Astronautilia

Jan Kresadlo

November 2007

Jan Kresadlo is one of several pen-names of the psychologist, poet and authorVaclav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava (19261995). Among his many his accomplishmentsis the Astronautilia, a 6575-line science-fiction epic poem... in Homeric Greek.

There was limited printing of the work, with a facing Czech translation, shortlyafter his death, but with the kind help and permission of Kresadlos son I am ableto present the opening of the poem here, taken from a PDF version of the hand-written manuscript. There are a few places where Im afraid I may be misreadingKresadlos handwriting. The work includes a glossary of modern and sci-fi terms.Ive footnoted such words in the selection. I have made bold to correct accentingin a few places.

Before starting, you will want to read the English translation of the prologue.

5 . , , . 10 . , . . 15 .

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. 20 . 25 . 30 . . 35 .

Here is an example of Kresadlos handwriting, from the index. As you can seehe has a fondness for some antiquarian ligatures.

21 free variation on ?26 quantum as in quantum physics.

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