Gentle zits

Gentle zits (Polish pćmy łagodne, sing. pćma łagodna) are fictional objects mentioned in the Stanisław Lem's story How the world was saved (Polish: Jak ocalał świat) in the anthology Cyberiada.

The story in which zits are mentioned does not tell its readers what zits really are. Nobody knows almost any physical or mental features of the gentle zits, since they were totally destroyed by the "machine that could create anything starting with n". The machine that could create anything starting with n completely erased zits from the reality when a constructor called Klapaucius ordered it to make nothing. From the story we know only that the zits were splendid and gentle and that without them life loses all its charm. According to Stanisław Lem, they were to some extent similar to pritons and scrupts (Polish: sepulki)[1]

Zits have appeared also in the story Bardzo zły by Tomasz Bochiński - the story explains, why zits are gentle[2] and in his story Szczęśliwego 3012 roku, where they were being used as aircraft.

A fragment of the Lems's story about zits has been included to the handbook of the Polish language for foreigners Od słowa do słowa – wybór tekstów do nauczania cudzoziemców języka polskiego.[3] The style of the story has been analyzed by linguists.[4]

The author of the English translation of the term "pćmy" into English is Michael Kandel, one of the most important translators of Lem's work. However, the Polish word "pćmy" has no meaning similar to the English "zits". The German translation of the term pćmy łagodne is süße Singuine (where süß=sweet).

See also

References

  1. ↑ "''Co to są murkwie i pćmy łagodne?'', An interview with the author". Solaris.lem.pl. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  2. ↑ '..::Carpe Noctem ::..'
  3. ↑ Elżbieta Gałdyn, Henryk Zwolski Od słowa do słowa – wybór tekstów do nauczania cudzoziemców języka polskiego, Wydawnictwo Polonia, Warszawa 1988, ISBN 83-7021-014-7, s. 120
  4. ↑ Z zagadnień języka artystycznego. Materiały I konferencji naukowej poświęconej problematyce języka literatury zorganizowanej przez Instytut Filologii Polskiej UJ, Kraków 17-19 luty 1975 r., red. Józef Bubak i Aleksander Wilkoń, "Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Prace Językoznawcze", z. 54/1977, s. 327

External links

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