Il richiamo di Cthulhu

„Takšne velike sile ali bitja so morda preživela …

“Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival ...

preživela iz neizmerno oddaljene dobe, ko se je …

a survival of a hugely remote period when ...

zavest morda razodevala

consciousness was manifested,

v podobah

perhaps,

in oblikah, ki so že davno izginile pred plimo napredujočega človeštva …

in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity ...

oblikah, katerih bežni spomin sta ujeli zgolj pesništvo in legenda ter jih imenovali bogovi,

forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods,

pošasti,

monsters,

mitska bitja vseh vrst in sort …“

mythical beings of all sorts and kinds....”

— Algernon Blackwood.

—Algernon Blackwood.

1.

1.

Groza v glini.

The Horror in Clay.

Najbolj usmiljena stvar na svetu je,

The most merciful thing in the world,

tako menim,

I think,

nezmožnost človeškega uma, da bi povezal vse svoje vsebine.

is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

Živimo na mirnem otoku nevednosti sredi črnih morij neskončnosti

We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,

in ni bilo namenjeno, da bi pluli daleč.

and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

Znanosti,

The sciences,

vsaka napenjajoča se v svojo smer,

each straining in its own direction,

nam doslej niso prizadejale veliko škode;

have hitherto harmed us little;

a nekega dne bo sestavljanje razdrobljenega znanja razprlo tako grozljive razglede resničnosti

but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality,

in našega strašnega položaja v njej,

and of our frightful position therein,

da bomo od razodetja bodisi znoreli bodisi zbežali pred smrtonosno svetlobo v mir in varnost novega mračnega veka.

that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Teozofi so ugibali o strahotni veličini kozmičnega kroga, v katerem sta naš svet in človeški rod le bežna pripetljaja.

Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents.

Namigovali so na čudne preživelosti z besedami, od katerih bi kri zastala v žilah, če jih ne bi zastiral blag optimizem.

They have hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism.

Toda ne od njih je prišel tisti edini pogled v prepovedane eone, ki me zazebe, kadar pomislim nanj, in me spravlja v blaznost, kadar o njem sanjam.

But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it.

Ta pogled je,

That glimpse,

kakor vsi strašni pogledi v resnico,

like all dread glimpses of truth,

šinil iz naključnega sestavljanja ločenih stvari —

flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things —

v tem primeru starega časopisnega zapisa in zapiskov mrtvega profesorja.

in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor.

Upam, da tega sestavljanja ne bo dovršil nihče drug;

I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing out;

zagotovo pa,

certainly,

če bom živel,

if I live,

sam nikoli ne bom zavestno priskrbel člena v tako ostudni verigi.

I shall never knowingly supply a link in so hideous a chain.

Mislim, da je tudi profesor

I think that the professor,

nameraval molčati

too,

o delu, ki ga je poznal,

intended to keep silent regarding the part he knew,

in da bi svoje zapiske uničil, če ga ne bi zgrabila nenadna smrt.

and that he would have destroyed his notes had not sudden death seized him.