Zoo, or Letters Not about Love

"In one of the Bogomil’s legends, God
wants to get some sand from the bottom of
the sea.

But God is reluctant to get wet, so He
sends the devil and bids him say, when he
takes the sand, “It is not I who take, but
God.”

To the very bottom dived the devil, to the
bottom he whirled; he seized the sand and
he said, “It is not God who takes, but I.”

A proud devil.

The sand was not given. The devil
surfaced, blue.

Once again did God send him into the
water.

To the bottom swam the devil, and,
scraping the sand with his talons, he said:
“It is not God who takes, but I.”

The sand was not given. The devil
surfaced, gasping for breath. For the third
time did God send him into the water.

In a folk tale, everything is done three
times.

The devil saw that he was getting
nowhere.

He hated to spoil the plot. He began
weeping, I imagine, and he dived. He
swam to the bottom and said, “It is not I
who take, but God.” He took the sand and
he surfaced. And out of the sand taken
from the bottom by the devil, at God’s
behest, God created man."

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"Often at night, in returning from your
place, I passed under the twelve iron
bridges.

(…)

I had far to go. Every night, on the corner
of Potsdamerstrasse, I always saw the
same prostitute in a red hat.

She hummed something when she saw me,
then spoke in a language
incomprehensible to me.

I kept walking; I had far to go.

What’s to be done, comrade in the red hat!

There are many different animals on this
earth and each of them praises and curses
God in his own way.

You who have no words, you dive to the
bottom of the sea and you bring from the
bottom of the sea only sand fluid as mud.

And I have many words and much
strength, but she to whom I speak all my
words is a foreigner."

Viktor Shklovsky, Zoo, or Letters Not about Love (1923)