The Left Hand Of Darkness (SF Masterworks)
Page 30
russy A native life form: warm-blooded, almost legless, oviparous, non-mammalian; a carnivorous predator and scavenger; adult weight about a pound; their scales are formed of compacted fur.
seswehen Wind-formed snow waves on a snow plain: sastrugi.
serem A native tree, 15–60 feet high, bearing long drooping greyish needles, reproducing by wind-borne spore from a puff-ball-like fruit.
shifgrethor Very roughly translated as honour. The basic principle is the maintenance of one’s own pride by maintaining the other’s pride. ‘I am not admirable unless my admirer is admirable.’ This delicate balance may devolve into a contest for superior prestige rather than a mutual pact; in such degraded competitions one’s pride is maintained at the expense of the other’s pride. The rules of behaviour controlled by shifgrethor are complex, elaborate, and unspoken. The word derives from ifegre, an old word meaning ‘shadow’.
somer The period of sexual latency and infertility in the Gethenian sexual cycle, lasting 25 to 30 days.
sove Thick snowfall at 10–30° F without much wind.
thangen Deep sleep; utter relaxation; the weakness following exercise of dothe.
thore A native tree or bush, 4–12 feet high, bearing fine greyish needles and a horny pod with seeds that are edible if cooked.
vate or odevate A native tree, 15–50 feet high, with fleshy green-black needles and small pods containing edible seeds.
* * *
Two Songs sung in the domain of Estre
A Karhidish Lullaby, or Hamohey
Hamo, hamo, heshuwàdo,
amha ‘r athab ethuwàthen
enther thangen, thangen, thangen,
kyorha hamo, hamo, hey.
Therem’s Quatrain
Erestyòrhe kemmer
oskyòmmering ènverrest
kemòrhen. O bèrethen,
bèstere, begìrhen!
Approximate translation:
In the early evening, in love,
I turn around to see my love
dead. O the years past,
my brother, the promise broken!
Author’s working sketch map
Sketch map of the Planet Gethen
* Karhosh, island, the usual word for the apartment-boardinghouse buildings that house the greatest part of the urban populations of Karhide. Islands contain 20 to 200 private rooms; meals are communal; some are run as hotels, others as cooperative communes, others combine these types. They are certainly an urban adaptation of the fundamental Karhidish institution of the Hearth, though lacking, of course, the topical and genealogical stability of the Hearth.
* His transgression of the code controlling incest became a crime when seen as the cause of his brother’s suicide. (G.A.)
* The Pering Ice is the glacial sheet that covers the northernmost portion of Karhide, and is (in winter when the Guthen Bay is frozen) contiguous with the Gobrin Ice of Orgoreyn.
* Kurem, damp weather, 0° to –20°F.
* This is a mystical expression of one of the theories used to support the expanding-universe hypothesis, first proposed by the Mathematical School of Sith over four thousand years ago and generally accepted by later cosmologists, even though meteorological conditions on Gethen prevent their gathering much observational support from astronomy. The rate of expansion (Hubble’s constant; Rerherek’s constant) can in fact be estimated from the observed amount of light in the night sky; the point here involved is that, if the universe were not expanding, the night sky would not appear to be dark.
† The Handdarata.
* neserem: fine snow on a moderate gale: a light blizzard.