lake, with its reeds, where the black water-fowl were asleep;
Upon sloping walls, shored up by enormous stanchions, like ribs of
some prehistoric leviathan; upon small chambers; upon fallen blocks of
masonry, fragments of architrave and pavement, of capital and cornice;
and upon the people of Karnak - those fascinating people who still
cling to their habitation in the ruins, faithful through misfortune,
affectionate with a steadfastness that defies the cruelty of Time;
upon the little, lonely white sphinx with the woman's face and the
downward-sloping eyes full of sleepy seduction; upon Rameses II., with
the face of a kindly child, not of a king; upon the Sphinx, bereft of
its companion, which crouches before the kiosk of Taharga, the King of
Ethiopia; upon those two who stand together as if devoted, yet by
their attitudes seem to express characters diametrically opposed, grey
men and vivid, the one with folded arms calling to Peace, the other
with arms stretched down in a gesture of crude determination,
summoning War, as if from the underworld; upon the granite foot and
ankle in the temple of Rameses III., which in their perfection, like
the headless Victory in Paris, and the Niobide Chiaramonti in the
Vatican, suggest a great personality that once met with is not to be
forgotten: upon these and their companions, who would not forsake the
halls and courts where once they dwelt with splendor, where now they
dwell with ruin that attracts the gaping world. The moon was risen,
but the west was still full of color and light. It faded. There was a
pause. Only a bar of dull red, holding a hint of brown, by where the
sun had sunk. And minutes passed - minutes for me full of silent
expectation, while the moonlight grew a little stronger, a few more
silver rays slipped down upon the ruins. I turned toward the east. And
then came that curious crescendo of color and of light which, in
Egypt, succeeds the diminuendo of color and of light that is the
prelude to the pause before the afterglow. Everything seemed to be in
subtle movement, heaving as a breast heaves with the breath; swelling
slightly, as if in an effort to be more, to attract attention, to gain
in significance. Pale things became livid, holding apparently some
under-brightness which partly penetrated its envelope, but a
brightness that was white and almost frightful. Black things seemed to
glow with blackness. The air quivered. Its silence surely thrilled
with sound - with sound that grew ever louder.
In the east I saw an effect. To the west I turned for the cause. The
sunset light was returning. Horus would not permit Tum to reign even
for a few brief moments, and Khuns, the sacred god of the moon, would
be witness of a conflict in that lovely western region of the ocean of
the sky where the bark of the sun had floated away beneath the
mountain rim upon the red-and-orange tides.
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