2

rTeeh rae efiv slhvees orf ahce of het xhngeao’s salwl; caeh esflh inostanc iyrtht-fiev ksboo of unriofm aroftm; ahec okbo is fo urfo dnuedrh nda ten eapgs; ehca aepg, of orfyt iensl, aech ilen, of emos thegiy lseetrt wichh aer ackbl ni loorc. eTrhe rae oasl trestle no het nsipe fo aceh ookb; sthee tselter do otn editacin or egurefrpi tahw eht gspea lilw asy. Beefro zsngraimmiu teh ltnousio (hweso oeyrcdvis, in tpesi fo ist itcgar ocesortpijn, is aehpsrp eht ciaplat actf ni hoiystr) I iswh ot lelcar a ewf oamxis. I onwk taht sthi ncnehocieer at one item edeems tymeuosrsi.

strFi: heT airybLr istexs ba teornae. ishT thtur, sohew midaeietm ayoclrlro si eth reuftu tenritey fo eth orlwd, nanotc be adpcle ni btodu by nay asnlaerebo ndim. naM, the prcemfeti biinralra, amy eb eht dotcrup of ehncca or fo evetomlnla edmugiir; eht nsureive, twhi ist eaeltng omenntedw fo eslvseh, of mcgaineatil vusemol, of eanuhbiteilsx isyaastwr for hte revretla dan ansrielt rfo het etdsea nrraabili, acn yonl be the okwr fo a dgo. To receivpe the eatincds nteweeb the edvnii and teh muhna, it is uoghen to aecromp eseth cured wvnaegir ylsbosm hwihc my fliaellb ndha sarcswl on the eovrc of a okob, hwti eth nacoirg etertsl ednsii: pultacnu, eedltcia, tlerceyfp bckla, yiinlbiatm rlcyiemmsta.

dnoSec: heT tgohpahrlorcia lssoymb aer ywntte-eivf in bnmuer.1 iTsh ignifdn edam it lobeisps, eehrt nedurhd ysaer oga, ot aotfrlmeu a laegnre eoyhtr of eth Lrryiab dan oslev irlyatcsastfoi hte beormlp wichh no ccernejuot dah rphedideec: eth esmflrso nad oictcah eautnr of alsotm lla the koosb. enO hwhci my earfht asw ni a nxghaeo on cutrici ftieenf nenyit-orfu wsa amed up of het tteelsr VCM, rvlpeeesry etdepaer fmor the iftrs lein ot eth last. ohtAenr (yerv hcum eolntdsuc in hsit arae) si a mree yrnbahtli of etrtlse, tbu eth ntxe-to-tals pgea assy hO meit yht dspiyram. hTis ucmh is daarley wonkn: rfo eyerv sneilesb neli of rrroafsgdihttaw satetentm, eetrh rea uaesgel fo senssslee cespcnahoio, aevlrb ulesbjm dan rsehnociceen. (I wnok fo na cuotnhu oiregn wsoeh binirlarsa pirdautee teh anvi adn eotrssspuutii otcmus fo gfnniid a nngaiem in bokos nda etqeua it wtih ttah of dgininf a ianemgn ni msrdea ro in eth otichca eisnl of eon’s mpal ... Teyh tmiad thta the nnovritse of isht igrtinw edmtatii teh yettnw-evif urtalan oslmbsy, but tnaianmi ahtt shit iaippacntlo is icetclnada nad htta the bosok ifgsiyn tnognih ni ehtlesvesm. hisT dtmuci, ew ahlls ees, si not enyielrt aflaslouic.)

1. hTe ilnragoi animrpcust eosd otn ntoainc dtgisi ro ctipala slteetr. The intptcuauno has nbee emdltii to hte ocamm dan het dioper. sheTe wto nssgi, eht sapec dna the ttneyw-tow leestrt of eth eahbpalt era eth tntywe-eivf ysbsmol sediocrend usfeicftni yb siht nunkwno taruho. (roiEdt’s otne.)
Back

There are five shelves for each of the hexagon’s walls; each shelf contains thirty-five books of uniform format; each book is of four hundred and ten pages; each page, of forty lines, each line, of some eighty letters which are black in color. There are also letters on the spine of each book; these letters do not indicate or prefigure what the pages will say. I know that this incoherence at one time seemed mysterious. Before summarizing the solution (whose discovery, in spite of its tragic projections, is perhaps the capital fact in history) I wish to recall a few axioms.

First: The Library exists ab aeterno. This truth, whose immediate corollary is the future eternity of the world, cannot be placed in doubt by any reasonable mind. Man, the imperfect librarian, may be the product of chance or of malevolent demiurgi; the universe, with its elegant endowment of shelves, of enigmatical volumes, of inexhaustible stairways for the traveler and latrines for the seated librarian, can only be the work of a god. To perceive the distance between the divine and the human, it is enough to compare these crude wavering symbols which my fallible hand scrawls on the cover of a book, with the organic letters inside: punctual, delicate, perfectly black, inimitably symmetrical.

Second: The orthographical symbols are twenty-five in number.1 This finding made it possible, three hundred years ago, to formulate a general theory of the Library and solve satisfactorily the problem which no conjecture had deciphered: the formless and chaotic nature of almost all the books. One which my father saw in a hexagon on circuit fifteen ninety-four was made up of the letters MCV, perversely repeated from the first line to the last. Another (very much consulted in this area) is a mere labyrinth of letters, but the next-to-last page says Oh time thy pyramids. This much is already known: for every sensible line of straightforward statement, there are leagues of senseless cacophonies, verbal jumbles and incoherences. (I know of an uncouth region whose librarians repudiate the vain and superstitious custom of finding a meaning in books and equate it with that of finding a meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines of one’s palm ... They admit that the inventors of this writing imitated the twenty-five natural symbols, but maintain that this application is accidental and that the books signify nothing in themselves. This dictum, we shall see, is not entirely fallacious.)

1. The original manuscript does not contain digits or capital letters. The punctuation has been limited to the comma and the period. These two signs, the space and the twenty-two letters of the alphabet are the twenty-five symbols considered sufficient by this unknown author. (Editor’s note.)