Russell Hoban - Medusa Frequency

It was the fourth of December and the Geburtstag of Rainer Maria Rilke, said the girl from Tirana, and she went on to read ‘Orpheus, Eurydike, Hermes’. I’m always forgetting what I read, so the same lines can be new to me many times, as now when I heard her enchanting voice say:

daβ eine Welt aus Klage ward, in der

that a world became out of lament, in which

alles noch einmal da war: Wald und Tal

everything existed once more: forest and valley

und Weg und Ortschaft, Feld und Fluβ und Tier;

and path and hamlet, field and river and animal;

und daβ um diese Klage-Welt, ganz so

and that around this lament-world, just as

wie um die andre Erde, eine Sonne

around the other earth, a sun

und ein gestirnter stiller Himmel ging,

and a starry quiet sky went,

ein Klage-Himmel mit entstellten Sternen

–: a lament-sky with disfigured stars —:

As once before, the words departed and I heard only that sweet and promising voice of Eurydice unfound and unlost.

‘Right,’ I said, ‘no more Klage, ’ and when I looked up at the Vermeer girl it was Medusa I saw, flickering and friendly, trusting me with the idea of her.

My thanks to Jonathan Gibbs for a music session with the

Fairlight computer; to Dr N. de M. Rudolf for his help

with electrophysiological technicalities; and to my wife

Gundula for translations from the German.

Russell Hoban (1925–2011) was the author of many extraordinary novels including Turtle Diary, Angelica Lost and Found and his masterpiece, Riddley Walker. He also wrote some classic books for children including The Mouse and his Child and the Frances books. Born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA, he lived in London from 1969 until his death.