Collaboration

I had a zoom meeting with the wonderful Adel Tincelin earlier today. What an enlightening, affirming experience. I am grateful for the opportunity to share my ideas with the author of the very book that touched me so deeply. As we collaborate on the translation together in our respective confinements, I am overcome with thanks that we are both driven to see our visions through. This reminds me that so many books in the queer canon are by authors who left this world far too soon, to the most vicious of negative energies. I keep that thought on my mind, sure to not let it slip into my blind spot as I continue translating and exposing works to an English-speaking audience. Thankfully globalization allows me to be transported to the queer collective where Adel is and share ideas and speak French as if we were six feet apart in his flat’s living room. This experience has underlined the worth that collaboration has in translation: similar to critique in artist studios, this modern day zoom salon allows two or more minds to create something greater than themselves. Something that will have an incalculable effect on those who allow such stories into their lives. I am also reminded of the fact that I don’t—won’t—ever have all the answers and that the points of view of outsiders (or insiders in the case of Adel) are as if not more important as my initial translations. And hey, puzzles can be more fun to do together.

TL;DR? I’m one thankful person