The frog who wanted to be a authentic frog
28 March 2021, Jürg Messmer
Since I published the two stories "Faith and the Mountains" and "The Dinosaur" by Augusto Monterroso, I have not been able to rest. Outside Latin America, these mini-stories (translated) have generally not been received as well as I had hoped or expected. "Depressing", or "what is he trying to say?", or "how do you interpret these stories?". I was speechless, even disappointed, and almost willing to try quick and reassuring interpretations. I didn't. The stories simply belong entirely to the reader, I cannot imagine that Monterroso had seen it otherwise. A testament to this might be "The monkey who wanted to write satire" ("El mono que quiso ser escritor satírico").
Read moreThe dinasaur
24 March 2021, Jürg Messmer
That same evening, as we sat in Café La Luna, sharing a pizza and reading short stories by Monterroso - who had inspired me to try to write, for once, a hopefully cheerful and short story entitled "Faith and the Mountains" - Vivian also showed me this probably shortest mini-story in the world, also by Monterroso. This fantastic text made me laugh again, perhaps because I didn't understand it very well. Perhaps the beauty of it lay in the fact that I didn't have to understand the text completely. It was only when I tried to translate it that I realized how difficult it is to translate such texts, and what can happen and get lost in the process of translation and understanding. Vivi told me that this short text had inspired many a long analysis, including master's thesis.
Read moreFaith and the Mountains
21 March 2021, Jürg Messmer
To make a long story short: Vivian and I sat in the Café La Luna in Xela, ordered a glass of wine each and tried to distinguish between the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot with a blind test, which didn't really work, not even for me, the acknowledged and quite experienced wine-blind-tester :-) And so it happened that she finally drank the Cabernet Sauvignon, and I the Merlot, although I traditionally would have aimed for the Cabernet Sauvignon, but then preferred the other. So in the end deciding was simple, and we both got what we wanted. Well, I also wanted to smoke a cigarette, and asked her for permission - with a slightly guilty conscience as always, but also with a mischievous charm, hoping that she would bear my absence well, so left alone as a woman. And it worked out fine. When I returned from smoking on the street, she had been looking for short stories, and had found this one to share with me. She let me read it aloud, in spanish.
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