The Mischief of King Balerion

Centuries from now, inventors - and chronic meddlers - Trurl and Klapaucius roam their medieval-style universe in search of glory, riches and problems to solve.
From a machine that writes poetry to a fidget toy designed to distract a despotic tyrant, their solutions cause chaos even as they invite questions about the soft boundaries between humans and technology.

Trurl and Klapaucius’s attempt to help a playful king to find the best hiding place in the world has unforeseen consequences.

Read by Carl Prekopp
Written by Stanisław Lem and translated from Polish by Michael Kandel
Abridged by Clara Glyn
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) was born in Lviv, then part of Poland. He is probably the most original and influential European science-fiction writer since H.G. Wells. Best known in the West for Tarkovsky and Soderbergh’s filmed adaptations of his novel Solaris, Lem wrote novels and stories that have been published all over the world. His comic parables The Cyberiad, first published in the 1960s, anticipate nanotechnology, our ambivalent relationship with the internet and debates around AI and creativity. Michael Kandel’s lauded translation was first published in 1974.

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4