Fables & Reflections
Entanglement. Once upon a time there was an old lady who wandered the galaxy on a spiky asteroid in the company of two chaos-based drones. One day she came across two beings embroiled in a deep mess of antagonisms. They appeared to be suffering much from this condition and as she could see that the tangle could be easily disentangled she offered the creatures to help them do so. But the whatnots had been in that state for so long that they no longer knew anything else. Thus they freely abused the old woman, called her every name under the stars and told he to mind her own business. The old girl took off as fast as her beautiful asteroid could carry her. Now she lives in Andromeda.
This is a modest tribute to Augusto Monterroso and his wondrous mini stories. I include here a quick, pedestrian translation of my favourite, as well as the Spanish version. And thank, you, Señor Botijo, for alerting me to don Augusto’s presence.
The Black Sheep.
In a far away country there once was a black sheep. She was shot.
A century later the repentant herd erected an equestrian statue of her that looked very well in the park.
Thus, in successive ages, every time there appeared a black sheep, it was swiftly shot, so that future generations of common or garden sheep could exercise themselves in the art of sculpture.
La oveja negra.
En un lejano país existió hace muchos años una Oveja negra. Fue fusilada.
Un siglo después, el rebaño arrepentido le levantó una estatua ecuestre que quedó muy bien en el parque.
Así, en lo sucesivo, cada vez que aparecían ovejas negras eran rápidamente pasadas por las armas para que las futuras generaciones de ovejas comunes y corrientes pudieran ejercitarse también en la escultura.
