Åñëè âû íå âèäèòå ôëåø-ìåíþ, íàæìèòå ñþäà
Brodsky
"Slave,come to my service!"
This text dates back to the eleventh or tenth century Â. Ñ. and is known among Sumerian scholars as «The Dialogue of Pessimism». In antiquity it was regarded as a philosophical text; now some argue that it is, rather, a skit. For my translation, I used two interlinear renditions; one was taken from Babylonian Wisdom Literature, by W G. Lambert (Oxford, I960); the other, from Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, by James B. Pritchard (Princeton, 1955). - J. B.
I
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«Quick, fetch my chariot, hitch up the horses:
I'll drive to the palace!»
«Drive to the palace, my master. Drive to the palace. The
King will be pleased to see you,
he will be benevolent to you».
«No, slave. I won't go to the palace!» «Don't, my master.
Don't go to the palace. The King will send you on a
faraway expedition, down the unknown road, through
hostile mountains; day and night he will make you
experience pain
and hardship».
II
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«Fetch water, pour it over my hands:
I am to eat my supper».
«Eat your supper, my master. Eat your supper. Frequent
meals gladden one's heart. Man's supper is the supper of
his god, and clean hands catch
the eye of Shamash».
«No, slave. I won't eat my supper!» «Don't eat your
supper, master. Don't eat your supper. Drink and thirst,
food and hunger never leave man alone, let alone each other».
III
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«Quick, fetch my chariot, hitch up the horses:
I'll go for a ride in the country».
«Do that, my master. Do that. A carefree wanderer always
fills his belly, a stray dog always finds a bone, a migrating
swallow is especially skilled
in nesting,
a wild donkey finds the grass in the driest desert».
«No, slave. I won't go for a ride in the country».
«Don't go, my master. Don't bother. The lot of a
wanderer is always dicey. A stray dog loses its
teeth. The nest of a migrating swallow gets buried
in plaster. Naked earth is a wild donkey's
bedding».
IV
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«I feel like starting a family, like begetting children». «Good
thinking, my master. Start a family, start a family. Who has
children secures his name, repeated
in posthumous prayers».
«No, slave. I won't start a family, I won't have children!»
«Don't start it, my master. Don't have them. A family is
like a broken door, its hinge is creaking. Only a third of
one's children are healthy;
two-thirds always sickly».
«So, should I start a family?» «Don't start a family.
Who starts a family wastes his ancestral house».
V
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?» «I
shall yield to my enemy; in the court, I'll stay silent
before my detractors». «Right, my master, right. Yield
to your enemy; keep silence, my master, before your
detractors». «No, slave! I won't be silent, and I won't
yield!» «Don't yield, my master, and don't be silent.
Even if you don't open your mouth at all your
enemies will be merciless and cruel to you,
as well as numerous».
VI
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«I feel like doing some evil, eh?»
«Do that, my master. By all means, do some evil.
For how otherwise can you stuff your belly?
How, without doing evil, can you dress yourself warmly?»
«No, slave. I shall do no evil!»
«Evildoers are either killed, or flayed alive and blinded,
or blinded and flayed alive and thrown into a dungeon».
VII
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master, Yes?» «I'll
fall in love with a woman». «Fall in love, my master.
Fall in love!
Who falls in love with a woman forgets his griefs
and sorrows».
«No, slave. I won't fall in love with a woman!»
«Don't love, my master. Don't love. Woman is a
snare, a trap, a dark pit. Woman is a sharp steel
blade slitting man's throat
in darkness».
VIII
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«Quick, fetch water to wash my hands: I am to make
an offering to my god».
«Make an offering, make an offering. Who makes offerings
to his god fills his heart with riches; he feels generous, and
his purse is open». «No, slave. I won't make an offering!»
«Rightly so, my master. Rightly so!
Can you really train your god to follow you like a doggy?
All the time he demands obedience, rituals, sacrifices!»
IX
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?» «I'll
invest with the interest, I will loan for the interest». «Yes,
invest with the interest, make loans for the interest. Who
does so preserves his own; his profit, though,
is enormous».
«No, slave, I won't lend and I won't invest!»
«Don't invest, my master. Don't lend. To
lend is like loving a woman; to receive,
like siring bad children:
people always curse those whose grain they eat.
They'll resent you or try to reduce your profit».
X
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?» «I
shall do a good deed for my nation!» «Very good, my
master, very good. You do that! Who does good deeds
for his nation has his name
in Marduk's gold signet».
«No, slave. I won't do a good deed for my nation». «Don't
do that, my master. Don't bother. Get up and stroll across
ancient ruins, scan the skulls of simple folk and nobles:
which one of them was a villain, which one a benefactor?»
XI
«Slave, come to my service!» «Yes, my master. Yes?»
«If all this is so, then what is good?»
«To have your neck broken and my neck broken,
to be thrown into a river — that's what is good!
Who is so tall as to reach the heavens?
Who so broad as to embrace plains and mountains?»
«If that's so, I should kill you, slave:
I'd rather you go before me».
«And does my master believe that he can survive
for three days without me?»
1987
Ïåðåõîä ê: Óìáåðòî Ýêî. Âàâèëîíñêàÿ áåñåäà
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