The House on the Borderland Quotes

“There had stood a great house in the centre of the gardens, where now was left only that fragment of ruin. This house had been empty for a great while; years before his—the ancient man's—birth. It was a place shunned by the people of the village, as it had been shunned by their fathers before them. There were many things said about it, and all were of evil. No one ever went near it, either by day or night. In the village it was a synonym of all that is unholy and dreadful.”
― William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland

“Six days, and I have eaten nothing. It is night. I am sitting in my chair. Ah, God! I wonder have any ever felt the horror of life that I have come to know? I am swathed in terror. I feel ever the burning of this dread growth. It has covered all my right arm and side, and is beginning to creep up my neck. To-morrow, it will eat into my face. I shall become a terrible mass of living corruption. There is no escape. Yet, a thought has come to me, born of a sight of the gun-rack, on the other side of the room. I have looked again—with the strangest of feelings. The thought grows upon me. God, Thou knowest, Thou must know, that death is better, aye, better a thousand times than This. This! Jesus, forgive me, but I cannot live, cannot, cannot! I dare not! I am beyond all help—there is nothing else left. It will, at least, spare me that final horror… … .
"I think I must have been dozing. I am very weak, and oh! so miserable, so miserable and tired—tired. The rustle of the paper, tries my brain[…]”
― William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland

“And then, suddenly, an extraordinary question rose in my mind, whether this stupendous globe of green fire might not be the vast Central Sun—the great sun, round which our universe and countless others revolve. I felt confused. I thought of the probable end of the dead sun, and another suggestion came, dumbly—Do the dead stars make the Green Sun their grave? The idea appealed to me with no sense of grotesqueness; but rather as something both possible and probable.”
― William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland

“The immutable, awful quiet of a dying world.”
― William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland

“The inner story must be uncovered, personally, by each reader, according to ability and desire.”
― William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland

“غمرتني ذكريات مُضطربة مليئة بالدهشة والفرح والتوقعات المُهتزة وتصور أني سأرى حبيبتي مرة أخرى، فدُرت بنظري هنا وهُناك لكني لم أرها، فشعرت باليأس قليلاً، وصليت بحرارة قلبي، عجيب.. كيف صمد البحر أمام صلواتي؟!
استطعت رؤية العديد من آثار تحركات النار المُتقلبة من تحتي فسألت نفسي عن سبب ذلك، تذكرت أني قد أُجبرت على فُراق العزيزة على قلبي قبل النطق بنصف ما رغبت في قوله.
ثم قفزت إلى الخلف بعدما لمسني شيء ما من خلفي، فاستدرت بسرعة! يا إلهي، كم أنت كريمٌ حقًا، إنها هي! نظرت إلى عينيّ بشوق ونظرت إليها بكل كياني، وددت أن أحتضنها لكن مجد ونقاء وجهها أبقياني بعيدًا، وعبر الضباب المُتعرج مدت ذراعيها لي وهمست بنعومة مثل حفيف سحابة عابرة:
– عزيزي!
وهذا كل ما قالت، لكنني سمعتها، هو صوتها، وفي لحظة تالية احتضنتها مُتحديًا كل شيء، وإلى الأبد.
هي وأنا؛ ولا شيء معنا باستثناء الفراغ الصامت الشاسع على مدى رؤيتنا، ومياه بحر النوم الهادئة تسمعنا، كنا في الجنة.
اختفت الكرات العائمة المُغطاة بالغيوم، تشربها العدم، وهكذا نظرنا إلى وجه الأعماق النائم، وحدنا، وحدنا! يا إلهي، سأكون وحدي في الآخرة، ولكني حصلت عليها، نعم، لقد أعجزتني الدهور ولكني آمل أن أعيش خلال السنوات المُتبقية التي قد تظل قائمة، معها.”
― د. أحمد تركي, The House on the Borderland