* * *
[1] Doubtful. He mentions a hill and several kinds of trees. The Ellice, or Lagoon, Islands are flat. The coconut is the only tree that grows in their coral sands. (Editor's Note.)
[2] He must have been living under coconut trees. Why, then, docs he not mention them? Is it possible he did not see them? Or is it more probable that, since they were diseased, the trees did not produce fruit? (Editor's Note.)
[3] He is mistaken. He omits the most important word: geminato (from geminatus: "coupled, duplicated, repeated, reiterated"). The phrase is: "... turn sole geminato, quod, ut e patre audivi, Tuditano et Aquilio consulibus evenerat; quo quidem anno P. Africanus sol alter extinctus est." Translation: The two suns that, as I heard from my father, were seen in the Consulate of Tuditanus and Aquilius, in the year (183 B.C.) when the sun of Publius Africanus was extinguished. (Editor's Note.)
[4] For the sake of clarity we have enclosed the material on the yellow pages in quotation marks; the marginal notes, written in pencil and in the same handwriting as the rest of the diary, are not set off by quotes. (Editor's Note.)
[5] The omission of the telegraph seems to be deliberate. Morel is the author of the
[6] Forever: as applied to the duration of our immortality: the machine, unadorned and of carefully chosen material, is more incorruptible than the Metro in Paris. (Morel's Note.)
[7] Under the epigraph
Come, Malthus, and in Ciceronian prose Show what a rutting Population grows, Until the produce of the Soil is spent, And Brats expire for lack of Aliment.
the author writes a lengthy apology, with eloquence and the traditional arguments, for Thomas Robert Malthus and his Essay on the Principle of Population. We have omitted it due to lack of space. (Editor's Note.)
[8] It does not appear at the beginning of the manuscript. Is this omission due to a loss of memory? There is no way to answer that question, and so, as in every doubtful place, we have been faithful to the original. (Editor's Note.)
[9] The theory of a superimposition of temperatures may not necessarily be false (even a small heater is unbearable on a summer day), but I believe that this is not the real reason. The author was on the island in spring; the eternal week was recorded in summer, and so, while functioning, the machines reflect the temperature of summer. (Editor's Note.)
[10] He neglected to explain one thing, the most incredible of all: the coexistence, in one space, of an object and its whole image. This fact suggests the possibility that the world is made up exclusively of sensations. (Editor's Note.)
Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel
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