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Stories

Of Animals and Men by Jan Skacer

(an open letter to Radio Prague)

Dear Friends.

You have asked me for a piece on animals. Please forgive me; I would like to help you, and I have been working with you for many years, this is simply too much for me.

I mean that it is morally too much for me. It would be impudent on my part, as a mere human, to write about animals, who are natural and beautiful creatures who refuse to wage wars, to rob on the highways, to lie and to bear illegitimate children.

It's a pity that animals cannot write. It would be interesting to see what they'd say about us humans (that is, if the printers would dare to print it). But why would a nightingale, wagtail, horse and or cow, with beautiful eyes do such a thing? They've got more urgent things at hand. The birds for example start singing at dawn. People can't do that.

But now that I am writing to you, I cannot hide my regret that animals are inexorably repressed by people. By now it's a sign of the declining qualities of mankind. I have seen an urban child visiting a farm for the first time to ask why cows have gloves between their legs. And this kid had already been to the zoo to see a lion, a tiger, an iguana and an elephant, but he was frightened to death when he saw a goat for the first time when he was nine years old.

Formerly, people were noble and rode horses. But was also a gross injustice; I cannot understand why a being as imperfect, and on the whole, as ugly as a human has the right to sit on the back of a creature as beautiful and delicate as a horse! It should be the other way around, but humans are too feeble. So to make up for this inferiority complex, humans invented metal animals that stink and are called cars.

Even a flea is more intelligent than a man. A certain biologist and flea specialist swore that a flea can find the one spot on the human body - between the shoulder blades - that even a circus acrobat can't scratch. Humans aren't capable of that. And now we who call ourselves masters of creation and who overcome nature, we no longer know where to hide since Einstein discovered the energy-mass formula.

Forgive me dear friends, for this indignant tone. I hope you understand the reasons for it. Let me in conclusion give one more proof of the superiority of the animal kingdom: animals can't have radio, and instead of the T. V. set, they look at the beautiful world of God.

Jan skacel (1922-1989), an outstanding Czech poet and writer, was harassed by the communist regime and allowed to publish only occasionally towards the end of his life. This piece was printed after the regime collapsed. (courtesy : Readers' Digest February 1998 issue)

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