Nina encouraged her birthday party guests to prepare something for the delight and entertainment of other guests. I chose to read a tale from the “Fairy Tales and Stories” collection by Max Frei for the Birthday Salon. To be precise, I impromptu translated it from Russian. Despite my getting occasionally stuck looking for the right word, the tale delighted.
Part I of the “Fairy Tales and Stories” book could have been titled, if one were to translate it, “Weird Mythologies”. It’s unlikely to be translated though, because many of the tales there build on the children’s literature and culture we grew up with in back in 1970ties, 1980ies back in the urban Soviet Union, and the initial familiarity is a substantial component of the wonder and thrill of the weird mythologies. Fortunately, the particular tale I read built on broader cultural context, so I brought it to the salon and I’ll translate it here for the delight and entertainment of those my readers who don’t read Russian, more thoughtfully than at Nina’s birthday salon. (If you do read Russian, head over here for the original and the rest of it.)
Through many a storyteller, in great detail, in many voices (so as to find a version for every listener, according to their size and intelligence), the history tells us the tale of Doctor Faust, as she remains stubbornly silent about his contemporary, neighbor, and the closest friend named Peter.
Love letters understated 