Nobel Prize Literature Collection: King's Horsemen. Selected Poems of Haden

Author: Werner von Haiden (Sweden)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: The top floor of the castle is where the fire officer sells brandy and beer. Suddenly, a tall customer with narrow shoulders rushed down the stairs, and an empty wine glass rolled down with his shoes. The felt socks he wore were patched and dirty. A scarf covered his mouth and unshaven cheeks, and he placed his hand in the back pocket of his coat, standing motionless. The fire officer said, "Get that madman Aekro out. He actually spat cigarette ash into the beer, poked Peter Pinter with a thick needle, and disturbed everything. Put away that folding table. There's an order to block the castle gates. Now the King's life is in danger." Hagen, the gatekeeper, was an old loyal servant of Charles XI. He had a quiet face, but his outwardly lopsided legs, wrapped in stiff clothes, made him look like someone who had just dismounted from a horse. He picked up the wine glass and gently, kindly placed it under Aekro's arm. "I'll go with you, officer, or should I call you a colonel? Oh! It doesn't matter what you call me!" he said. "I, Las Aekro, am a captain before the King. I have traveled to many places and speak many languages. There is no one above anyone else on this top floor. I will report and complain about your 'hospitality.' Yes! I will do so. Didn't I tell you that fire is about to fall from the heavens, and every house will become a flame? Look at our lives like this? Filled with foreign mercenaries, biased judges, curses, and sorrow. God's wrath is about to be upon us." "Colonel, oh! Captain, you must stop spreading rumors and adding to the misfortune God has given us. God's fire has already fallen on the suburbs. For over ten years, our crops have failed, and there has been famine. A bushel of wheat is only sold for twelve silver coins. Soon! Even the royal stables will run out of feed. And the ships carrying grain are blocked by ice on the coast." Aekro went downstairs with him, his small, restless eyes not focusing on anything in particular. Sometimes he stood straight, nodding and murmuring to himself. From the castle's gunports, one could see the ground and an enclosed balcony covered in sword marks and sentries. The sentries patrolled back and forth between the trumpet calls and their usual posts. In the distance, the snow-covered towers and roofs had a small group of people marching between the King's Island and the frozen Malar River between Soder. The light of March night slanted into the great hall of the west wing of the castle, making the light in the hall resemble a decorative tree-shaped chandelier hanging from the ceiling, indistinguishable whether it came from inside or outside. "Yes! Yes!" Aekro said vaguely, "It will burn. All shame and glory will be burned. I can see sparkling figures in the sky. At night, the smoke from my pipe contains marvelous planets. All this tells me that the old order is in chaos. Swarms of locusts from Arabia have flown into Hungary and France. The mountain that holds fire has spewed glowing stones. Two years ago, in February, we had grass as long as our fingers in the park and could hear the birds of spring. In September, strawberries could be picked in Essing. In this difficult era, God has shown her chosen ones what she has hidden...