Veronica Stigger translated by Ramon Stern and Chris Meade

Opalka entered the small room in his son Natanael’s house and walked to the window, under which was a square wooden table, one of its sides pressed against the wall. On top of the table was a legal pad with a hard red cover, closed, a pot of ink—also red—and a pen. He sat down on the straw chair and opened the journal, where the following had been written:

Making an old book a book of voyages with pages that unfold

The story will start in a big city —in a metropolis— or by the sea

It will be the story of a lone man an old man a tired man

The man will be about sixty years old wear a three-piece suit and two-tone shoes and he’ll have a chimpanzee

His chimpanzee will be huge the same size as my character tall and ... Read More »]]>

Veronica Stigger
translated by Ramon Stern and Chris Meade

Opalka entered the small room in his son Natanael’s house and walked to the window, under which was a square wooden table, one of its sides pressed against the wall. On top of the table was a legal pad with a hard red cover, closed, a pot of ink—also red—and a pen. He sat down on the straw chair and opened the journal, where the following had been written:

Making an old book
a book of voyages
with pages that unfold

The story will start in a big city
—in a metropolis—
or by the sea

It will be the story of a lone man
an old man
a tired man

The man will be about sixty years old
wear a three-piece suit and two-tone shoes
and he’ll have a chimpanzee

His chimpanzee will be huge
the same size as my character
tall and strong like a Scandinavian

It will have light gray fur
(and no one come bother me, saying
that chimpanzees don’t have light gray fur

If I want my chimpanzee
to have light gray fur
it will)

Its fur will be smooth and shiny
like a shaggy rug
the kind they only have in the South

It will have slanted eyes
sparkly and blue
like those of my character

The man and the chimpanzee will be great friends
(perhaps lovers)
and sleep in the same room

The chimpanzee will have a double bed
and the man, a conventional single
And there will be no woman in the story

The two will be very attached
will go to the general store together
to the market

to plazas
restaurants
the movies

the dentist
(the chimpanzee will have a gold tooth)
and to the hairdresser

who will care with the same devotion
for the man’s blonde hair
and the chimp’s light gray fur

One day the man will need to travel
He’ll have dreamed that there is a secret
that must be revealed

—the secret of his origins
hidden in a small wooden box
with a mother of pearl lid—

The secret will be on the other side of the country
of this immense country
that he believes to be his

He’ll take a train
—no!—
he’ll take a ship

A Brazil Lloyd steamer
where time will pass slowly
and the man will think he’s drifting toward hell

The chimp won’t be allowed to go
“It will be a long, unpleasant journey
I wouldn’t put you through it.”

But the chimp will not listen
He’ll lock himself in a trunk
without the man noticing

Arriving at his destination
the man will open his baggage
and see the chimpanzee

inside the trunk
doubled over
in the fetal position

head tilted up
eyes closed
mouth open

in its rigid hands
a small wooden box
with a mother of pearl lid

He’ll fall to his knees
beside the trunk
holding the chimpanzee with all his might

His head will fall
over the corpse
of his best friend

His blond hairs will mix in
with the light gray fur—once lovely and alive
now dull and lifeless

The writing—rounded, almost childish, with big letters slanting gently to the left—was suddenly interrupted. A dark red spot spread across the page, forming a strange shape reminiscent of a corpse laid out on the ground. Stunned, Opalka closed the notebook, got up, and left the room.

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Read this in Portuguese

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Image: Marisela LaGrave