Politics, history, identity: the moral dilemmas of contemporary man
Politics, history, identity: the moral dilemmas of contemporary man
(For excerpt in Spanish, please, scroll down)
Machine to Speak with the Dead
david bowie
Have you ever wondered whether it’s possible to contact the dead?
I’m not talking about metaphysical spiritual contact
but real physical sensual
hermaszewski
This another test?
You wanna see whether everything’s all right with me upstairs?
david bowie
Trust us
we are exactly who we are
What would you say if you could ask your father
if he’s forgiven his murderer?
hermaszewski
I don’t want to go back there
I have have a list of tasks to accomplish
I can’t fail
david bowie
Philip, explain to our friend
the principles upon which our Machine to Speak with the Dead operates
philip k. dick
It’s my greatest invention
the Machine to Speak with the Dead
we use it to converse with the dead
they hear you and you hear them
of course, if they want to speak with you
unfortunately, the minds of some of the dead have already
considerably dissolved in space-time
but my machine allows us to concentrate the waves they emit
so as to make them audible to the human ear
you only have to concentrate very very hard
on the dead person with whom you wish to make contact
my machine will capture your thoughts
transforming them into sound and delivering them to the addressee
Sit down and relax
david bowie
Go for it
you won’t get another chance
hermaszewski
I subject myself to a force I don’t understand
h.p. lovecraft
And that’s the best solution, cosmonaut
Philip K. Dick places a contraption on Hermaszewski’s head and presses a button.
philip k. dick
Now concentrate
your thoughts on your father
hermaszewski
Daddy
you hear me?
philip k. dick
I’m increasing the range
hermaszewski
I hear something
a buzz
some sort of voice
daddy you there?
daddy
How you doing there?
A buzz, in which tiny individual voices can be heard.
Daddy I’m in outer space right now
I’ve flown into outer space
you hear?
I met some people here
I don’t know who they are
it’s all very strange
Daddy I don’t remember your face
are you there?
do you need anything?
can I do anything for you?
philip k. dick
End of transmission
the cosmic winds are up
storms on the face of the sun
david bowie
It’s just a prototype, this Machine to Speak with the Dead
it’s got its quirks sometimes
philip k. dick
No it’s the cosmic wind
the wild cosmic wind
h.p. lovecraft
An omen of the coming end
david bowie
Our dear Lovecraft is a renowned catastrophist
and the end has neither come nor is it on the way
but let us give the floor to our dear Lovecraft
who is also working on his own invention
h.p. lovecraft
The machine created by our colleague Dick proves only
that of course life is absurd
but death is absurd as well
it brings no comfort with it
History does not arrive at any sensible point
It is indifferent to these pitiful peripatetics
the cosmic terror
simply increases
spreads and begins to find means of expression
It is the Great Cthulhu awakening from sleep
He has heard the whimpering of the first mammal
and shall hear the agonised screams of the last one
this hopeless cosmos is our mental universe
full of the repulsive
in which terror spreads like ever greater concentric rings
in which our one and only destiny
is to allow ourselves to be chewed up and devoured
Man is like a coral polyp
his one and only destiny
is to erect grand structures
splendid and mineral
that the moon shall shine down upon after his death
Life is horrible and mysterious
And only very rarely are we enabled to peek
behind the curtains of illusion
to catch a fleeting shadow of the truth
but when that happens
life appears to us a hundred times more terrible
You ought to understand that
you cosmonaut from Wołyń
hermaszewski
We were able to escape Hell
thanks to good people
you hear?
thanks to good people
Translated by Charles S. Kraszewski
***
SIGNOS. DRAMAS
Hermaszewski
La Máquina de Hablar con los Muertos
DAWID BOWIE
¿Te has preguntado alguna vez si es posible entablar contacto con los muertos?
No un contacto metafísico espiritual
sino real físico sensual
HERMASZEWSKI
¿Se trata de otra prueba?
Queréis comprobar que no estoy mal de la cabeza ¿verdad?
DAWID BOWIE
Confía en nosotros
somos justamente lo que somos
¿Qué dirías si pudieras preguntarle a tu padre
si perdonó a su asesino?
HERMASZEWSKI
Ya no quiero volver a ese tema
tengo una lista gigantesca de tareas por hacer
no puedo fallar
DAWID BOWIE
Philip explícale a nuestro amigo
cómo funciona la Máquina de Hablar con los Muertos
PHILIP K. DICK
Es mi mejor invento
La Máquina de Hablar con los Muertos
sirve para conversar con los muertos
ellos te escuchan a ti y tú los escuchas a ellos
por supuesto si tienen ganas de hablar
desgraciadamente las mentes de algunos de ellos ya se han
dispersado por el espacio-tiempo
pero mi máquina permite concentrar las ondas que ellos emiten
hasta llegar al margen de frecuencias perceptibles por el oído humano
sólo tienes que fijar muy atentamente tus pensamientos en el difunto
con el que quieres entablar contacto
mi máquina interceptará tus pensamientos
los transforma en sonido y los entrega al destinatario
Siéntate y relájate
DAWID BOWIE
Ánimo
no volverás a tener otra oportunidad como esta
HERMASZEWSKI
Me estoy sometiendo a una fuerza incomprensible para mí
H.P. LOVECRAFT
Y esta es la mejor decisión que puedes tomar astronauta
Philip K. Dick le coloca a Hermaszewski un aparato especial en la cabeza y pone en marcha la máquina
PHILIP K. DICK
Ahora concéntrate
piensa en tu padre
HERMASZEWSKI
Papá
¿me oyes?
PHILIP K. DICK
Voy a aumentar el margen de frecuencias
HERMASZEWSKI
Oigo algo
un murmullo
una voz
papá ¿estás ahí?
papá
¿cómo estás?
Murmullo en el que se pueden distinguir sonidos aislados
Papá estoy ahora en el espacio
estoy en el espacio
¿me oyes?
He encontrado a estos
no sé quiénes son
todo esto es muy raro
Papá yo ni siquiera recuerdo tu rostro
¿estás ahí?
¿necesitas algo?
¿puedo hacer algo por ti?
PHILIP K. DICK
Fin de la conexión
se ha desatado una tormenta cósmica
es por el viento solar
DAVID BOWIE
La Máquina de Hablar con los Muertos es apenas un prototipo
aún no funciona como Dios manda
PHILIP K. DICK
No eso es por el viento
es un viento salvaje
H.P. LOVECRAFT
Un presagio del fin
DAVID BOWIE
Nuestro querido Lovecraft es un catastrofista eminente
y sin embargo el final no llega y no llega
pero dejemos hablar a nuestro querido Lovecraft
que está trabajando ahora en un invento
Traducción: Higinio J. Paterna Sánchez
Selected samples
She climbed her first peaks in a headscarf at a time when women in the mountains were treated by climbers as an additional backpack. It was with her that female alpinism began! She gained recognition in a spectacular way. The path was considered a crossing for madmen. Especially since the tragic accident in 1929, preserved … Continue reading “Halina”
First, Marysia, a student of an exclusive private school in Warsaw’s Mokotów district, dies under the wheels of a train. Her teacher, Elżbieta, tries to find out what really happened. She starts a private investigation only soon to perish herself. But her body disappears, and the only people who have seen anything are Gniewomir, a … Continue reading “Wound”
A young girl, Regina Wieczorek, was found dead on the beach. She was nineteen years old and had no enemies. Fortunately, the culprit was quickly found. At least, that’s what the militia think. Meanwhile, one day in November, Jan Kowalski appears at the police station. He claims to have killed not only Regina but also … Continue reading “Penance”
The year is 1922. A dangerous time of breakthrough. In the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Bolshevik gangs sow terror, leaving behind the corpses of men and disgraced women. A ruthless secret intelligence race takes place between the Lviv-Warsaw-Free City of Gdańsk line. Lviv investigator Edward Popielski, called Łysy (“Hairless”), receives an offer … Continue reading “A Girl with Four Fingers”
This question is closely related to the next one, namely: if any goal exists, does life lead us to that goal in an orderly manner? In other words, is everything that happens to us just a set of chaotic events that, combined together, do not form a whole? To understand how the concept of providence … Continue reading “Order and Love”
The work of Józef Łobodowski (1909-1988) – a remarkable poet, prose writer, and translator, who spent most of his life in exile – is slowly being revived in Poland. Łobodowski’s brilliant three- volume novel, composed on an epic scale, concerns the fate of families and orphans unmoored by the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war and … Continue reading “Ukrainian Trilogy: Thickets, The Settlement, The Way Back”
