As I am
writing these words, these very words to be read by you, good fellow traveler,
the sun has sunk in its bliss far west and the sky is blazing like thousand
flames over mountains. The sea is calm like in the dream that I saw last night.
I am going to tell you about that dream or was it a dream at all, well that I
leave to you to concern. But every word is true. I am not in a habit to do ‘day
dreaming’ as I will call it. My grandfather was a fisherman and his true love
was the sea, his true joy in those journeys to the unknown and in sea birds,
those sweet and majestic birds which flew with his company during his many
years on the sea. Papa as I used to call him when I was just a kid, had blue
eyes with a friendly sparkle in it and a smile rested usually on his otherwise strong-featured
face and on corner of his mouth. Whenever he laughed, and he did so many times,
the voice of his laugh was heartily warm. My father did not inherit his own
father’s appearance but his mother’s look and spirit. My grandmother was a
friendly woman, with dark hair and fair face with two grey eyes like ‘two grey
stars shimmering pale on the sky’ like my grandfather used to say. But now I am
going to tell you about my dream. At the time when I saw my dream I was happily
married, a fisherman myself like papa and we were living on the same coast side
where many of my ancestor had worked before me and before my grandfather. The
day had been very windy and stormy. Many lightnings had made the whole sky
bright as in day. My wife, little fair-haired girl who I had known my whole
life, as we had been together through the whole sweet childhood, had went to
bed earlier and I was sitting near the fireplace and listened the wind that was
howling on outside like a ‘restless souls’ night’.
At some
point I had must fell asleep because suddenly the wind had ceased and the sea
was calm within a bright moon came on the sky. There were many pale stars like
a pool of silvering light twinkling at me. I stood up as I heard a voice, very
familiar voice came to me and it seemed as it was calling me by name. I walked
outside of our little cottage and straight to the shore. ‘I know you, papa. Why
have you come to me?’ I asked as I saw my grandfather sitting on the big rock.
He smiled at me and looked very handsome like the years had not touched him at
all. I knew I saw a dream or at least some strange hallucination had taken
over my brain because I knew my grandfather had died three years ago but at the
same time, I did not know that I was dreaming. Confusing, right? But anyway,
there I was standing on the shore with papa who was watching at me and the look
on his face was so dearly familiar to me that I almost burst into tears. ‘Dear
boy, you know I am dead?’ he asked me. I nodded. ‘Surely this is a dream or
what?’ I said. He smiled at me and his blue eyes were twinkling at me at the
same time. ‘Yes, it is a dream or you can call it whatever you want, but my
dear boy I’ve come to you to tell you about Avallonia. He has
given me a permission to do it because it was my heart’s dear wish to
do.’ As he spoke, he looked at the same time on the endless sea. The moon was a
pale and round like a huge white pearl on the sky. I raised my eyebrows. ‘Err about what?’ I must look confused because he laughed heartily at me. ‘Yes my
dear boy, I must tell you about Avallonia, it has many names; the glass
island, the island of the blessed ones, the land nearest to the far West.
Some names are unknown to the mortal ears. But it has been once there and it
always will. No matter of what. At some time, it was inside of the circle of
the visible world but now it has been taken away from man. No mortal eyes had
set its gaze on it and lived to tell it about. And all who had seen it if only
a glimpse of it - no living man ever saw them again.’
I listened
to him as a spell would have been taken my very heart. ‘How do you know all
this? Have you seen it, papa?’ I asked. He turns his pale face towards me and
his blue eyes were twinkling as like a deep, silvering inner light has set them
in fire. Then he said, ‘My dear boy, I have seen it! You remember I set
sail few years ago what became to be my last voyage. I had been restless soul
all my life as you maybe know, and some strange dream had been appeared to me
in the dark hours of night. In my dream there were only one person, a tall man
or was it a man at all but with very fair looking face and long, almost white
hair. He had clothes that were silver in color and on his face, there was a
pale light shining what seemed to me like it was shimmering from inside of him.
He told me about his land, a fair land to nearest to the far West where
immortal fair flowers with all colors were have been an endless joy for his
children. The weather was always a pleasant one, a warm sun and water as they
need it. A favorable wind was always by their side when they set sail and no
harm ever took their magnificent white ships during their many voyages. Their
joy was in the sea and to seek ever a new land and listen to the sound of the
sea birds. Now after that I was a more restless in my heart and finally when I
feel that my time had come, I set sail once more and after that never returned
to the lands of men. Because I saw with my very own eyes Avallonia, like
it had been once but that it is gone now to the bottom of the sea. So its
memory are living only in the lands of dream where their fair children are
playing little white flutes and where their fair maidens are dancing on ever
green grass under the linden trees. And nightingales were singing there and the
air was sweet and their only happiness was to be linger there. There I was and
still I was bound to the earth. So I never returned to my family because the
loveliness of that land and because no mortal eyes had set its gaze on it and
lived to tell it about.’
After that
it seemed to me as he was walking barefoot on the shore and in his hand, there
were many white and silver pearls shimmering like cold stars on the sky. I lost
he from my sight and suddenly I felt as someone was touching my hand and a
sweet voice called out my name, and I woke up from my dream. And I saw my wife
looking at me with a smile. ‘You were sleeping my love, would you not come with
me?’ she said. I looked around in the room and saw that the fire had died away
and the room were lighted only with a single candle that my wife had brought
and it was a warm and happy light. So, I took her by hand and we went to bed.
The wind had ceased and the moon made a silver bridge across the calm, dark and
silent sea.
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