The Electronic Bard

Trurl yanked out a few cables in a fury, something rattled and wheezed, the machine fell silent. Klapaucius laughed so hard he had to sit on the floor. Then suddenly, as Trurl was rushing back and forth, there was a crackle, a clack, and the machine with perfect poise said:

The Petty and the Small
Are overcome with gall
When Genius, having faltered, fails to fall.

Klapaucius too, I ween,
Will turn the deepest green
To hear such flawless verse from Trurl's machine.

Even though it's been years since the last time I read the story, I can still remember that little poem almost word for word.

Let's also take a moment to appreciate that the poem is a translation. Thanks Michael Kandel!

When Lem wrote the story in the '60s, and when I first read it in the '80s, it was just cheerful nonsense like the other stories, but now apparently you can just ask your computer to write poetry? A friend of mine has been doing that, that's what led me to write this essay.

I'm not at all the first to make the connection between this story and AI poetry, but I'll let you google that for yourself.