witty-remark's Diaryland Diary

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They always ask "how do say this in Farsi?" and dribble out a simple phrase, a swear, or a declaration. Throughout the years, after my boyfriends or boys I had been involved with came to know I spoke another language, they'd insist that I teach them how to speak it, too.

"How do you say 'hello'?"

"How do you say 'goodbye'?"

"How do you say, like, 'I think this is cool'?"

I'd try, patiently, to translate, sometimes contriving my own meaning when I couldn't find a replacement. How do you say 'irreplaceable'? There were some things that I simply couldn't translate. And some, I didn't want to. I'd tell them 'whore' meant 'hello.' 'Shut up' was 'how are you.' 'Get lost' means 'I love you.'

We'd lie on beds, on couches, in the back of their cars, or sprawled across benches as summer days dipped into night, and as I'd inch my head towards theirs, waiting for it to comfortably drop onto their shoulder, they'd suddenly thrust back their heads and ask "Oh, I've got another one! How do you say...?"

'I don't know' means 'I do.'

1:11 a.m. - Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011

Then - Now