bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1986) — Winter 1986 // Hiver 1986, p. 58
Boris Kropotkin had struck again!! The wily KGB agent had purloined the latest External Affairs estimates and spirited them away to his secret headquarters in Soviet Central Asia. We had to get them back before Kropotkin cracked the code (high bureaucratese) and discovered that every one of Canada’s posts abroad is being reduced by the A (Base) Team to a receive-only telex machine, a life-size cardboard cut-out of the Prime Minister and a subscription to the local edition of TIME. We of course put our own best man on the case: J.E. (Jimmy the Turk) Flecker – poet, diplomat and scoundrel. Somehow he got in, found Kropotkin’s HQ, came back with the goods and then (as usual) screwed up on the paperwork. All we got was this:
GA YSA CHA FOWZSONR, NYRCAS; GA RHYWW ZE
YWGYUR Y WOCCWA VISCHAS; OC NYU PA
PAUEMB CHYC WYRC PWIA NEIMCYOM PYSSAB GOCH RMEG,
YJSERR CHYC YMZSU ES CHYC ZWONNASOMZ RAY,
GHOCA EM Y CHSEMA ES ZIYSBAB OM Y JYDA
CHASA WODAR Y FSEFHAC GHE JYM IMBASRCYMB
GHU NAM GASA PESM: PIC RISAWU GA YSA PSYDA
GHE CYXA CHA ZEWBAM SEYB CE RYNYSXYMB.
Before Flecker goofed off again (something about Arms and the Imam), he said his report explained how he got past the border patrol and where he had found the estimates. This information is urgently needed so that Ambassador Turner knows when to deny the Kremlin’s accusations and when just to smile knowingly. first thought the report was in one of the many obscure languages Flecker speaks, but eventually determined that it was in fact a poem in cipher, with the same letter consistently substituted for each letter in the original text. Going through his notes we also found the following:
(1) Irish free-for-all (10/BX)
(2) Force into Asian service (8/RO)
(3) The perfect spot, More or less (6/IY)
(4) Man running from Greek battle (10/NS)
(5) Incompetent Near Eastern bird (6/CU)
(6) Sightless Italian at the window (8/DM-5/PB)
(7) Tough way for Luther to thin down (4/BC-2/EV-5/GR)
(8) Earl. islands and snack (8/RH)
(9) Pale isthmusian topper (6/FY)
(10) Musical Low Country sea-ghost (6/VZ-8/BM)
(11) Revolutionary cry of Caribbean drunks (4/JY-5/WA)
The notes indicated that each of the I lines refers to a “geo-word” or words containing or derived from the name of a country, city or town. The number(s) at the end of each line indicate the number of letters in the missing geo-word(s). The letters after each number indicate the first and last letters of that geo-word, but Flecker has enciphered these letters using the same cipher he used for his poem-report. For example, if one of the geo-words was BALACLAVA, and the cipher equivalents for B and A were Y and Trespectively, then the related clue would be something like “Crimean knitted cap (9/YT)”.
Yes, Flecker has a weird sense of humour. But can you help us? Can you decipher his report and work out his 12 geographic references (I clues and Boris’s HQ)?? bout de papier
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1986) — Winter 1986 // Hiver 1986, p. 58. Read the rest of this issue →
