SLA 468S 2002. Student translations.

Link to original.

Christine Bilaniuk, translator

Leonid Skrypnyk

The Educated Person

To the reader.

Imagine dear reader that you are sitting in a movie theatre. I trust that you like movies. Before your eyes there is a screen, the sides of which have a 3, 4 ratio (*** figure of the screen is 17 and a half in diameter******). Outside the screen- there is a black emptiness. There is no world.

A little piece of a person's life, measuring roughly 35 years- quiet years, stormy years, gentle as a morning wind and mad like a hurricane in the night, painful and joyous time, young and mature- 35 years of the life of my dear protagonist will pass by right before your eyes in such a fast-flowing sequences of snippets of "clips" that had pulled out from this life is all the essence from this life and everything that was bright and significant in it- for the protagonist himself and interesting and important for those around him. That is, and (also) for you. (Because) my protagonist lives amongst you and often within you.

I have great difficulty as to select words that are so impressionable that they would force your untrained imagination to see that which is happening on the screen. In conjunction with the letters on the page of the book, you must know how to see my hero become alive, no not alive, but as a shallow, colourless photograph and is silent and therefore, more alive, more sensitive then a living person is allowed to be audible.

My (the) task (at hand) becomes more complicated because I have made an extract- filled with a few concentrated droplets; thirty-five years of my protagonist's life will pass before your eyes in a mere three hours.

Therefore, you must avidly be attentive and concentrate in order to comprehend every "scene"; be cautious and attentively care about the thoughtfulness to save each scene in your uncertain memory (mind) of every scene until the end of the picture.

And, if necessary, during the scenes where it will be too difficult for your untrained eyes to see my protagonist in the uniform composition of the black letters on the white paper,- turn to me. As the author, I am also your friend, and I will be right by your side. As in every Japanese movie, I will be the commentator for you. Pay attention to what I say for while in small print, I will speak only in a whisper, in your ear.

You will, of course, see the caption because they are printed in large letters.

The lights have been dimmed. From the window of his booth, the projectionist shot the cone of clear blueish-greenish transparent beams. In the space above you, the conical beam of light appears above you and vibrates constantly with tiny flickers. The first strings of music begin. It does not matter what it is. When the music sounds become more distinct, I will tell you about this…

The first credits appear…..

- Tell you what!….. After the picture, perhaps even sooner, you'll probably want to find out what attitudes, I the author, have of my protagonist. Do I like him, hate him or do I have feelings of contempt towards him?

I used to like him. Used to, that is, during my youth, when I first came upon my hero from another life experience, I had the utmost respect for him. I tried very hard to become like him. But even earlier- a distance which seemed to me as a young boy to be eternal, every person who wore eyeglasses and collars, I sincerely thought for not our beings, but a higher category, almost like superman…..

For many years now I too, wear the collar and eyeglasses…

The movie is beginning!…