Don Marquis
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Robert A. Heinlein
"Pero nunca le escondo nada [al lector] expresándome en un lenguaje particular, ni busco el elogio de otros escritores hacia mi "técnica" u otras tonterías.
El único elogio que me interesa es el sonido del dinero que paga el cliente al comprar mis relatos, un dinero que me llega a mí porque yo he llegado a él. O eso, o nada. Apoyo a las artes... ¡merde! ¡Un artista subvencionado por el Gobierno es una puta incompetente!"
El único elogio que me interesa es el sonido del dinero que paga el cliente al comprar mis relatos, un dinero que me llega a mí porque yo he llegado a él. O eso, o nada. Apoyo a las artes... ¡merde! ¡Un artista subvencionado por el Gobierno es una puta incompetente!"
[Robert A. Heinlein en Forastero en Tierra Extraña, 1961]
DeathSpank
"What a terrible world we live in when ninjutsu can't solve our problems..."
[DeathSpank, para PS3]
Christopher Moore
"What good are princesses? Dragon food and ransom makers - spoiled brats to be bartered for real estate"
[Christopher Moore, Fool]
Casi como Clarke...
"Cualquier burocracia lo suficientemente avanzada es indistinguible de la melaza"
Anónimo
The Gathering Storm
In this sad tale of wrong judgments formed by well-meaning and capable people we now reach our climax. Thath we should all have come to this pass makes those responsible, however honourable their motives, blameworthy before history. Look back and see what we had successively accepted or thrown away: a Germany disarmed by solemn treaty; a Germany rearmed in violation of a solemn treaty; air superiority or even air parity cast away; the Rhineland forcibly occupied and the Siegfried Line built or building; the Berlin-Rome Axis established; Austria devoured and digested by the Reich; Czechoslovakia deserted and ruined by the Munich Pact; its fortress line in German hands; its mighty arsenal of Skoda henceforward making munitions for the German armies; President Roosevelt’s effort to stabilise or bring to a head the European situation by the intervention of the United States waved aside with one hand, and Soviet Russia’s undoubted willingness to join the Western Powers and go all lengths to save Czechoslovakia ignored on the other; the services of thirty-five Czech divisions against the still unripened German Army cast away, when Great Britain could herself supply only two to strengthen the front in France – all gone with the wind.
And now, when every one of these aids and advantages has been squandered and thrown away, Great Britain advances, leading France by the hand, to guarantee the integrity of Poland – of that very Poland which with hyena appetite had only six months before joined in the pillage and destruction of the Czechoslovak State. There was sense in fighting for Czechoslovakia in 1938 when the German Army could scarcely put half a dozen trained divisions on the Western Front, when the French with nearly sixty or seventy divisions could most certainly have rolled forward across the Rhine or into the Ruhr. But this had been judged unreasonable, rash, below the level of modern intellectual thought and morality. Yet now at last the two Western Democracies declared themselves ready to stake their lives upon the territorial integrity of Poland. History, which we are told is mainly the record of the crimes, follies, and miseries of mankind, may be scoured and ransacked to find a parallel to this sudden and complete reversal of five or six years’ policy of easy-going placatory appeasement, and its transformation almost overnight into a readiness to accept an obviously imminent war on far worse conditions and on the greatest scale.
Moreover, how could we protect Poland and make good our guarantee? Only by declaring war upon Germany and attacking a stronger Western Wall and a more powerful German Army than those from which we had recoiled in September 1938. Here is a line of milestones to disaster. Here is a catalogue of surrenders, at first when all was easy and later when things were harder, to the ever-growing German power. But now at last was the end of British and French submission. Here was decision at last, taken at the worst possible moment and on the least satisfactory ground, which must surely lead to the slaughter of tens of millions of people. Here was the righteous cause deliberately and with a refinement of inverted artistry committed to mortal battle after its assets and advantages had been so improvidently squandered. Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worst case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
And now, when every one of these aids and advantages has been squandered and thrown away, Great Britain advances, leading France by the hand, to guarantee the integrity of Poland – of that very Poland which with hyena appetite had only six months before joined in the pillage and destruction of the Czechoslovak State. There was sense in fighting for Czechoslovakia in 1938 when the German Army could scarcely put half a dozen trained divisions on the Western Front, when the French with nearly sixty or seventy divisions could most certainly have rolled forward across the Rhine or into the Ruhr. But this had been judged unreasonable, rash, below the level of modern intellectual thought and morality. Yet now at last the two Western Democracies declared themselves ready to stake their lives upon the territorial integrity of Poland. History, which we are told is mainly the record of the crimes, follies, and miseries of mankind, may be scoured and ransacked to find a parallel to this sudden and complete reversal of five or six years’ policy of easy-going placatory appeasement, and its transformation almost overnight into a readiness to accept an obviously imminent war on far worse conditions and on the greatest scale.
Moreover, how could we protect Poland and make good our guarantee? Only by declaring war upon Germany and attacking a stronger Western Wall and a more powerful German Army than those from which we had recoiled in September 1938. Here is a line of milestones to disaster. Here is a catalogue of surrenders, at first when all was easy and later when things were harder, to the ever-growing German power. But now at last was the end of British and French submission. Here was decision at last, taken at the worst possible moment and on the least satisfactory ground, which must surely lead to the slaughter of tens of millions of people. Here was the righteous cause deliberately and with a refinement of inverted artistry committed to mortal battle after its assets and advantages had been so improvidently squandered. Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worst case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
The Gathering Storm [pags. 311-312] - Winston Churchill
Cerveza...
"La cerveza es la prueba de que Dios nos ama y quiere que seamos felices"
Benjamin Franklin
Inconsistencias?
"No hay inconsistencias en los libros de Mundodisco; ocasionalmente, sin embargo, hay pasados alternativos"
Terry Pratchett
Hablando en Vor
Hoy mismo he terminado con la undécima historia de la saga de Miles Vorkosigan, escrita por Lois McMaster Bujold. Me habían prometido libros divertidos, adictivos y ligeros, con un protagonista para el recuerdo, y así ha sido. Me quedan dos lecturas pendientes de esta serie, pero por el momento las dejaré para más adelante... Ahora es una novela negra la que me reclama su atención (y fue un regalo de cumpleaños, así que ya va tocando empezar con ella). Pero me las leeré, que quiero saber cómo termina esa historia.
De todos modos, a pesar de ser, como digo, una lectura bastante ligera, ha habido un detalle que me ha gustado especialmente. Incrustadas en las líneas hay algunas frases de esas que pueden pasar desapercibidas, pero que si se les presta atención, pueden considerarse pequeñas perlas de sabiduría, demostrando que no que un libro sea sencillo de leer implica que sea superficial. Aquí os dejo una selección de algunas de las que más me han llamado la atención:
"Intuition was nothing but the subconscious processing of subliminal clues."
("La intuición no era otra cosa que el procesamiento subconsciente de pistas subliminales")
"- This is a chain of command, or a chain of credulity?
- There's a difference?"
("- Esto es una cadena de mando, o una cadena de credulidad?
- Hay alguna diferencia?")
"Power is a live thing, by which you reach out to grasp the future. Revenge is a dead thing, reaching out from the past to grasp you."
("El poder es una cosa viva, mediante la que te estiras para atrapar el futuro. La venganza es una cosa muerta, que se estira desde el pasado para atraparte a ti.")
"The trouble, coz, with your playing the spider in the center of this web, pulling all the strings, is that sooner or later all the interested parties are going to converge back along those strings to you. You do realize that, don't you?"
("El prolema, colega, con tu juego a ser la araña en el centro de la red, tirando de todos los hilos, es que antes o después todas las partes interesadas van a converger recorriendo esos hilos hasta ti. Te das cuenta de ello, no?")
"Don't you know that when you're given a task, you're given the power to accomplish it as well?"
("No sabes que cuando se te asigna una tarea, se te da también el poder para completarla?")
"I don't suppose you could have picked some more public way to self-destruct? Attempted to assassinate the Emperor with your pocket-knife during the Birthday Review, say, or raped a sheep in the Great Square during rush hour?"
("Supongo que no podrías haber escogido otra manera más pública para autodestruirte?. Haber tratado de asesinar al Emperador con tu cuchillo de bolsillo durante la Revisión de Cumpleaños, digamos, o violado a una oveja en la Gran Plaza durante hora punta?")
"I never let anything stop me. That's how you get what you want, Ivan. No one's just going to hand it to you [...] If you can't win, change the game."
("Nunca dejo que nada me pare. Así es como consigues lo que quieres, Ivan. Nadie va símplemente a dártelo. Si no puedes ganar, cambia el juego.")
"Some attitudes couldn't be changed; they just had to be outlived."
("Algunas actitudes no pueden ser cambiadas; solo tienen que ser sobrevividas.")
"After a while even losing a war can start to look preferable to prolonging it."
("Pasado un tiempo, incluso perder una guerra puede empezar a parecer preferible a prolongarla.")
"When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action [...] When you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it"
("Cuando escoges una acción, escoges las consecuencias de esa acción. Cuando has deseado una consecuencia ya te las puedes arreglar para efectuar la acción que la provoque.")
Las traducciones son mías, que aunque tengo por ahí las ediciones en español, me da pereza ponerme a buscarlas... Por eso, es posible que no siempre se correspondan fielmente a la realidad. Si alguien tiene una traducción mejor, soy todo oídos.
De todos modos, a pesar de ser, como digo, una lectura bastante ligera, ha habido un detalle que me ha gustado especialmente. Incrustadas en las líneas hay algunas frases de esas que pueden pasar desapercibidas, pero que si se les presta atención, pueden considerarse pequeñas perlas de sabiduría, demostrando que no que un libro sea sencillo de leer implica que sea superficial. Aquí os dejo una selección de algunas de las que más me han llamado la atención:
"Intuition was nothing but the subconscious processing of subliminal clues."
("La intuición no era otra cosa que el procesamiento subconsciente de pistas subliminales")
(Cetaganda)
"- This is a chain of command, or a chain of credulity?
- There's a difference?"
("- Esto es una cadena de mando, o una cadena de credulidad?
- Hay alguna diferencia?")
(The Vor Game)
"Power is a live thing, by which you reach out to grasp the future. Revenge is a dead thing, reaching out from the past to grasp you."
("El poder es una cosa viva, mediante la que te estiras para atrapar el futuro. La venganza es una cosa muerta, que se estira desde el pasado para atraparte a ti.")
(Borders of Infinity)
"Lately, I have come to believe that the principal difference between heaven and hell is the company you keep there."
("Últimamente, he empezado a creer que la principal diferencia entre cielo e infierno es la compañía que uno tiene allí.")
(A Civil Campaign)"The trouble, coz, with your playing the spider in the center of this web, pulling all the strings, is that sooner or later all the interested parties are going to converge back along those strings to you. You do realize that, don't you?"
("El prolema, colega, con tu juego a ser la araña en el centro de la red, tirando de todos los hilos, es que antes o después todas las partes interesadas van a converger recorriendo esos hilos hasta ti. Te das cuenta de ello, no?")
(Cetaganda)
"Don't you know that when you're given a task, you're given the power to accomplish it as well?"
("No sabes que cuando se te asigna una tarea, se te da también el poder para completarla?")
(Borders of Infinity)
"If power was an illusion, wasn't weakness necessarily one also?"
("Si el poder era una ilusión, no era la debilidad necesariamente otra también?")
(A Civil Campaign)"I don't suppose you could have picked some more public way to self-destruct? Attempted to assassinate the Emperor with your pocket-knife during the Birthday Review, say, or raped a sheep in the Great Square during rush hour?"
("Supongo que no podrías haber escogido otra manera más pública para autodestruirte?. Haber tratado de asesinar al Emperador con tu cuchillo de bolsillo durante la Revisión de Cumpleaños, digamos, o violado a una oveja en la Gran Plaza durante hora punta?")
(The Vor Game)
"I never let anything stop me. That's how you get what you want, Ivan. No one's just going to hand it to you [...] If you can't win, change the game."
("Nunca dejo que nada me pare. Así es como consigues lo que quieres, Ivan. Nadie va símplemente a dártelo. Si no puedes ganar, cambia el juego.")
(Memory)
"Some attitudes couldn't be changed; they just had to be outlived."
("Algunas actitudes no pueden ser cambiadas; solo tienen que ser sobrevividas.")
(Brothers in Arms)
"Roots grow deep in the dark"
("Las raíces crecen profundo en la oscuridad")
(A Civil Campaign)"After a while even losing a war can start to look preferable to prolonging it."
("Pasado un tiempo, incluso perder una guerra puede empezar a parecer preferible a prolongarla.")
(Borders of Infinity)
"When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action [...] When you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it"
("Cuando escoges una acción, escoges las consecuencias de esa acción. Cuando has deseado una consecuencia ya te las puedes arreglar para efectuar la acción que la provoque.")
(Memory)
Las traducciones son mías, que aunque tengo por ahí las ediciones en español, me da pereza ponerme a buscarlas... Por eso, es posible que no siempre se correspondan fielmente a la realidad. Si alguien tiene una traducción mejor, soy todo oídos.
Ciudad de Ladrones
"They have decided nothing can kill them but God, and they don't even believe in him."
City of Thieves (David Benioff)
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