Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Irina Reyfman (top 10 novels of all time .txt) 📕

residence is not in the halls of kings. A guard that rings them round and keeps vigil day and night with a hundred eyes blocks my entrance into them. If I should penetrate the massed crowd, then by raising the scourge of banishment everyone around you will try to drive me from your dwelling; hence beware that I not retreat from you again. Then the words of flattery, by exhaling poisonous fumes, will restore your cataracts again, and a scab that light cannot penetrate will cover your eyes. Then your blindness will redouble; your gaze will barely penetrate as far as a step. Everything will have a cheerful appearance. Your ears will not be disturbed by groans, but your hearing will hourly rejoice in sweet song. Sacrificial incense will abide in your soul, opened to flattery. Only smoothness will fall within your sense of touch. Beneficial roughness will never shred your tactile nerves. Tremble now at such a state! A cloud will rise over your head and arrows of a vengeful thunder will be readied for your defeat. But I declare to you that I shall live in the confines of your realm. If you should ever wish to see me, if besieged by intrigues of flattery your soul thirsts for my gaze, summon me from a distance. You shall find me where my firm voice can be heard. Never fear my voice. If from the popular sphere a man arises to criticize your deeds, know then that he is your sincere friend. A stranger to hopes of reward, a stranger to servile trepidation, he will announce me to you in a firm voice. Take care and do not dare to punish him as though he were a common troublemaker. Bid him come, host him like a wanderer. For everyone who reproves the absolute power of a king is a wanderer in a world where everything trembles before him. Host him, I declare, venerate him so that, upon return, he might be able again and again to give voice unflatteringly. Hearts of such firmness, however, happen to be rare, and scarcely a single one will appear in the worldly arena in an entire century. But so that the ease of power not dull your vigilance, I make a gift to you of this ring that it might reveal your own falseness to yourself should you challenge it. For know: you have the potential to be the worst killer in society, the worst bandit, the worst traitor, the worst violator of the general peace, the fiercest enemy directing your malice at the innards of the weak. If a mother weeps for a son killed on the battlefield, or a wife for her husband—you will be to blame; for the threat of captivity can hardly justify the murder known by the name of war. If the field becomes barren, if the children of the tiller of the soil lose their lives because their mother’s breast is dry without healthful food—you will be to blame. So divert your gaze onto yourself now and on all those before you, check the implementation of your orders, and if your soul does not shudder from horror at such a sight, then I shall leave you and your palace will be effaced forever from my memory.”

The visage of the wanderer after speaking seemed cheerful and of a radiance of material brilliance. Looking at her poured joy into my soul. No longer did I sense in her swells of vanity or the pomposity of arrogance. I sensed in her peace; the turmoil of worldly vanity and overwhelming lust for power did not affect her. My garments, brilliant as they were, seemed spattered with blood and drenched in tears. On my fingers I could see the remains of a human brain, my feet stood in mire. Those standing around me looked even more vile. Their entire innards looked black and consumed by the dull flame of insatiability. They trained on me, and on one another, ravaged glances dominated by rapaciousness, envy, cunning, and hatred. My commander, sent off to conquer, was drowning in luxury and making merry. There was no discipline among the forces; my soldiers were treated worse than cattle. Nobody cared for their health or nourishment; their lives were worthless; they were deprived of their statutory pay, which had been used for elaborate uniforms, which they did not need. The majority of new soldiers were dying from the neglect of their leaders or their unnecessary and untimely severity. Funds allocated for maintenance of the militia were in the hands of the organizer of festivities. Medals were not the prerogative of bravery but rather of vile obsequiousness. Before me, I saw one commander renowned by word of mouth whom I had honored with the distinctive marks of my favor; now I saw clearly that all his excellent distinction consisted in the fact that he had been the instrument of the satisfaction of the lust of his superior, and that there was no occasion when he might have shown bravery since he had not seen the enemy even from afar. These were the sorts of soldiers from whom I was expecting new crowns of laurel for myself. I averted my gaze from the thousand woes arising before my eyes.

My ships, those designated to cross the most distant seas, I saw sailing about the mouth of the harbor. The commander, who had flown on the wings of the wind to fulfil my commands, his limbs spread out on a soft bed, was indulging in voluptuousness and sex in the embraces of a hired female arouser of his lusts. On a map he commissioned of a journey undertaken in his imagination could be seen new islands in all parts of the world, abounding in the fruits appropriate to their climate. Vast lands and multiple peoples had come to life from the paintbrush of these new travelers. A majestic description of this journey and acquisitions in a flowery and magnificent style was