Sotielkareh
by Bertil Falk
Comments on the Quotations from Sotielkareh written as an essay at the pre-school level in the 141st century by a precocious trollunge on a planet in the “True Lovers’ Knot” region.
It was not until A.D. 13,967 that someone collected the quotations of Sotielkareh, who lived around A.D. 8532 on an insignificant satellite of a trifling planet in the vicinity of a white star within M25. The quotations were from her legendary thesis, the title of which has long since been forgotten, though there is a theory that it was Thesis.
The quotations have been preserved in hundreds of books in most of the different intergalactic languages written by hundreds of authors between A.D. 9565 and A.D. 12,327. The authors were separated by time and lived far away from each other on many planets in all parts of the populated universe. Since the quotations were made for many different reasons and purposes and had many different sources, the preserved quotations only give a glimpse of the writer’s genius.
Actually, in A.D. 13,967 Servus Quasilores collected not only all the preserved quotations but also discovered some thitherto unknown. They were published under the title Quotations. The “new” quotations were unearthed during Servus Quasilores’ quest for the fragments. It was now possible to form a conception of her work, indeed a most sprawling conception, but nonetheless a conception.
We look up at the black bellies with their golden edges is the best-known quotation. Probably because it was supposed that Sotielkareh was referring to dark clouds, the edges of which were bathing in sunshine. But since “up” was a later addition and the original only said We look at black bellies with their golden edges, the statement was left open to all kinds of interpretations, enhanced by the fact that we know for sure from other sources that there were no clouds where she lived.
Her abode was on the satellite Eceerg, and her language was Naieceerg and that was the idiom of her thesis. The water for Eccerg was partly imported from other planets and partly manufactured on the spot. However, as some scholars pointed out, Sotielkareh must have seen pictures of clouds on other planets.
The quotation with “up” was found in a discourse delivered in the Trunkian tongue by Frang Quor Brugg at the University of Betelgeuse. Time: A.D. 9891. The up-less quotation was cited as early as A.D. 9565 in the original language and was the earliest of the fragments quoted. It was Irvin Most Brown Irvinsson who inserted it in his collection of ancient proverbs.
One can only live one life at a time, but twice as much is zero is another fragment from her thesis, quoted by no less than Sir Conan Curt Newton-Svensson in his philosophical study Out of Mind, written in the beginning of the 140th century and published in A.D. 13,125. Language: Denebian.
This fragment has kept scholars scratching their heads for centuries. What the heck did the ingenious lady mean? The first part of the sentence fit into universal experience, but the second part made no sense. Had it anything at all to do with first part? Should a full stop be inserted after “time”? It would turn the sentence into One can only live one life at a time. But twice as much is zero.
The problem is of course the “but” or the “But”. It connects the second part with the first part. The proposal that Sotielkareh had in view that two times zero is zero is a solution that makes some sense, but it has been far from accepted by all scholars concerned, for what has that to do with living only one lifetime?
One cannot take two showers from the same geyser is another famous quotation that set scholars puzzling. The quotation makes sense if we take into consideration the fact that the water of a shower is gushing. One of her pupils even states that the sentence should be One can not take even one shower from the same geyser. A statement that also exists in this version One cannot take any shower from the same geyser.
In other words, the shower is constantly and rapidly a new shower consisting of new water. This fragment is from a primer about water written on the drought-plagued planet Flum somewhere in the direction of the ‘B’ in the Big Dipper. The language of the textbook was the space slang of a Flumian dialect. Year: A.D. 13,315.
Thus we have a variety of quotations written in a string of unrelated languages written with different characters. In one case it was also translated from the original into the musical language of the asteroid archipelago of Twist, situated in a space bend near the Butterfly Nebula.
The quotation is often “sung” or, rather, hummed, but retranslated into some of the more understandable galactic languages it goes: To swing in holy joy inside the womb of the heavenly father. The Time. The Fight will soon be over, serenity will be enjoyed.
This has been called the eschatological message of Sotielkareh, but it is inconsistent with the statement made by a contemporary on her own planet that she was not at all religious. True, she held the door open for the existence of a Creator of some kind, which she called Cause, but she denied that this Cause was a God to be worshipped.
The quotation has of course been questioned, and some scholars suggest that it is a misquoted Lutheran statement from the past that by chance has been attributed to Sotielkareh. Others have supposed that it is a sheer forgery made to discredit her.
Those who stick to the opinion that it is a true quotation maintain that it has been — like all her statements — taken out of context. Some of them even state that the quotation actually is that aforementioned Lutheran statement, quoted and commented by her; but what is left is only her quotation, while her comment has been lost. Thus the quotation would itself be a quotation.
As we can see, the research concerning Sotielkareh is an ongoing process, and since she is my heroine, I will concentrate on studying her in detail at the university level.
Margo Vishvendu, age 5 years
Plaatro 21, A.D. 14,093
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Postscript:
Margo Vishvendu never fulfilled her childhood ambitions. She became a successful slave-hawker and as far as is known she never again even mentioned the philosopher who had been her childhood hero.
Vishvendu’s essay survived the much later destruction of her home planet. It is now preserved at the Intergalactic Library and is the only document we have about Sotielkareh. No copy of the Quotations compiled by Servus Quasilores has survived.
Copyright © 2010 by Bertil Falk
