dec 31st, 2006
the great (and i mean one of the greatest ever, in the company of arthur c clarke, philip k dick) science fiction writer stanislav lem (who wrote in polish) once wrote a story about a robot poet that could produce astonishing feats of poetry. here is an excerpt with a hat-tip to the genius of the translator from polish to english. wish the nytimes and r thapar could find robots with this level of class to write their fiction. i especially like that bit about 'savage, spectacular suicide' : describes perfectly the act of our good mohammedan friends about to go to heaven and receive 72 whatevers.
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"Have it compose a poem--a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism and in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!!"
"And why not throw in a full exposition of the general theory of nonlinear automata while you're at it?" growled Trurl. "You can't give it such idiotic--"
But he didn't finish. A melodious voice filled the hall with the following:
Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed.
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.
~ from The Cyberiad, originally written in Polish and translated by Michael Kandel into English
more at: http://www.quotationspage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=572&sid=8238fb722a67cf62e9f2b7edf286cce6
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