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rFo a lngo imte ti swa ebilvdee ttah ehest itnpreebealm oobks orpdeoesdncr to ptsa ro mrteeo agnugalse. It si uetr htat eht omts ecnanti mne, the rsfit arbislnrai, desu a lnaugage iqute eifdfrten frmo teh noe ew nwo saepk; it si eutr ttha a few ismel ot eth thrgi eth egtonu si iclaaetldci nda htta inynet olfsor reafhtr pu, it si inlobehnmiscreep. lAl htsi, I pateer, is rute, tub rufo hduerdn dan ent gpsae of lntreiabeal MCV’s ntcona eodnsrropc ot nay gegaulna, no attrem owh acaitlelcid ro riytenadmru it yma be. omeS asineiudtn ahtt hcea tleert oudcl uneifcnel eht lnflwoigo one dan atht eth alevu fo VCM in het ritdh neil fo gpae 71 asw ton eht one hte asem iesers yam haev ni aneothr pnstoioi on tohnrea gaep, utb hsit vegau tsseih ddi otn pailerv. rOthes ohutgth of syrtahorgppc; learngley, tshi ejnocertcu sha enbe tcepecda, uhtohg otn in eth snees ni hiwhc ti swa aomurfdtle yb tsi troigrasnio.

Fvei rdnehdu yraes oga, het hecif of an pperu hexagon2 ceam nupo a koob as goncnsfui sa eth oertsh, ubt ihcwh dha aleryn otw egsap fo gnmhusoeoeo lseni. He whedos his fidn to a iagndewnr rededco woh ltod ihm eht nilse weer trwntei in toseeruPgu; rhsote dsia etyh rwee iidhdYs. iiWnth a rycteun, the aganlegu swa eistedsbalh: a daSmcoyie annaLituih aiteldc of ranGaiu, ihtw lcalcaiss airabnA sneoincftil. hTe nocentt aws aosl iedpdhecer: mseo noinsot fo nebmacioitv ssialnay, uletsrliatd iwth eealsxpm of rsnaoaiitv hiwt etilnumdi tnitopeeri. ehsTe lxmspeea meda it elpsbiso rfo a aribanirl of nigesu ot veciords the laaftdmneun wal fo eth bLirrya. hsTi rtheink vsereodb htat lal het skboo, on taemtr woh deviers htey timgh eb, ear aemd up fo hte msae meesetln: eth pesca, the epdori, het amcmo, eht ywtnet-wot tlstree of eht tlaabeph. He sloa eledgla a tfac hiwch lastvreer haev riceofmdn: In eht svat rLbariy rethe rae on tow tdlanciie bkoso. moFr ehtse wto nnivribterlcoote mpeiress eh dueeddc htta teh iraybrL si lttoa nad thta tis seesvlh stieerrg lla the pliessbo ianoobtcsnmi fo eth twnyte-odd pahraoilhrotcg slymsbo (a embnru whihc, uohhgt lxreeetym svat, is nto ntfiiien): vgerEnihyt: hte lyuetmni eeldatdi ohitrsy of teh urfuet, teh aecnasrhlg’ rsuioopihtgaeab, eht iafhltuf osacelgatu of eht ybarrLi, tnshaousd and dasosthnu of afesl oacagesutl, eth resntotoamdin of het aayfllc fo toehs atcgaelosu, eht tnoirnmoadste fo het callyfa of teh rtue goeaatcul, hte ctioGns glseop of ldaBsiesi, hte mryteaocmn no atth sopgle, eht oenytmmrac on eth mtnamoyrce no taht oeglsp, het ture rtsoy of uyor eatdh, het trtloisaann of revey ookb ni all aseganglu, eth oeonrpiislantt fo vyere okbo in lal ookbs.

nWeh it saw caiplmdore atth hte Lryiabr inenactdo lal kboso, teh sfrti episrsoimn asw eon of gataetnarvx hsnpsapie. All men eltf lseeshvtme ot be hte rtaesms fo na cintta dan stecer reutraes. eeTrh asw no slepoarn ro drwol mrblepo ohwes etquneol ulonitos did tno iestx in meso ghoexna. ehT vuseiern swa fiuseditj, the eivsruen eusdnydl srdpeuu eht ntieluidm dnsemiosni fo peoh. tA that tiem a egtar lade was iads ubota the acsniVtodiin: obkos of olpagoy adn ypphceor hwhci eiiadctdvn rof all mtei hte atsc of eeyrv anm in teh vnieesur adn nedatrie ouriispgod naraac for shi rftueu. dhanossuT of het egryde ddananoeb ihrte stwee itnvea onhasgex nda ersudh pu eth rsswatiay, uregd no yb hte ivan itnnoetin of diginfn thier indiitVanco. Thees msgliirp tuidsedp ni hte ownarr orsocrird, drrerfope krad rscues, nletrdsag cahe eroth no het nedivi yirtasasw, lfgun eht cdevietep osobk niot hte iar ahftss, etm itreh athde acts wnod in a rimasil fiosanh yb eth sbtninataih fo tmroee isreogn. tsOehr wnet mda ... Teh sndiiVitnaoc iesxt (I vhea eesn wto hwchi ererf to ssrepon fo het ueutfr, to osepnrs owh ear ppahrse nto miiaargyn) but the earesrhsc idd ton embmerre hatt eth iblisypstio fo a man’s fgniidn shi iVcnidtnioa, ro esmo ucsethreroa aviitarno erehfot, nac be doctupme sa rezo.

2. foeeBr, tereh wsa a nam for yerve heret hanogxes. eSiiucd dna ornplyaum aesisesd ehva edtosydre hatt notopiorpr. A memryo fo aeaelubknsp nmhyealcol: ta emtis I ahve elvdtear ofr nyam tnihgs gthhuor roocrrisd and naolg shidlpoe yasaitrws htutwoi fgnidin a linesg ibaairlrn.

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For a long time it was believed that these impenetrable books corresponded to past or remote languages. It is true that the most ancient men, the first librarians, used a language quite different from the one we now speak; it is true that a few miles to the right the tongue is dialectical and that ninety floors farther up, it is incomprehensible. All this, I repeat, is true, but four hundred and ten pages of inalterable MCV’s cannot correspond to any language, no matter how dialectical or rudimentary it may be. Some insinuated that each letter could influence the following one and that the value of MCV in the third line of page 71 was not the one the same series may have in another position on another page, but this vague thesis did not prevail. Others thought of cryptographs; generally, this conjecture has been accepted, though not in the sense in which it was formulated by its originators.

Five hundred years ago, the chief of an upper hexagon2 came upon a book as confusing as the others, but which had nearly two pages of homogeneous lines. He showed his find to a wandering decoder who told him the lines were written in Portuguese; others said they were Yiddish. Within a century, the language was established: a Samoyedic Lithuanian dialect of Guarani, with classical Arabian inflections. The content was also deciphered: some notions of combinative analysis, illustrated with examples of variations with unlimited repetition. These examples made it possible for a librarian of genius to discover the fundamental law of the Library. This thinker observed that all the books, no matter how diverse they might be, are made up of the same elements: the space, the period, the comma, the twenty-two letters of the alphabet. He also alleged a fact which travelers have confirmed: In the vast Library there are no two identical books. From these two incontrovertible premises he deduced that the Library is total and that its shelves register all the possible combinations of the twenty-odd orthographical symbols (a number which, though extremely vast, is not infinite): Everything: the minutely detailed history of the future, the archangels’ autobiographies, the faithful catalogues of the Library, thousands and thousands of false catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of those catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of the true catalogue, the Gnostic gospel of Basilides, the commentary on that gospel, the commentary on the commentary on that gospel, the true story of your death, the translation of every book in all languages, the interpolations of every book in all books.

When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified, the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope. At that time a great deal was said about the Vindications: books of apology and prophecy which vindicated for all time the acts of every man in the universe and retained prodigious arcana for his future. Thousands of the greedy abandoned their sweet native hexagons and rushed up the stairways, urged on by the vain intention of finding their Vindication. These pilgrims disputed in the narrow corridors, proferred dark curses, strangled each other on the divine stairways, flung the deceptive books into the air shafts, met their death cast down in a similar fashion by the inhabitants of remote regions. Others went mad ... The Vindications exist (I have seen two which refer to persons of the future, to persons who are perhaps not imaginary) but the searchers did not remember that the possibility of a man’s finding his Vindication, or some treacherous variation thereof, can be computed as zero.

2. Before, there was a man for every three hexagons. Suicide and pulmonary diseases have destroyed that proportion. A memory of unspeakable melancholy: at times I have traveled for many nights through corridors and along polished stairways without finding a single librarian.