
"do as the elephants do - when they're unhappy, they just disappear." (à bout de souffle)
today, i was sitting around, contemplating elephants, and had a passing thought about polish children’s book author ludwik jerzy kern. my first elephant experience was in the form of one of his books, which was read to me when i was very small. in russian it was called listen up, elephant... and i still have the same old copy in my collection, as well as a german version, my elephant is called dominik (which has the same cover illustration as the original polish edition). the 1967 book is about the adventures of a boy named pini and his friend, a porcelain elephant.
i mention jerzy kern because as the thought of him drifted into my mind today, i absentmindedly looked him up and suddenly found that he had passed away yesterday, in krakow, at eighty-nine years old. goodbye, goodbye, and to every elephant that ever vanished: goodbye. you always seem like the last, but a new one comes ambling along when i least expect it.