Pedraterra & Angleterre: Two Fictions

These two fables by poet-editor-translator Anthony Rudolf explore richly detailed imaginary landscapes situated far from each other in time and space.

Pedraterra: ‘As in every country, there are intelligent people and stupid people, good people and bad people, susceptible people and potentially rebellious people. Not all have been brainwashed and some never will be. However, a serious rebellion will be quashed unmercifully. You, a democrat, a sweetheart, a child at heart, a man of gifts, are the most benign version of the stone-touched human imaginable, but you are straitjacketed.’

Angleterre: ‘The precocious Racine explained to Antoine that he had been writing poetry - in French and in Latin - for about a year but that his way of seeing the world could no longer be contained in poetry and cried out for the broader canvas of a play. If he did eventually write a play, he for one would naturally obey the proprieties.