The Doom That Came to Sarnath

By H. P. Lovecraft

There is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream and out of which no stream flows. Ten thousand years ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no more.

     It is told that in the immemorial years when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the grey stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and peopled with beings not pleasing to behold. Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned. It is written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib were in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it; that they had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious ears, and were without voice. It is also written that they descended one night from the moon in a mist; they and the vast still lake and grey stone city Ib. However this may be, it is certain that they worshipped a sea-green stone idol chiselled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced horribly when the moon was gibbous. And it is written in the papyrus of Ilarnek, that they one day discovered fire, and thereafter kindled flames on many ceremonial occasions. But not much is written of these beings, because they lived in very ancient times, and man is young, and knows little of the very ancient living things.

在米纳尔（Mnar）这地方有一个静谧的大湖，既没有河流流入这个湖，从湖里也没有河流流出。一万年前，曾有一个名叫萨尔纳斯（Sarnath）的强大城邦坐落在湖畔，可它如今已完全不见影踪。

据说，在世界还处于年轻时代的上古往昔，当萨尔纳斯人来到米纳尔之地时，发现湖畔坐落着另一个城邦。在这个名叫伊伯（Ib）的灰色石砌城邦中，生活着与大湖同样古老、见之令人生厌的生物。这些生物的长相怪异而丑陋，仿佛是鸿蒙初开时那个被粗鲁地塑造而成的世界中的造物。这些生物留在卡达瑟隆（Kadatheron）的黏土圆筒上的样子，是和湖水及湖上雾气一样的通体绿色；它们眼球外鼓，嘴唇突出而无法合拢，长着形状奇特的耳朵，不能发声。黏土圆筒上的记录说，在某一个夜里，雾气会包裹月亮、包裹它们自身，乃至它们这个坐落在静谧大湖岸边的城邦。这也许只是传说，但它们确实崇拜一尊用海绿色石头雕就的偶像，这尊偶像模仿伟大的水蜥蜴波库鲁格（Bokrug）的样子雕刻而成，当凸月之时，它们会在偶像面前跳着可怕的舞蹈。而在伊拉尼克（Ilarnek）的古代纸草文书中还记载着，有一天它们发现了火，从那以后就在诸多的仪式上点燃了火焰。不过，现存关于这些生物的记载非常稀少，因为它们是生活在远古的种族，那时人类还很年轻，对远古的事情只是一知半解而已。

     After many aeons men came to the land of Mnar; dark shepherd folk with their fleecy flocks, who built Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron on the winding river Ai. And certain tribes, more hardy than the rest, pushed on to the border of the lake and built Sarnath at a spot where precious metals were found in the earth.

     Not far from the grey city of Ib did the wandering tribes lay the first stones of Sarnath, and at the beings of Ib they marvelled greatly. But with their marvelling was mixed hate, for they thought it not meet that beings of such aspect should walk about the world of men at dusk. Nor did they like the strange sculptures upon the grey monoliths of Ib, for those sculptures were terrible with great antiquity. Why the beings and the sculptures lingered so late in the world, even until the coming of men, none can tell; unless it was because the land of Mnar is very still, and remote from most other lands both of waking and of dream.