Harlequin's Butterfly Page 2

  "A new species of fictional butterfly. A female, at that."

  Masking his excitement with inaudible mutterings, the lepidopterist deftly extended a hand and grasped the butterfly between his fingers. Mr. Abrams was not surprised; the gesture seemed utterly natural, no different from the fact that the butterfly should be visible to his companion. There were four coloured bands on the butterfly's abdomen, from the top: blue, red, purple, black. On the wings were squares marked out by black lines and coloured white, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, by sheer whimsy.

  This pattern appeared only while its wings were closed. Or for the blink of an eye, as one stared at it in flight.

  "A veritable Harlequin."

  Looking quite satisfied, the lepidopterist paused a while in thought.

  "Arlequinus arlequinus."

  The lepidopterist smiled at the mystified Mr. Abrams.

  "Its scientific name."

  And so he received the name of that butterfly.

  "A. A. Abrams."

  Introducing himself thus, he extends an enormous hand to me.

  * * *

  And that is the near-complete translation of Best Read Under a Cat, a novel by the peerless polyglot writer Tomoyuki Tomoyuki. Since I was responsible for the translation, any literary effect that may be said to exist in the original has surely been lost. Before talking about effect, I'm not even sure if the literal meaning has been preserved. Best Read Under a Cat is written in Latino sine flexione, or Latin without inflections. Of the manuscripts left behind by Tomoyuki Tomoyuki, who wrote in some thirty languages throughout a life of continuous relocation, it is the only work written in this language.

 

 

  Toh EnJoe, Harlequin's Butterfly

 

 

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