Jan H Mysjkin

1955 / City of Brussels

Too Much Game

You flush out a covey of partridge which, clearly visible, settles again a hundred or so metres further away.

Blackbucks! Blackbucks!

You let the negligible feathered fauna fall before your advantageous quadrupeds. You can let a partridge run straight past you, you don't shoot, afraid of scaring the Blackbucks into some thicket or other a mile away. Now the Blackbucks haven't been expecting you. Once more you advance behind the partridges.

Peacocks! Peacocks!

You see them, fluttering or tripping in the distance, so huge that the crows seem like flies. Around you it's raining partridges and quails, hares run at a serene pace through the tall grass. You don't shoot, afraid of scaring the Peacocks, a hundred paces away, into flight. Just a bit further - and you're there!

Pig! Pig!

Good grief, a Pig, what's to be done now? The Peacocks are there, close by. All you need do is to slink behind that row of boulders and you've got them within range. But if you shoot, you'll put the Pig to flight. And a Pig, know what I mean . . .

Piggy! Wiggy! Snout!

O-U-T spells out.

Translation: 2011, John Irons
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