WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Extracts from Adam's Diary, translated from the original ms. cover

Extracts from Adam's Diary, translated from the original ms.

Chapter 24: Wednesday
Open in WeRead

About This Book

The work presents a comic diary of the first man in a primeval garden, recording his bewilderment at a newly arrived companion, the scramble over naming animals and places, and the awkward negotiations of domestic life. Short entries mix wry observations about language, curiosity, and solitude with comic episodes such as renaming landmarks, disputes over food and leisure, curious experiments with animals, and daring excursions near a great waterfall, as both adjust to each other and to the unfamiliar realities of human companionship.

Wednesday

It isn’t a fish. I cannot quite make out what it is. It makes curious, devilish noises when not satisfied, and says “goo-goo” when it is. It is not one of us, for it doesn’t walk; it is not a bird, for it doesn’t fly; it is not a frog, for it doesn’t hop; it is not a snake, for it doesn’t crawl; I feel sure it is not a fish, though I cannot get a chance to find out whether it can swim or not. It merely lies around, and mostly on its back, with its feet up. I have not seen any other animal do that before. I said I believed it was an enigma, but she only admired the word without understanding it. In my judgment it is either an enigma or some kind of a bug. If it dies, I will take it apart and see what its arrangements are. I never had a thing perplex me so.