Interviewer: Which is your favourite part of the human body and why?
Interpreter: A long time ago I went to the beach. The drive was one of the most fun
parts. An hour felt like a whole day and the drive seemed like it took forever. But it
was exciting, because I knew at the end I could make sandcastles.
Interviewer: Are you happy with your life for the most part right now?
Interpreter: The swimming enclosure was this huge double-platform, wooden
structure with a diving board, floating island and slides. There was a red-brick Art
Deco kiosk and a lovely changing pavilion with red terracotta tiles.
Interviewer: What do you think would be the hardest thing for you to give up on?
Interpreter: I have hereditary hand tremors in both hands. My condition is getting
progressively more pronounced and is dominating my life. I find writing difficult,
and I find it difficult to write. But the most difficult thing to cope with is my inability
to hold a cup steady. I have to drink tea in the kitchen because I cannot hold a cup
steadily enough to move from one room to another. I use a straw to drink cold drinks.
Interviewer: Your best friend dies. What would you do?
Interpreter: Accidental or deliberate impalement. Stakes not sharpened too much
otherwise the victims could die of shock before they died of agony and bleeding out.
Children impaled on the same stake as their mother. Bodies left on stakes for months.
Organised into geometric patterns.
Interviewer: Tell me about something you really regret.
Interpreter: Charcoal grills on little wheeled carts, wine, meat-pies, roasted nuts,
grilled sausages, fried cakes and skewers of greasy black meat. Language barely
recognizable. Air raging with the smell of fried onions, garlic, and no sleep.
Performers and animals paraded in front of crowds. Families mutilating their bodies.
Interviewer: Tell me about someone you envy.
Interpreter: Sitting by the water and breastfeeding my baby until the milk turns back
to blood and spits onto my stomach and the dirt.
Interviewer: When and how was the last time you told someone honestly how you
felt?
Interpreter: When burning apartments and office blocks collapsed in pungent winds
and occupants became trapped in basement shelters that had become overcrowded
after arrivals of inhabitants from other buildings rendered unsafe, and some occupants
perished from heat-stroke and carbon monoxide poisoning.
Interviewer: How is the weather right now?
Interpreter: There is a sense of censorship above and beyond the nocturnal.