Terra Amata
Page 10
It was quite easy, really, to talk to each other from a distance There were so many games, so many languages! There were marks on trees, heaps of stones, semaphore, shadows, ciphers, smoke signals, the highway code, fingerprints, seeds, shells, carrier pigeons, Quipu, coins, calendars, classified advertisements, rebuses, charades:
My First is a nut to crack.
My Second is a nut to crack.
My Whole is a heart to break.
But that’s not all. You can speak in gestures like the Nootka Indians; with wings like bees; by whistling like porpoises; by making faces like gibbons. You can feel with your fingers like the blind, or play the organ like musicians. The world is spread out all around, perfectly comprehensible. The wind makes a noise in the trees, the clouds mass on the horizon: that means it’s going to rain. The moon is yellow with a misty halo: that means that winter’s coming. The insects grate furiously, the frogs croak in the darkness: that means it’s summer. A few waves move over a perfectly flat sea: it means a ship is passing, or there’s a submarine earthquake somewhere. All that’s quite plain and evident. The world is intelligent, transparent and pure, and all you have to do is sink into it and disappear.
When night fell Chancelade went up to a hill overlooking the town. Then he turned towards the west and began to speak silently with his electric torch. He said:
Chancelade peered into the darkness, straining his eyes to the utmost. But in the house far away at the other side of the town the yellow light went on burning without interruption. So Chancelade put the electric torch in his pocket and went back down the slippery stairways that led to the town.
GESTICULATING
Another time, Chancelade and Mina spoke in deaf-and-dumb language. They went into a café in the town centre and sat down without saying anything. When the waiter came Chancelade merely pointed at the ashtray, which had PHOENIX BEER written on it, and put up two fingers. The waiter gave him a queer look, then went to fetch the two glasses of beer. It was easy to make yourself understood without speaking. Then, as he lit a cigarette, Chancelade looked at Mina, and started to make signs with his right hand, just moving his lips:
C: Open hand profile little finger down. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Closed hand thumb up. Hand profile index pointing up. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.
M: Open hand profile fingers touching. Hand profile two fingers up.
C: Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Hand closed little finger up. Open hand profile little finger down. Closed hand profile. Hand profile outside thumb. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.
M: Two fingers pointing down. Open hand profile fingers touching.
C: Open hand profile. Open hand profile fingers touching. Three fingers pointing down. Hand profile forefinger inside thumb. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.
M : Closed hand thumb and little finger up. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Closed hand profile.—Closed hand thumb up. Two fingers pointing down. Hand profile index pointing—Closed hand thumb and little finger up. Open hand profile fingers touching. Two fingers together pointing up.
C: Three fingers pointing down. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Open hand profile fingers touching. Open hand profile fingers touching.
M: Hand closed little finger up. Three fingers pointing down.—Hand profile two fingers moving down. Closed hand thumb up. Hand profile index pointing. Hand profile index pointing. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.
C: Three fingers pointing down. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Open hand profile fingers touching.
M: Closed hand profile. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. hand profile two fingers moving down. Hand closed thumb up. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.—Hand profile forefinger inside thumb. Hand closed thumb up. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.—Three fingers up. Open hand profile fingers touching. Three fingers pointing down. Hand closed thumb up. Two fingers pointing down.
C: Three fingers up. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Open hand profile little finger down. Hand closed thumb crosswise.
M : Open hand profile fingers touching. Two fingers pointing down.—Closed hand thumb and little finger up. Open hand profile fingers touching. Two fingers up. Open hand profile little finger down.—Open hand profile little finger down. Hand closed little finger up. Hand closed index pointing. Hand closed two fingers moving down. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.
The waiter brought the two glasses of beer and put them down on the table. Chancelade signed that he wanted to pay and held out a note. The man took the money and gave another rather disgusted look over his spectacles. Then he handed Chancelade his change and went away without saying anything.
Chancelade stopped talking for a moment and looked round the café and out of the window. Nothing was happening. Outside the sun beat down on the pavement and people went to and fro, in and out of shops. Inside the bar everyone was drinking and talking all at the same time, but what they were saying wasn’t very interesting. Mina took a sip of beer and said:
M: Three fingers up. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Hand closed thumb up. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand closed profile.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand profile two fingers down. Hand closed thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand closed little finger up. Three fingers down. Hand closed thumb crosswise.
Chancelade looked at his watch, then lifted four fingers and crossed his hands, Then he said:
C: Hand profile forefinger inside thumb. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Forefinger up.—Forefinger up. Hand closed little finger up. Hand profile two fingers up. Hand closed thumb crosswise—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Hand closed thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefinger inside thumb. Forefinger up. Hand closed little finger up. Open hand profile. Hand profile two fingers up. Hand closed profile.
M: Three fingers up. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Closed hand thumb up. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.—Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Open hand profile fingers touching.—Hand closed profile. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Hand closed thumb crosswise.
C: Closed hand thumb up.—Three fingers up. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Hand closed profile. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb. Hand closed thumb crosswise. Open hand profile little finger down. Two fingers pointing down.
M: Open hand fingers touching. Hand profile two fingers up.
Inside the café, between the voices, you could hear the sound of a fly buzzing about or the monotonous hum of a fan stirring up the warm air. Chancelade throught it would be fun to have a café like this, in the centre of the town. You could come and spend your afternoons sitting behind the zinc counter watching people. They’d come in and sit down quite trustfully at the tables that were set out for them, and chat as they drank their beer. All you had to do was write BAR over the door and they just came in, without thinking that it might be a hairdressing saloon or a funeral parlour; without thinking that you could easily put cyanide in their glasses or their cups of coffee. They would arrange themselves in the café, go to the cloakrooms and put their ash in the ashtrays, all without asking any questions. And it would be really interesting to watch and listen to them. They’d talk about politics, racing, women, cars, illness, all together, with the same words and the same gestures. And it would make a level incomprehensible din that would echo through the room together with the bursts of music from the jukebox. It would be even more interesting than a film or a novel, and the hours would go by, the days and the years would go by pleasantly, quietly, inside the bar.
Then Chancelade went on, his hands moving nimbly:
C: Three fingers pointing down. Hand closed little finger up. Two fingers pointing down. Closed hand thumb up.
M: Open hand
profile. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Closed hand thumb up. Two fingers pointing down. Open hand profile. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Forefinger up. Closed hand thumb up. Hand profile index pointing up. Closed hand thumb crosswise.
C: Hand closed little finger up.—Forefinger up. Open hand fingers touching. Two fingers up. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Closed hand thumb and little finger up. Open hand profile fingers touching. Two fingers together pointing up.
M: Three fingers pointing down. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Hand profile forefingers outside thumb. Open hand profile fingers touching. Open hand profile fingers touching.
C: Hand closed profile. Closed hand thumb up. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.—Hand closed little finger up. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.
M: Two fingers pointing down. Open hand profile fingers touching.
C: Three fingers up. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Closed hand thumb and little finger up.
But the girl didn’t answer. She only glanced round her as if she was afraid someone might understand what they were saying. Chancelade said:
C: Hand closed profile. Hand profile two fingers moving down. Closed hand thumb up. Forefinger up. Forefinger up.—Three fingers up. Closed hand thumb crosswise.—Hand closed forefinger pointing. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Hand profile forefinger outside thumb.—Three fingers pointing down. Closed hand thumb up. Open hand little finger pointing down. Open hand little finger pointing down. Hand closed little finger up. Closed hand thumb crosswise. Hand profile index pointing up.
The girl looked away again, then signed that she’d like a cigarette. Chancelade held out the packet and she took one from the right-hand side. She lit it with a metal lighter with her initials engraved on it: M.M. Chancelade watched her smoking for a moment. To his right the big drunk woman was sitting at her table, her great legs stuck out in front of her, trying to get into conversation with everyone. She kept saying disconnected snatches of sentences, like:
‘Little women adore me, they can’t get enough of me.’
‘Yes, they show me their little lace slips, and their little panties, and even what goes inside!’
Then she’d turn to the bar:
‘A glass of absinthe’s what I need!’
‘My grandma always used to say that everything comes right in the end.’
Then, lifting her glass of Ricard :
‘Love walked right in and stole my troubles away …’
And towards the bar, which was being repainted orange:
‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may … My old time has flown!’
Then Mina put on her dark glasses, Chancelade put his cigarettes in his pocket, and they went to look for a cinema showing a silent film, in which the people really were dumb.
SAYING INCOMPREHENSIBLE WORDS
Woolikanoc mana bori oclakokok. Zane prestil zani wang don bang. Geod de molladda apudax predongxi, ette, lalarus toolynk füranpelek gene, etti sali akka mundiu, chien roxudal woombyi waa nochli maabara sata klo kluoc. Fam rezon, fam loop griçetka sama super.
‘Bojun vendery?’ banje Zaka.
‘Kaz.’
‘Abele m’n poostu! Trix slamoc jdiokdong denyl, para munok fla monkx belu rezon mana jel silurgonge, staars hok.’
‘Kaz.’
‘Stumbo arhun chlajondyi.’
‘Ho. Bendri ravuda kok Trekeï?’
‘Trekei.’
‘Ho.’
‘Kazneibolsk, pojnun handreï Trekeï doulowo yan’de assa-mabulok.’
Frejena degun paramanuk mizkanulunre delbo anuk delco, de Wü.
‘Wü-to-kuchun-punku-rügani-yugwi-van-ntü-m(ü).’
‘Tumengao-ak.’
Betsewdepaw dungsk selo-ubo-uti, mana bori aklako oak, pendeba, m, astaro flemdiüs; grebonk flüstye merced, ozier ellgok vaarista, junje sapir trebik gonoktogo-ak duÿz banje samovülk vuntu arboo dochlawatznyé. Ob dabok-ka-paok toorp inisak, skoop tzevar atcheng-b(ü) eueg xong paxang selcojwii kapagaris nemaoun’m ü doolyi.
‘Stevak Onailgis?’
‘Sigliano okluk(ü) k.’
‘Kaz.’
Braatke ymena achede ooz-mere-patü. Leongè sdentem waaha benitongbolo-menurastiibok bili fandangguerzeb(ü), etti, enne, ach’ sedac xamenac, folo-ubi, etti, parst, yedem plemmich’x knimmen, vàà zwo trabun. Delbro sterodok-Kao egeganjle goajar redwion dabustraminipelok plààs, ankte-te-rabouam.
‘SOBIESIBOM OOLES-PONK’
Kwk-abèd: demboo, ymena, vanark xaté-demboo. Waletudo sani-a me oki-ho antè-orok. Yostlö sabur delespooka nüge m’zen irü, mana xamena yan’derch. Hagenor kaazpaalidumbok anek chlawo zani de-m(ü)-fatur krysbonara deach’de sada; ob prjessa, ob asaour honnibulskanovok-nok, awù didwoomyi s’palaturao-ak, atte te-chenbong füllola. Benidzjem den deach’doolo trix stumbok pudurum. Banje Elvaarak sakokok:
‘Velledaj acharach nooz?’
‘Ho?’
‘Ho-kuk.’
‘Alle intok cuxta narab bela kokteno-ku.’
‘Vazilikur nuwooj brez—’
‘Tonk.’
‘Har’m’doo. Niwoo. Deluz xupic hamak.’
‘Hertinabal klaspak gudur ching-fo ho. Kaz debribisziniyi heng ette, sallabang-drabor!’
‘Kaz. Strepomutzenizic ho bok anuk.’
‘Ende de ach’de.’
‘Ma-wo to-pü wü suntun kachac.’
‘Zel.’
‘Zello bucastor arta-numa-pawac.’
‘Yootense garl enzemound(ü).’
‘Kaz.’
‘Abore mana peri trizocoklok ho.’
‘Wünü-si.’
‘Karaminx zel ach’de m phoo goulaz.’
‘Galla tapassarius doko hok. Ama ana atti steze tchekkaz-kaok, kaz mok, honti!’
‘Honti hovar!’
‘Tonkao.’
Jenüs deli-h-anta patarak vahand-hang, trexidü abolomina ahaa-ra-s, wii ato-m(ü) kazzakadakok, mong framaha puchun disthakalla unà umok. Elevero-bezü, Mookach sellis, Oïnoï-atü, renobello iveillaha akastrak ch’demo n, ontoselomisku nulowadek, hech’arun, fam etti salla apak, garewodzje xamun pelladan rong-betok gonik. Wïïlla hon, enni, hottaü rus.
Salussi-nom, galla parang matatitanek àrazu-ho tong-ak tang-xaximenok Dogü.
OR ASKING INDISCREET QUESTIONS
Are you happy?
Why are you reading this book?
What do you think is the worst thing that could happen?
Where would you like to live?
Have you read the dictionary?
Do you ever cry?
Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?
Are you sentimental?
Which brand of cigarettes do you like best?
Do you know your mother’s date of birth?
Who would you like to be if you weren’t yourself?
What is your ideal of earthly happiness?
Who is your favourite poet? Your favourite painter?
Your favourite composer?
What animal would you have liked to be?
What do you like best in a woman?
What do you like best in a man?
Are you a racialist?
Would you have liked to be a tree?
Do you write with a ball-point pen?
Do you like getting letters?
Do you wear dark glasses?
What do you like on television?
Do you think what you say?
Do you like drink?
Do you take drugs?
Which Christian names do you like best for men?
For women?
What’s your favourite surname?
How tall are you?
How much do you weigh?
What’s your pulse-rate?
Do you consider yourself normal?
Which are your favourite illnesses?
Are you obsessed with sex?
Are you a morning person or a night person?
What do you like about night?
About day?
Why aren’t
you me?
What do you dream about?
Do you like money?
Are you capable of killing someone?
Are you generous?
Would you like to go to the moon?
What is just?
Would you have liked to have slaves?
Why do people forget?
Why doesn’t the sun explode?
Why is there a little hole in the top of a fountain-pen?
Why are match-heads red?
What is ugliness?
What will it be like a million years from now?
Are you afraid of the dark?
Do you feel yourself to be alive?
How can there be such a thing as infinity?
Where is God?
How can one think of nothing?
Do you know who you are?
Do you know that there are people dying of hunger?
What would you do if you were king?
What is truth?
What is passion?
What is freedom?
Would you hate someone if they damaged your car?
Have you got a feeling for nature?
What do you consider the greatest film ever?
The greatest novel?
The most beautiful painting?
The most beautiful sonata?
The most beautiful woman?
Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?
Why is thought a closed system?
What is genius? What is talent?
What is light?
Is there a human community?
What is your favourite word?
Do you read the advertisements in magazines?
How long can you hold your breath?
Did you invent your signature straight off?
Why am I asking these questions?
Do you know what is the capital of Honduras?
Is everything beautiful?
Can you give an example of something unimaginable?