Thyx
Original by Gregory Khasin
Translated, from the Russian, by Anya Ezhevskaya
The thyx is native to the great bushlings of Druzitain, which are prevalent in the Smorga Delta. This animal is a large thyxalia, greenish in coloration. It exhibits two prominent sternates on its corpodeum and a heavy, muscular gropis. A considerable pedipalpa runs along its entire dorsal side, beginning up by the grales and ending far past the snot orifice. When the thyx gnarls, the pedipalpa swells, veins pop up on the surface from the strain, and small, translucent droplets of lestigo are secreted by the intracopious glands. The pedipalpa distinguishes the thyx from the two other thyxalias – the shame-thrower and the roux. This creature is unique because of its extremely flexible gallies, its archaic rear flanges, and the spinal boobie, which is connected to the upper and lower buttocks by a nerve chord bound in elastic suckage.
The thyx feeds primarily on the bark of vorsulari stumps and on miniature shmeeg acorns. It digs them up with the gropis, pries them open with the blades of its inner cannula, and sucks out the sweet lionide paste. The paste is poisonous, but the intracopious glands neutralize the lethal concoction. Apart from the lionide, the thyx also enjoys oxygenated air which it pumps with its external cockles. These appendages are very strong and are reinforced at the bottom by spacious, pleated underpinnings. All six cockles — three on each side — are equipped with the so-called sifterates. Air passes through them and enters the arsoid system, where water and pukous dioxide bind via the process of lestigosynthesis, resulting in an ever-present supplement of lestigo ample for all of the thyx’s needs.
Every evening lestigo begins to thicken, and prior to sunset, the female thyx weaves herself a bundus where she settles for the night. There she is joined by brundies, copperwigs and other leegamors for shockingly intense episodes of gnarling that usually leave the nearby bushlings spotted and striped with the sticky traces of the creatures’ enemation. The thyx waits for the night impatiently, and, in the safety of the darkness, the female often flosses before the arrival of the leegamors. Without them she can neither gnead nor expel her suffusion.
There are curious differences between the male and female species. The female has a semi-transparent zygmode plus a number of flastrations, and as a result she is able to hack. The male cannot hack and that makes perfect sense because he is supposed to store his lestigo in the strotus and release it for the female to pickle. The ichtopaws of the male, unlike the bare female extremities, are covered in purplish films which turn bright red and inflate during matation. The male’s strotus boggles as he knots and unknots in the intense pre-matation heat. After matation, the strotus falls off and subsequently the male dies.
The thyx is a jolly, kind-hearted creature. It tames easily and makes a great pet. While living with you, the female still needs to be allowed to co-gnarl with the leegamors, but her chinamook needs to be tightly bound. In captivity, the thyx must be fed only the freshest phrudes, otherwise it will quickly fall into obstination and, in a few days, it’ll croackle.
Ыпь
Ыпь водится в карликовых ворсиньях Друзитании, далеко внизу по течению Снага. Это крупная ырница зеленого цвета с двойными хиазмами на сочнях и тяжелым щуплóм. Вдоль всего ее тела идет длинная педипальпа, которая начинается у самых скрюль и кончается далеко за полузявами. Когда ыпь негочет, педипальпа напрягается так, что на поверхности ее выступают вены, а из утолщенной губны выделяются прозрачные капли лестиго. Педипальпа отличает ыпь от двух других ырниц, жухлоокой и бедственной. Из остальных особенностей этого животного следует отметить гибкий штыбень, наличие задних ихолапов, а также мозговой чунчик, соединенный нервным жгутом с зырями и защищающей их мешковизной.
Крепится ыпь корой ворсулярий, а также шишечками карликового хрюща. Она выкапывает их щуплом из земли, разжимает ложнодоли лезвием заусеницы и высасывает оттуда сладкую люписовую пасту. Паста эта очень ядовита, но железы хиазмов помогают ыпи нейтрализовать яд. В дополнение к люпису ыпь качает воздух наружными гофрами. Они у нее очень сильные и снабжены снизу просторными кожистыми подоплеками. На всех шести гофрах имеются так называемые «цедилища» – воздух проходит сквозь них и попадает в систему сетчатых бяльцев, где в его присутствии из фитопрена и воды вырабатывается все необходимое ыпи лестиго.
Каждый вечер перед закатом из загустевшего лестиго ыпь плетет бýндус, где и проводит ночь. К ней туда прилетают зелюки, псяки и другие лигаморы, так что наутро в пустом бундусе можно найти клейкие следы их усосов. Ыпь с нетерпением ждет ночи и в темноте, в ожидании прилета лигаморов регулярно облищается. Без них она не может ни неготать, ни откладывать жереск.
Различия между самкой и самцом ыпи любопытны. У самки есть сигмия и фластроны, в результате чего она способна отхаркиваться. Самец отхаркиваться не может, и это не случайно, поскольку ему нужно сохранить все лестиго в скротусе для последующего мерминга. Ихолапы у самца, в отличие от самки, окружены пленками, так что во время мерминга он пучит зыри, нистрýет и надувает эти пленки. В них потом скатываются мермоды, и самец умирает.
Ыпь – веселое и доброе существо. Ее легко приручить и держать дома. Нужно только допускать к ней лигаморов, тщательно перевязывать чунчик и кормить самыми свежими неприкосами. Если этого не делать, ыпь через несколько дней отбрюхнет.
Translator’s Note:
“Thyx” is one story from a bestiary of magical creatures written in a serious, scientific tone. Its intended audience includes children ages 8-12 and the parents who may be reading the stories to/with them in an unusual incidence of parents reading to their tweens. Each story, thus, speaks to different readers on different levels, winking with inside jokes to everyone in a unique way. “Thyx” presents a unique challenge for the translator since the author has created many fictitious body parts and functions (not to mention geographic locations and complimentary creatures), with corresponding terms which are all supposed to sound somewhat awkward and suggestive, to tickle the mind of the typical 10-year old and to make the parent squirm. The question is: how to preserve the original spirit but create the appropriate equivalent suggestive-sounding English words that will send the same message to the readers without overtly saying anything?
For this translation the translator worked closely with the author to get the precise flavor of whichever feeling the author was wanting to stir in the reader, be it a particularly piquant disgust, a slightly shameful hint of sexual innuendo, outrageous silliness, or a stark quirkiness. Having understood the spirit of the fabricated terms and phrases, the translator dug deep into her own, 12-year old subconscious mind to conjure similar feelings and create corresponding terms. The author, who is also a fluent English speaker, then confirmed all created word solutions to the extent his English allowed him, and trusted the translator with the rest.
Gregory Khasin is a writer, a philosopher, a dabbler in quantum mechanics, an aesthetician, and a Russian-English interpreter with over twenty years of experience working for NASA’s International Space Station Program. He is fully fluent in English and French, but his native language is Russian. For his writing inspiration in creating the Bestiary series, he credits the ethnographer and anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, Belgian poet-painter Henri Micheaux, French novelist Raymond Roussel, and Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar. Khasin says that his writings are an echo of the works of these 20th century pillars.
The Bestiary collection, humorously named The Lost Voyages of the Bagel, is Khasin’s only collection of literature for children and youth. It is fully written and translated in both Russian and English and is waiting in anticipation for the perfectly-matched publisher to take it out into the world. Khasin is married to Anya Ezhevskaya.
Anya Ezhevskaya is a Russian-American translator, published poet and fledgling academic. A UCSD alumna (Linguistics and Religious Studies, 2006), she has worked over fifteen years as a translator and interpreter for various clients. The last ten years have been spent working primarily for NASA, while translating creative works such as screenplays, poetry, short stories, and the Bestiary in her free time. Currently Ezhevskaya is also studying at Dallas International University as a PhD candidate in World Arts. Ezhevskaya’s academic publications can be found at www.ezhevskaya.com. When not doing everything else, she dedicates the remaining hours of each day to adventuring with her family, exploring national parks with Gregory, writing, painting, and climbing walls.