Translate Me
by Eli Bar-Ya'alom
The negotiating parties sat down at opposite ends of the table, with the interpreter sitting between them like an inconspicuous shadow. Everyone was silent. He was the first to speak.
'I love you.'
She grimaced, but the interpreter signalled to her and said:
'He says, "I am patient, I am ready to listen and try to understand you."'
She snorted and replied bitterly:
'You've always been good with words, but I'll probably never see any action from you.'
The interpreter turned to Him and said:
'She says, 'I love you too. Only love has helped me endure all this.'
He spoke, and there was anguish in His voice.
'I can't do this anymore. You don't like anything I do. You criticise me all the time.'
The interpreter turned back to her and said:
He says, 'I have an inflated, vulnerable ego. It makes me perceive all your words as attacks, and I involuntarily begin to see you as an enemy.'
She looked at Him — no longer with hatred. Already with that pity from which love is only a step and a half away.
'I'll try to remember that, but you have to stop being a child too. It's time to grow up in your forties!'
The translator turned to Him...
They walked away together, shoulder to shoulder, almost arm in arm.
At the threshold, He stopped, ran up to the translator, slapped him on the back and exclaimed:
'You're a pro, brother! Where do they teach that, huh?'
The translator did not answer; he caught Her gaze and translated with his lips alone:
'He says to me, "I want to learn to understand her myself."'
— Eli Bar-Ya'alom, 'Translate Me'
Translated from one of the Eastern languages, the phrase 'I love you' sounds like this: 'I will take your pain upon myself.'