The rain falls on the mutilated black trees lying in the courtyard. The corridor light illuminates them weakly. Still, they’re blinding. The cracked bark fills with water, and parts of the bare courtyard are suddenly reflective. It’s blinding. I close my eyes briefly, pressing hard. When I open them, the wet stumps and the bare courtyard are still there.
And I realize that I’ve only erased part of it, not everything, and there’s still something left to erase so it’s all erased forever.
NAM OPORTET HAERESES ESSE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juan José Saer (1937–2005), born in Santa Fe, Argentina, was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation. In 1968, he moved to Paris and taught literature at the University of Rennes. The author of numerous novels and short-story collections — including The Sixty-Five Years of Washington and La Grande, also available from Open Letter — Saer was awarded Spain’s prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Steve Dolph is the founding editor of Calque, a journal of literature in translation. His translation of Juan José Saer’s The Sixty-Five Years of Washington was published by Open Letter in 2010. He lives in Philadelphia.