Free The Light and the Dark by Mikhail Shishkin Page B

replied to him: “Grant us immortality, which we desire more than anything, and we do not need any other riches.” But Alexander said to them: “I am mortal, how can I grant you immortality?” And they said to him: “If you consider yourself mortal, then why do you roam and wander through the whole world, doing so much evil?” See what a smart lot they are. Turn your back for a moment and you’ll get a bullet in the back of your head. First we’ll travel by railway and then by sea. And we’ll know we’ve arrived as soon as we see people with dogs’ heads. And when we carry oars, they’ll ask what kindof spades we’re carrying. In that place there are also public lupanaria with effeminate men and innumerable other abominations, so always keep your guard up! For us peace is a process, for them it is a result. They believe knowledge is remembrance. Everyone knows his own future, but he still lives his own life. So it turns out that lovers love each other even before they find out about each other, get to know each other and get talking. And they don’t pray for themselves, because we ourselves don’t know what we’re good for. Their gods are simple, but there are as many of them as there are birds, trees, clouds, puddles, sunsets and us. Concerning the existence of other worlds they are doubtful, but consider it madness to assert that apart from the visible nothing else exists for, they say, there is no nonexistence, either in the world or beyond it. They acknowledge two primary physical elements of all earthly things: the sun-father and the earth-mother. They regard the air as a rarefied section of the sky and all fire as deriving from the sun. The sea is the earth’s sweat and a link connecting the air and the earth, as blood connects the body and the spirit in living creatures. The world is an immense living creature and we live in its belly in the same way as worms live in our bellies. However, whether a worm is happy, we do not know, but a man is born, lives and dies happy, only he keeps forgetting this all the time. These naked-wisemen have unscrewed all the nuts off the rails. And not even for sinkers for fishing lines. Blast them for wreckers! The railway lines spoil the feng shui, you see! All these scumbags are to be exterminated mercilessly. Like mad dogs! Wipe the entire pack of these rotten hounds off the face of the earth! Remember, someone has to do the dirty work too. Men! We will avenge ourselves for our comrades and friends in battle, who are still alive, see them there, smiling among us, but very soon now. Most important of all, remember we have truth on our side and they have untruth! But perhaps vice versa.For is not light the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light? And does the Sun not strive to burn up the Earth, and not at all to generate plants and people? In this life there are no victors, all are the vanquished. Especially since when you stab them with a bayonet, they’ll still think like this: “To be concerned about what will happen to you after death is like asking yourself what will happen to your fist when you open it, or to a leg bent at the knee when you unbend it.” And most important of all, my lads, take good care of yourselves! Don’t fire until the order is given! Do you remember Pythagoras’s hippopotamus? Ah, you scatterbrains! You did it in school! It just flew in one ear and out the other! It’s pointless teaching fools like you anything! The only thing on your mind is skirts. What did Pythagoras teach us? Pythagoras taught us that when your destined time comes to die, as soon as your soul leaves behind the sublunary world and the light of the sun, direct your steps to the left through the sacred meadows and groves of Persephoneia. And when they ask who you are and where you’ve come from, you should reply: “I am a goat kid and I fell in the milk.” Well, now I think that’s all. Ah yes, one more thing. Please don’t spit in the bowl with