--translation of Lev Rubinshtein by Philip Metres and Tanya Tulchinsky
1
You could engage in something;
2
You could engage in establishing conceptual unity and spend almost all
your time on it;
3
You could engage in establishing cause-and-effect connections and forget
about everything else;
4
You could engage in mediating between a leader and follower and not know
what outcome would be positive;
5
You could engage in classifying possibilities from the viewpoint of their
level of humor;
6
You could engage in classifying passions from the viewpoint of how serious
the consequences;
7
You could engage in classifying words from the viewpoint of their
contextual meaning;
8
You could engage in classifying deeds from the viewpoint of their
contextual motivation;
9
You could engage in classifying conditions from the viewpoint of their
vagueness;
10
You could engage in classifying events from the viewpoint of their likely
outcome;
11
You could engage in classifying positions from the viewpoint of their
hopelessness;
12
You could engage in classifying doubts from the viewpoint of their
difficulty of dispelling;
13
You could eliminate any doubts, just by finding the powerful
rhythm-building catalyst of existence--but in that would be all the difficulty;
14
You could engage in some other task, not delving excessively into its
details;
15
You could begin from whatever you wanted, being of the belief that
whatever beginning in a given situation will be rife with possibility;
16
You could absolutize a minute weakness, elevating it to the role of a
constructive principle;
17
You could bring any feeling-for example, wariness-to, let's say, cosmic
proportions;
18
You could use all the rights you happen to be granted, not resorting to
their proclamation;
19
You could teach a lesson of great patience, and in such a way that no one
would even sense it;
20
You could bum around the border between self-mystification and
self-exposure and reflect awhile before the forbidden zone;
21
You could stop before the forbidden zone in order to think about the
so-called consequences;
22
You could stop before the necessity of choosing, or you could break the
threshold of an imaginary necessity;
23
You could get ahead of events, but you cannot predict them;
24
You could foresee every little detail, or you may just as well decide not
to;
25
You could wander in thickets of emotional experiences, finding your way by
fictive signs and ideas alone;
26
You could wander in a conceptual forest, not caring at all about the true
goal of the trip;
27
You could perceive the mechanisms of different phenomena and not let
anyone know about it;
28
You could believe the opposite of what you preach, or you could do
otherwise, without risking being exposed;
29
You could successfully mistake one for the other and be delighted in your
discovery, not risking falling into error;
30
You could successfully exchange one for the other, not risking falling
into ethical heresy;
31
You could live on the energy of hidden yearning quite successfully;
32
You could look nowhere, but see everything;
33
You could see everything, but understand nothing;
34
You could see everything and understand everything;
35
You could pay attention to nothing at all, or on the contrary, pay
attention to everything; you could pay attention to what seems the most
meaningful;
36
You could see yourself in a dream, as if from the outside, in a most
unsightly role and wake from embarrassment and shame--but that's a private
matter;
37
You could see yourself from the outside and be horrified, or you could be
happy about it;
38
You could run from certain meetings, glances, conversations etc., but
isn't it much better to just confront your fate;
39
You could almost mechanically construct mythological situations;
40
You could find yourself in a more than embarrassing position;
41
You could find yourself in the neighborhood and stop by to drink tea and chat;
42
You could chat about anything you like, and as long as you like, being
interested in the texture of speech alone;
43
You could spend time enjoyably without any risk of growing tired of each
other--but you have to know how;
44
You could try to frighten each other with the most ominous half-hints,
with only the opposite result;
45
You could scrutinize each other with such wariness that it could become
quite a captivating game;
46
You could speak for hours about the very same thing, not feeling sated-but
it would be difficult;
47
You could talk about nothing for hours, and then say goodbye as if nothing
happened;
48
You could end forever a conversation just begun, then see wait and see
what will come of it;
49
You could believe that certain questions will always remain unsolved;
50
You could complicate everything, or you may just as well simplify
everything to such a degree that there'd be just nothing left to talk
about;
51
You could mystify to such a degree that the very possibility of
demystification begins to seem definitely illusory;
52
You could get tired of each other to such a degree that the possibility of
new, unseen incentives for communication will emerge;
53
You could manage completely without immediate help from each other: a
silent agreement is enough;
54
You could overhear other people's conversations with immense delight,
overjoyed at your good luck, as if it were a personal achievement;
55
You could resort to various tricks so your joy would know no bounds whatsoever;
56
You could get together to discuss the situation at hand;
57
You could get together to decide what is stronger:
--the necessity of the breakthrough into a new metaphysical
reality or the pathological dread of a false step;
--the speculative understanding of a departure from an automated
sphere or the emotional attachment to it;
--the clear foundation of the freedom of choice or the striving to
recognize with the will of a usurper;
--the voice of desired peace or something else;
--etc.
58
You could speak about the danger of prominence, often disguised as importance;
59
You could talk about your fleeting impressions endlessly, but who knows
how productive it is;
60
You could speak seriously about nothing but the idea of productivity, but
who knows what in the world it really means;
61
You could discuss all of this with a seriousness no more and no less than
the subject of the discussion merits;
62
You could suddenly imagine that a final decision is made, but that's
exactly what should be feared;
63
You could suddenly direct your gaze at one of multiple manifestations of
reality and, later, call it the arbitrary choice of object;
64
You could suddenly declare to all within earshot what you wouldn't even
say in secret;
65
You could suddenly grow ashamed of something you said and try to
neutralize it by your next statement;
66
You could suddenly declare without exaltation and coquetry about your own
incompetence-but this, first of all, is almost impossible, and second of
all, is completely unnecessary;
67
You could, in essence, express your last will, but in such a strange way
that everyone will be thinking the same thing;
68
You could, with a passing mention of someone's name, suddenly force
everyone to exchange glances;
69
You could suddenly move and win someone over with the utmost triviality;
70
You could shoot the breeze, not worrying whether you make a good
impression or not;
71
You could endlessly withdraw from an object or draw near an object, not
condescending to generalizations of any kind;
72
You could, probably, tell about a situation in such a way that no one
would turn out to be a non-participant;
73
You could make sure once again that everything is in its rightful
place-for that, you just have to unexpectedly look back;
74
You could leave at any moment, and you could arrive at any moment in order
to make sure that everything is in its rightful place;
75
You could say something as you go by or you could keep quiet;
76
You could, in one powerful breath, blurt out everything you know, but the
meaning will turn out to be the breath alone;
77
You could move closer in order to hear what they are talking about;
78
You could suddenly hear what you already know;
79
You could find out all that you need, even without resorting to inquiries;
80
You could, by the way, not knowing what someone's talking about, get drunk
from a feeling of inner kinship;
81
You could imagine anyone in any situation-and that would be a comedic novelty;
82
You could, not risking to appear ridiculous, believe that your voice will
be heard, no matter what--that would also be a comedic novelty;
83
You could artistically disregard a system of your own beliefs, if such
disregard has the ability to become a comedic novelty;
84
You could pay no attention at all to whatever you don't want to consider a
comedic novelty;
85
You could stay exactly where you are, both in the literal and in the
figurative sense, and this also would pass as a comedic novelty;
86
You could take a bit of everything in an arbitrary order and in arbitrary
proportions-it's no secret that it would be a comedic novelty;
87
You could sharpen a comedic consciousness so that someone who's sleeping
would suddenly wake up a great comic;
88
You could explain all of this with completely different reasons;
89
You could explain this, for example, as the dread of a false step, but it
would hardly be a true explanation;
90
You could take the mere weak twinkle of conceptual contours for relapses
of the most unbridled lyricism of past ages;
91
You could think any deliberate form is conservative, and proceed from this
in the estimation of things;
92
You could think that it will end just with what it began;
93
You could think that something completely unusual is happening;
94
You could think that nothing happened;
95
You could end up noticing nothing at all;
96
You could know beforehand what will end with what, but it's highly
non-comedic to reveal this knowledge;
97
You could declare the very uncertainty as the cornerstone;
98
You could comply with your natural craving for leisure and inactivity;
99
You could very well live on the remains of passed festivities-but who
needs this;
100
You could search for a nod of true salvation even in fruitless
manipulations with memory;
101
You could perceive, in the very fact of comedic preconceptions, the secret
sign of fatal numbness;
102
You could run from fatal numbness, if you could adopt properly a principle
of comedy;
103
You could, on the other hand, fail to be imbued with the spirit of comedic
novelties, but you really can't do anything about it;
104
You could reject given possibilities and think that nothing took place;
105
You could continue in this vein;
106
You could cease all of this at any moment-and this is the good thing about
comedic novelties;
107
You could wait awhile, then begin with renewed strength;
108
You could repeat everything from the beginning;
109
You could stop thinking about the consequences: their nature will be comedic;
110
You could stop worrying about tomorrow: its nature will be comedic.