Nyårsdikten 2013

L. Sprague de Camp skrev The Little Green Men för ett tal 1976. Man kan tänka sig att vissa av 1970-talets kulturella fenomen verkade lite irriterande för den gamle rationalisten. Just den kontexten - Blavatsky och von Däniken! - märks förstås i The Little Green Men, men visst finns här fortfarande ett och annat att begrunda.

The Little Green Men

Ah, little green fellows from Venus
   Or some other planet afar:
From Mars or Calypso or, maybe,
   A world of an alien star!

According to best-selling authors-
   Blavatsky to von Daniken-
They taught us the skills that were needed
   To make super-apes into men.

They guided our faltering footsteps
   From savagery into the dawns
Of burgeoning civilization
   With cities and writing and bronze.

By them were the Pyramids builded;
   They reared the first temples in Hind;
Drew lines at Peruvian Nazca
   To uplift the poor Amerind.

With all of these wonders they gave us
   It's sad these divine astronauts
Revealed not the answers to questions
   That foil our most rational thoughts. 

Such puzzles as riches and paupers,
   The problems of peace and of war,
Relations between the two sexes,
   Or crime and chastisement therefore.

So when we feel dim and defeated
   By problems immune to attack,
Let's send out a prayer electronic:
   "O little green fellows, come back!"