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First Line: All knights of the green cathedral, in armour
Last Line: And the world were as yet not revealed to its end.
Alternate Author Name(s): Gumilyov, Nikolay


ALL knights of the green cathedral, in armour,
Who follow the compass on darkening seas,
Gonzalo, and Cook, La Perouse, and Da Gama,
Columbus, the dreamer and king, Genoese!

Carthaginian Hanno, the Gambia's master,
The mariner Sinbad, Ulysses the strong,
To the Cape the grey rollers are hurrying faster
As they sing of your fame in a dithyramb-song!

And you sailors of fortune, you great mastiffs royal,
Who keep watch upon gold in a port that you hide,
Arabian wanderers, truth-seekers loyal,
Who upon the first raft were the first men to ride!

And everyone minding, desiring, and looking,
Who has lost all his care for his fathers' lands,
Whose laughter is bold and whose whistle is mocking,
Who the grey sages' testament understands!

How strange, and how sweet, in your fancies plumbing,
With a whisper your intimate names to tell,
And again to divine the enchanted numbing
That was born for you once in the deep sea's swell.

Still, it seems, in the world, as of old, are places
Where the wandering steps of the crowd never go,
Where monsters still dwell in the woods' sunny spaces
And the pearls are agleam in the bright depths below.

From the trees the sweet odorous resins are flowing,
And "Look!" patterned leaves are a-whispering,
"Here are bees that with gold and with purple are glowing,
Here are roses more fine than the red of a king!"

Dwarfs scuffle with birds in the high airy stations,
And soft are the glances that girls' looks send ...
As if were uncounted the constellations,
And the world were as yet not revealed to its end.





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