"Stanislaw Lem - Ijon Tichy 02 - Memoirs of a Space Traveler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lem Stanislaw)

configurations. I landed with due caution in the middle of an open desert. It was covered with small disks,
perhaps half a meter in diameter; hard and shiny, as if turned on a lathe, they ran in long rows in various
directions, forming the designs I had noticed from a high altitude. After making a few tests, I went cruising
just above the ground seeking an answer to the riddle of the disks, which intrigued me enormously.
During a two-hour flight I discovered, one after the other, three immense and beautiful cities; I touched
down in a square in one of them. But the city was completely deserted; houses, towers, squares,
everything was dead; no sign of life anywhere, or any trace of violence or natural disaster. More amazed
and bewildered than ever, I flew on. Around noon I found myself above a vast plateau. Catching sight of
a shiny building near which there was some sort of movement, I immediately landed. A palace rose from
the rocky plain, sparkling as though cut from a single diamond. A wide marble staircase led up to its
gilded portal. At the foot of the staircase several unfamiliar beings were milling about. I looked at them
close up. If my eyes did not deceive me, they were alive and, moreover, resembled humans so much
(especially from a distance) that I dubbed them "hominiformicans." I was prepared with this name
because I had spent time during my voyage thinking up nomenclature, in order to have terms handy for
such occasions. "Hominiformicans" fit the bill, for these beings walked upon two legs and had hands,
heads, eyes, ears, and lips. True, the lips were in the middle of the forehead, the ears under the chin (a
pair on each side), and the eyes -- ten in all -- were arranged like rosary beads across their cheeks. But
to a traveler like me, who has encountered the most bizarre creatures in the course of his expeditions,
they were the spit and image of humans.
I approached them, keeping a safe distance, and asked what they were doing. They made no
reply, but continued peering into the diamond mirrors that rose from the lowest step of the staircase. I
tried to interrupt them once, twice, three times, but seeing that this had not the slightest effect, in my
impatience I shook one vigorously by the shoulder. Then they all turned in my direction and seemed to
notice me for the first time. After regarding me and my rocket with some astonishment, they asked me
several questions, to which I willingly replied. But because they kept breaking off the conversation to
gaze into the diamond mirrors, I was afraid I would not be able to question them properly. Finally,
however, I managed to persuade one to satisfy my curiosity. This Phool (for, as he told me, they are
called Phools) sat down with me on a rock not far from the stairs. My interlocutor fortunately possessed
considerable intelligence, which showed in the gleam of the ten eyes on his cheeks. He threw his ears
over his shoulders and described the history of the Phools, as follows:
"Alien voyager! You must know that we are a people with a long and splendid past. The
population of this planet has been divided from time immemorial into Spiritors, Eminents, and
Drudgelings. The Spiritors were absorbed in the contemplation of the nature of the Great Phoo, who in a
deliberate creative act brought the Phools into being, settled them on this globe, and in His inscrutable
mercy surrounded it with stars to illumine the night and also fashioned the Solar Fire to light our days and
send us beneficent warmth. The Eminents levied taxes, interpreted the meaning of state laws, and
supervised the factories, in which the Drudgelings modestly toiled. Thus everyone worked together for
the public good. We dwelt in peace and harmony; our civilization reached great heights. Through the ages
inventors built machines that simplified work, and where in ancient times a hundred Drudgelings had bent
their sweating backs, centuries later a few stood by a machine. Our scientists improved the machines,
and the people rejoiced at this, but subsequent events showed how cruelly premature was that rejoicing.
A certain learned constructor built the New Machines, devices so excellent that they could work quite
independently, without supervision. And that was the beginning of the catastrophe. When the New
Machines appeared in the factories, hordes of Drudgelings lost their jobs; and, receiving no salary, they
faced starvation. . ."
"Excuse me, Phool," I asked, "but what became of the profits the factories made?"
"The profits," he replied, "went to the rightful owners, of course. Now, then, as I was saying, the
threat of annihilation hung. . ."
"But what are you saying, worthy Phool!" I cried. "All that had to be done was to make the
factories common property, and the New Machines would have become a blessing to you!"