"Lev Kassil. The black book and Schwambrania (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"see" and added two arrows, one pointing out the "curant" and the other
"this way is aposit". There was also a "beech", a straight-coursing river
named the Halma, the capital city of Schwambraena, the towns of Argonsk and
Drandzonsk, Foren Shore Bay, "that side", a "peer", mountains and, finally,
"the place where the Earth curves".
At the time Oska was very much concerned about the spherical nature of
the ground underfoot and did his best to prove the roundness of the Earth to
himself. Luckily, we knew nothing of Mayakovsky's poetry, for Oska's pants
certainly would have been worn thin in his efforts to see if he could slide
on it. However, he discovered another way of proving it. Before putting the
finishing touches to his map of Schwambrania, he led me out of our yard with
a very meaningful look on his face. Beyond the granaries and near the main
square the remains of a mound could be seen. Perhaps this had once been a
part of some earthen foundation for a chapel, or perhaps it had once been a
large flower bed. Time had all but levelled the little hump. Oska beamed as
he led me to it. He pointed grandly and said:
"Here's the place where the Earth curves."
I dared not contradict him. Perhaps the Earth did curve there. At any
rate, in order not to lose face, for he was my baby brother after all, I
said: "Ha! That's nothing! You should have seen that place in Saratov.
That's where the Earth re curves."
Schwambrania was a truly symmetrical land, one that could easily serve
an example for any ornament. To the West were mountains, a city and the sea.
To East were mountains, a city and the sea. There was a bay on the left and
a bay the right. This symmetry reflected the true justice which governed
Schwambrania and the rules of our game. Unlike ordinary books, where good
prevails and evil is vanquished on the very last page, ours was a land where
the heroes were rewarded and the villains defeated at the very start. Ours
was a country of complete well-being and exquisite perfection. There was not
even a jagged line in its contour.
Symmetry is a balance of lines, a linear system of justice.
Schwambrania was a land of true justice, where all the good things in life
and even the terrain were fairly distributed. There was a bay on the left
and a bay on the right, the city of Drandzonsk in the West and the city of
Argonsk in the East. Justice reigned.

HISTORY


Now, as was only proper for a real nation, Schwambrania had to have a
history all its own. Six months of our playing the game covered several
centuries of its existence.
As I learned from my reading, the past history of any self-respecting
country was crammed full of wars. That was why Schwambrania had to work hard
to catch up. However, there was no one it could fight. That was why we had
to draw two curved lines across the bottom of the Big Tooth Continent and
write "Fence" along one of them. We now had two enemy nations in the two
marked-off comers. One was "Caldonia", a combination of "cad" and
"Caledonia", and the other was "Balvonia", a combination of "bad" and
"Bolivia". The level ground situated between Caldonia and Balvonia was there