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The Voyages of Ijon Tichy 11

Podróż siódma

Literal: Journey seven English release: The Seventh Voyage

by Stanisław Lem
What do you do when your one-man spaceship loses an argument with a meteor, and the only way to repair the rudder demands two people? “The Seventh Voyage” is the eleventh tale of Stanisław Lem’s space traveler Ijon Ticvhy, but I believe it’s the first where the hero also wrangles with time.
— Michael Main
— Zaraz — odparł wolno, nawet nie ruszając palcem. — Dzisiaj jest wtorek. Jeżeli ty jesteś środowy i do tej chwili we środę jeszcze nie są naprawione stery, to z tego wynika, że coś przeszkodzi nam w ich naprawieniu, ponieważ w przeciwnym razie, ty, we środę, nie nakłaniałbyś już mnie do tego, abym ja, we wtorek, wspólnie je z tobą naprawiał. Więc może lepiej nie ryzykować wyjścia na zewnątrz?
“Just a minute,” I replied, remaining on the floor. ”Today is Tuesday. Now if you are the Wednesday me, and if by that time on Wednesday the rudder still hasn’t been fixed, then it follows that something will prevent us from fixing it, since otherwise you, on Wednesday, would not now, on Tuesday, be asking me to help you fix it. Wouldn’t it be best, then, for us to not risk going outside?”
English
DEBUT
[ex=bare]“Podróż siódma” | Voyage seven[/ex], in Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania by Stanisław Lem (Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1964).
VARIANTS
1 Polish variant
TRANSLATIONS
Translations to English
TAGS(SPOILERS!)
Time Periods Timeline Models Time Travel Methods
  • Time Rifts: “I rushed over to the map, to find some nice vortex into which I could send the rocket, so as to bring about still another warp of time and in that way obtain a helping hand.”
Themes Groupings
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
  1. From Monday, April 2, as the Monday (sleeping) Ijon Tichy (a.k.a., the earliest “me”) ⋙ to interact sleepily with his Tuesday (enlightened) later self (Ijon #3). Note: “I opened my eyes and saw a man standing over the bed . . .”
  2. From the Tuesday (lashed to a chair) self ⋙ to see his Tuesday (cooking an omelet) later self (Ijon #4). Note: “I noticed a sort of pale lilac haze forming on the opposite side of the cabin, and in the middle of it, between the sink and the stove, a misty human shape, which had on an apron and was pouring omelet batter into a frying pan.”
  3. From the Tuesday (enlightened) self ⋙ to try to wake his Monday (sleeping) earlier self (Ijon #1). Note: “I ran over and shook the sleeper by the shoulder.”
  4. From the Tuesday (cooking an omelet) self ⋙ to see his Tuesday (lashed to a chair) earlier self (Ijon #2). Note: Incorrectly described as “I saw my Monday self staring at me dumbfounded, lashed to the armchair.”
  5. From the Tuesday (lying unconscious among broken china) self ⋙ to be woken up by his Wednesday (eager) self (Ijon #6). Note: “. . . near my face were the shoes of a man standing over me.”
  6. From the Wednesday (eager) self ⋙ to wake up his Tuesday (lying unconscious among broken china) self (Ijon #5). Note: “And so we quarreled, in opposite roles, . . .”
  7. From the Wednesday (filthy from the engine room) self ⋙ to argue with his Friday (in the bathroom with a lump on his head) self (unnumbered) and with his Thursday (pulling the toolbag from under the bed) self (unnumbered)—all at once!. Note: “From inside came the sounds of someone gargling.” And “. . . a man was standing there, pulling a toolbag out from under the bed.”
  8. From the Thursday (awakening for the first time) self ⋙ to argue over the spacesuit with his Friday (awakening for the first time) self and the Friday (later, but still lumpless self, who is initially in the suit) self (unnumbered). Note: “So he [the other wakening self] must be the Friday me.” And “. . . as it turned out, someone was already inside [the suit].”
  9. From the Thursday (after running into the cabin) self ⋙ to argue over the spacesuit in the cabin with his Friday (after running into the cabin with the suit) self (unnumbered). Note: “I . . . dashed back to the cabin. The other me was already in the spacesuit, he had pulled on everything but the helmet.”
  10. From the Thursday (now kneeling by the bed) self ⋙ to pull the Sunday (chocolate-eating) self (unnumbered) out from under the bed, only to get clonked on the head by the chocolate eater!. Note: “Under the bed lay a man; trying to muffle the sound of his chewing, . . .”
  11. From the Thursday (clonked by Sunday) self ⋙ to descend into chaos with dozens of me’s from childhood to the far future, none of whom make linear sense any longer. Note: “When I regained consciousness, the cabin was packed with people.”
  12. From a somewhat later, but not far future self ⋙ to a time when there is no longer a suit, but the rudder is fixed?!. Note: “I ran to the controls. The rudder worked!”
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
  • English Copyright Date—<em>The Star Diaries,</em> which is the first English translation of a significant portion of the 1977 collection <em>Dzienniki Gwiazdowe,</em> is sometimes cited as 1971, but that is a misunderstanding of the copyright page, which states: “English Translation ©1976 by the Seabury Press, Inc.<samp><samp> <samp>. . .</samp></samp></samp> Original Edition: <em>Dzienniki Gwiazdowe</em>, published by Czytelnik, Warsaw, 1971.” This English collection was translated by <a href='Michael_Kandel'>Michael Kandel</a> and uses the Polish spelling of <a href='Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem'>Stanisław Lem</a> with the letter ł. Later reissues use the English variant Stanislaw Lem.