Tornado Buran, a journalist, arrived at out factory anв offered us his services of setting up a free press at the factory, i.e. releasing a small newspaper.
We believed in the prosperity of our business. Kalamkhan Adalatove told the journalist:
- I believe in you, and you, for one, should know the limits.
Tornado Buran thanked the director for trust, and we started releasing the newspaper "Uvada". We published satirical articles, caricatures, poems, short stories and, of course, advertising blocks. People took to the newspaper at once. Tornado Buran placed my poem in the paper. It was published under the name of "Memory"
. I dedicated it to Kalankhan Adalatov"s secretary Zubeida.
One day, as I was walking along the path towards the lavatory I saw her cutting roses for the vase standing in the Director"s office. That was the moment when I had my poem generated in my mind... Sitting in the toilet I wrote the poems right on the toilet paper. These lines of poetry will go down in world literature as masterpieces of all times. Here they are for the reader to see that it is true:
Memory.
(dedicated to secretary Zubeida)
I"ll never forget
The mournful break of the day!
The white
Striped sky and expanse.
Your hands
And your body,
Ivory-white.
I"ll never forget
The bank of the river
Where we parted.
I"ll never forget
The sorrow
That drowned
I n the depth of my eyes.
I"ll never go there.
If I do,
The winds will be wailing
In the language of yulguns1
That grew
Far away over ravines.
When the poem appeared in the newspaper I overnight.became а famous man in Matarak
I was looked upon with ill-disposed envy. In particular, women fell in love with me sighing and making a wry face.
Fame appears to be a bad thing. To avoid the evil eye and curious looks, I would walk around with a welder"s face shield on. But they would recognize me anyway. I even made up my mind to undergo a plastic operation, like Michael Jackson did. On coming home I would reread the poem "Memory" again and again and couldn"t stop.
As for Tornado Buran, he was very disparaging. Sitting under Pegasus" wing and using the trident of criticism he pierced managers of collective farms and bankers who tended to skin the farmers alive. They didn"t thank Tornado Buran for that, of course. On the contrary, they started taking revenge on him.
The chief censor arrived from the regional center and started checking the release which Tornado Buran had prepared for the make-up. In the evening we had dinner along with the censor who said addressing Torando Buran:
- Comrade Editor, don"t forget for a minute that you don"t live in America, nor in Canada. Before you criticize someone be sure to consult us. In your feuilleton entitled "Amanov Spitting upon the Sky" you lay structures on Alexander Arkadyevich Amanov, an innocent and honest man. As a conscientious banker he gives credits to people raising their standards of living. I repeat, you do not live in Kirgizia where democracy prospers!
Tornado Buran only smiled saying nothing in reply.
The censor had a drop too much and, taking his clothes off, lay down on the sofa, in Tornado Buran"s office. We wished him good night and left for Usta Churan"s watch-box.
We long sat making up the next release of the newspaper. It was drizzling. Then a snow-storm arose, and the light went out. We suddenly heard the sounds of knocking, shouting and swearing. Someone was calling for help. It was the censor who was sleeping in the editor"s office. We ran there and saw three masked men who were making the censor eat the newspaper. The latter begged not to beat him and not to make him eat the Uvada paper. He said:
I am a censor, not the editor.
- One of the intruders asked another one:
- What on earth is a censor?
The other one answered: it must be a pseudonym. He"s the one who has written the article about our team leader. Give him a thrashing! Beat him!
They started walloping the editor.
- There you are! Here"s one for the feuilleton and for the criticizing Alexander Arkadyevich, you scabby journalist!
So having walloped the censor they left, pleased and content.
A week later the newspaper was shut down, the censor died and Tornado Buran was arrested.