{"id":79,"date":"2009-01-06T16:33:26","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T11:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=79"},"modified":"2009-01-07T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T09:55:34","slug":"nineteen-gallets-or-the-last-tocsin-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"Nineteen gallets or the last tocsin toll"},"content":{"rendered":"

National poet of Uzbekistan
\nAlexander Fainberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"we-here-lived\" <\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere, far away in the infinite outer space, a spacecraft has descended on a waterless lifeless planet. Silence and total vacuum encircle it. And along all the sides of the horizon stone gallets are lying on the surface \u2013 one can see the writing cut out on the stones extant from time immemorial.<\/p>\n

1. \u201cYou, who have arrived in here, read the tables of my history. We used to live here\u201d.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cTides of sea waves, melting snow and glaciers, rains, wells and springs, rivers and oceans \u2013 all these used to be Water. It had been granting life to grass and flowers of meadows, to trees, to every living thing, and, of course, to us \u2013 human beings\u201d.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cA drop of water. A mere drop of water. \u2013 However, the entire boundless universe of ours was reflected in it. And there was nothing on the Earth that could have been more valuable than water\u201d.<\/p>\n

4. \u201cI have seen too many defective shut-off cocks of water supply tubing leaking water and evaporating it. Too much poison has been discharged into purest water! And as to me, I just used to go by with no regard to this disorder.
\nAnd no thoughts had crossed my mind as to striking the bell to sound the alarm\u201d.
\nAnd how about now? What is to be done nowadays?
\nIt\u2019s too late, it\u2019s too late, and it\u2019s too late\u2026.<\/p>\n

5. \u201cWe have forgotten all about our thoughtlessness and insatiable craving for momentary wealth \u2013 thus making the deathbed for ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

6. \u201cOver there – where there used to be the oceans – former submarines, airplanes and wreckage of missiles are rotting lying on the dry soil\u201d.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 \u201cWater\u2026dried up lips whisper: \u201cGive me water\u201d \u2013 Water\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cWe badly need water; \u2013 goitered gazelles mumbled reaching out their necks for empty riverbeds\u201d.
\n\u00abWater\u2026 – begging wail of wolves was heard amidst dead standing trees\u201d.<\/p>\n

8. \u201cWho now needs precious stones, gold, tankers full of oil? Where are all those pleasure yachts, luxurious villas together with paupers\u2019 jerry-built shacks? All living quarters have become deserted and reduced to dust\u201d.<\/p>\n

9. \u201cWater is God\u2019s living creature and it could not indefinitely forgive us for our insanity. How many times had it warned humans through inundation and tsunami?! How many times it punished humanity in alliance with hurricanes through sinking oil tankers and flooding cities. Everything had been to no avail\u201d.
\n\u201cWill unawareness exist forever?
\nWho can endure tortures\u2019 despair?
\nWhere\u2019s a benchmark for me to compare?
\nAnimals\u2019 howls at the Paradise level?<\/p>\n

10. \u201cAmong perished birds, fish, lizards there are motionless bodies of children, men and women, elderly people\u2026Instead of flowers and grass scents brought with breath of\u00a0 spring wind, stink and decay odors reign. There is not a single cloud in the sky. What ever have we done?!\u201d<\/p>\n

11. \u201cOne of the keynote mistakes of ours was wrecking overuse of water. Our attitude to water had been reckless, as if it was something granted to us for good and all. But nothing can be forever. I realized it when the last drop of water on this planet started disappearing on my palm, reflecting not green hills, not leafage and conifer needles, but a hillside covered with black scorched grass.\u201d<\/p>\n

12. \u201cYesterday, looking at the sky, I wailed suffering from lack of water. I wailed like a solitary beast. I was not aware of being a human creature\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

13. \u201cClogging and littering water bodies granted to us including mountain springs and oceans we did not deem that our behavior had been destroying Nature \u2013 Nature that had created ourselves \u2013 and that ruin of water was our own death\u201d.<\/p>\n

14. \u201cBlaze of nuclear disaster is a tragedy. But more terrifying is global aridity. We have perceived it, and it turned out to be our last cognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

15. \u201cHaving irresponsibly changed river channels we got salt-affected dry land instead of heavy harvest\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

16. \u201cI cannot conceive what it was\u2026, really. It was long ago, very long ago indeed. Torrential rain was pouring on asphalt roads. And concurrently street washer motor lorries were crawling along the roads, splashing water \u2013 fountains of pure sweet water. Was it idiocy on the part of the drivers or they were just implementing orders of their senior clerks? At any rate, both of these assumptions were beyond my understanding at that time and are still inconceivable at present\u201d.<\/p>\n

17. \u201cIsn\u2019t it assault and battery to water when murderers throw bodies of killed victims down into water with stones fixed to their necks? And how about fire pumps and hoses applied against public demonstrations? Was it the objective pursued by mountain springs giving birth to rivers breaking through rocks and making riverbeds in lowlands?\u201d<\/p>\n

18. \u201cThere is no getting away from the truth –
\nWhen dying, people recall their youth.
\nDaytime \u2013 the sun in the sky; stars \u2013 at night.
\nSplashes of water. Water was always right.\u201d<\/p>\n

19. I am the last Man on the Earth. And if you got me right, then tell to your fellow-countrymen about everything in your parts of the Universe from where you arrived here\u2026Take care of water, spare water, protect water. Do not repeat our mistakes and misfortune\u2026Do not repea\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the last stone gallet. The rest of them were lying along all sides of the horizon and there was nobody who could have cut anything else on those gallets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National poet of Uzbekistan Alexander Fainberg Somewhere, far away in the infinite outer space, a spacecraft has descended on a waterless lifeless planet. Silence and total vacuum encircle it. And along all the sides of the horizon stone gallets are lying on the surface \u2013 one can see the writing cut out on the stones […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}