An
imperceptible modality expressed itself ineffably in
Cochonfucius' garden. He asked
Yake Lakang about it.
The answer was following:
This imperceptible essence
has been expressing itself only since the sixth
and will cease to do so
at the very first
When it was not yet expressed, it was unnamed,
and therefore did not exist. It will be no longer expressed
as soon as it will be present everywhere, hence unnamed again.
On hearing that, the followers said what happened during
every season of that period.
Sixth
has been dead for two years. At a summer school, near
his grandson and his nephew exhibit an intelligent
that can make it rain.
King
promulgates
The Heir to the Throne invents a short alphabet.
Seventh
The grandson and the nephew wonder why
it is raining so often. The Second Heir to the Throne, back from planet
re-invents the spelling of words.
Eighth
The King and Heir travel to a cold island,
in order to impress some scholars with the short alphabet.
The Lord Mayor of
tames another
hoping it will become intelligent.
organizes a banquet for all those insular scholars.
Ninth
All those people go to the city,
in order to inspect some
Tenth
he King's Fool feels curious about the
perceptive skills of those
On this occasion, King
introduces him to the Kingdom's executioner. This event is
reported by
amid general indifference. The Heir goes into exile among Westerners.
nephew publishes an attempt to describe the ineffable essence,
nothing essential, however.
and Uncle Paul both manage to capture a semi-intelligent
First
King
with his spirits lifted in love,
gets married and does not publish any scholarly paper.
Second
explains the ineffable essence in a gazette of the Kingdom.
A man in the cold island starts a collection of
Uncle Paul goes on with his beautiful tales.
Third
Some vassals of
grandson and nephew
publish a treatise about the ineffable essence, the last chapter
being from King
own pen.
Fourth
The Kingdom's Executioner settles near
in order to listen to the
when they fall from a little pier. Many scholars who are well-known drunkards
flow into a shrine in the woods, to each write a sonnet.
Fifth
nephew
gets out of the shrine and finds the weather a bit colder.
Sixth
obtains the most honorific rank in the Kingdom's scholarly hierarchy,
with a project that relies upon a definition of the word
ineffable.
Seventh
of the Kingdom publishes a refutation of every discourse assigning
any form of intelligence to a
At the bottom of the lake,
the
are being covered with black algae.
teaches a new course about the ineffable essence, in a
cellar of the Royal palace. Uncle Paul writes a fable.
Eighth
An illustrious
declares himself ready to fight any intelligent
at armwrestling. But the Kingdom's Society
for the Protection of Animals
obtains the interdiction of any such attempt. King
publishes a collection of his courtiers' sonnets. Underwater divers
extract a few
from the lake.
Ninth
grandson
publishes the treatise Science of the Ineffable,
and the courtiers crown him with thyme and marjoram.
Countless scholars flood the city of
and go eat some
on silver trays.
Tenth
publishes the treatise My
brings me my slippers.
Western scholars enjoy a new gazette.
First
A Westerner
teaches a young
the art of mundane conversation and card castles.
Second
Perverse scholars mix some mathematics into the ineffable.
grandson and nephew blow their own trumpet. Two Western courtiers
publish the treatise
Representation of the ineffable. A priest publishes the treatise
The ineffable is Alive.
The shrine in the woods is packed every evening.
Third
Another
proclaims the uselessness of all those treatises (and of this
Chronicle).
For a scholar to be attracted by a
or to spend hours playing with
is a mental disorder, and so is
the reading of the rest of this page. Nevertheless, two
Western scholars, undiscouraged by that, publish the treatise
My
is ineffable.
Fourth
The scholar
builds his ineffable substance distillator.
Fifth
grandson and nephew
are rewarded by a great plenty of
They eat and talk. King
proves that ineffable is in your head.
Two courtiers tell him this is high science.
Sixth
A third
publishes, in a lively vein, the treatise
Cognition of the
with some picturesque examples.
Seventh
A drifter publishes the treatise
Ineffable substance and domestic
now a classic. Western scholars invent yet another gazette.
Clandestinely, the armwrestling contest the first
had been asking for takes place in
Cluny Tavern.
The poor
loses the game, understands nothing about it, and does not suffer too much.
Eighth
The Science of the Ineffable is said to be
interdisciplinary.
nephew receives a pair of
solid state honorific golden slippers. Scholars flood
the sanctuary, once again.
Ninth
Cochonfucius publishes the treatise
Bent Ravens.
No extract of it appears in any gazette.
Another drifter publishes the treatise
On
a personal inquiry about ineffability and slippers.
A quite poetic-minded scholar invents a chessboard for three kinds of
bishops.
A flying frog publishes
the treatise
Autonomy of
Tenth
The frog meets a
with majestuous wings and they fly away together. They publish
the treatise
Mauve Slippers and Ineffable Cognition.
The frog learns to
ride.
A very wise priest wonders if ineffability is not some sort of frogskin.
First
The white ants of the Eastern Garden
borrow some mathematics from the perverse scholars mentioned in the
second
This benefits, as you may have guessed,
to the scholars of the eleventh
Many treatises, more stupid than
each other, are published. Past twenty-five seasons, ineffable remains
inbloodyneffable.
True, said Cochonfucius, but I still enjoy my bent ravens.
References
Description of the ineffable essence,
Paleocodex, tenth
