Constantinople

There Will Be Time, IX, p. 95.

We remember Ys.

From the flat roof of a house on a hill in the middle of Constantinople in 1195, Jack Havig sees:

vast towered walls enclosing the city;

a maze of thoroughfares;

countless dwellings;

soaring church domes;

the grand avenue called the Mese;

flowering countryside beyond the Gate of Charisius;

statues on columns;

monasteries;

museums;

libraries with lost works by Aeschylus and Sappho;

pulsing forums;

the Hippodrome;

the Imperial Palace;

the glittering blue Sea of Marmora;

masts crowding the Golden Horn;

smargadine heights beyond rich suburbs; 

a river of traffic.

He hears a blend of:

wheels;

hoofs;

feet;

talk;

song;

laughter;

sobbing;

cursing;

praying.

 

The breeze carries odors of:

 

sea;

woodsmoke;

food;

animals;

humanity.