26 May 2013

When life gives you, as the latest of many gifts over a span of some 44 months, a friend who will make you coffee and chat with you late into the night even though she has to work tomorrow, because she knows you don't, it's a good occasion to get dressed up at one in the morning, put on an Astrud Gilberto playlist and smile as you dance around your flat, because it's the last time you'll be living alone for, quite possibly, a very long time, and pack your things to go. As my days in the Holy Land come to a close, I find myself focusing in on the smallest things, like these, and learning out of absolute necessity about what it means to be absolutely present in the moment. International Convention played no small part in acquiring that skill...but the story of that is long and can wait until I am on the other side of the Atlantic. First things first.

17 March 2013

The annual Bahá’í fasting period is now nearing its end. The fast:

“involves complete abstention from food and drink from sunrise till sunset. It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires.”

From: http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-7-2.html

It used to be hard, but now it is one of my favorite times of year. Here are just some of the things I love about it:

It forces me to slow down, think before I act, consider the differences between need and want, and weigh the importance of things.
It is a wonderful opportunity to break some bad habits (overeating, drinking too much coffee, etc. etc.)
It is an even better opportunity to build new good habits (prayer, eating regular meals, sharing meals with friends…)
(and a new one) It builds relationships with those who are fasting alongside us.

I am very happy that this year my aunt Susan is fasting with me. I had a lot of doubts as to how we would go about fasting “together” half a world apart. Technology makes that easier; still, I didn’t want to undertake anything too contrived, like forced daily “how was your day” check-ins. The way that things have unfolded, though, has been very natural. We just keep up a conversation about our struggles and our victories, and the prayers and passages that guide us through in our efforts to achieve our own spiritual goals during the fast (mine is to really focus on building spiritual habits like prayer and reading the Writings and making these a part of my daily life). Each fast I’ve done has been a little easier physically and a little harder spiritually than the last fast. And I think that means I really am growing.

I highly recommend it.

In my last post (ages ago, I know…I’m sorry!) I talked about starting a translation blog, thefaithfultranslator.wordpress.com. I’ve put up a few articles. Do give me a little feedback. I thoroughly expect that it won’t be very good from the beginning. But with feedback, maybe I can accelerate the process of making it interesting and useful to those who also take an interest in translation.

In any case, I created a bottom row of links I intend to eventually split off (assuming that the top row will become my professional translation website) and one is for creative writing. This week a group of writerly souls is getting together for a writers’ workshop and some of us will take on the challenge of writing a poem a day in April for (American) National Poetry Month. April may be the busiest month of my life to date, what with the Eleventh International Bahá’í Convention looming on the horizon of its end (see http://news.bahai.org/story/624 - the guy with the gray hair behind the computer is acting in one of the many capacities I will act in too…and hopefully the participants I assist will not look so confused after I finish with them). And in a sense, I feel that I don’t have time for writing. But “time for writing” will never come to me if I wait for it. Given I talk about writing much more than I actually do it, the coming month is a great chance to shut my mouth and pick up my pen. Particularly on the heels of the lesson that doing something in solidarity with others, singly yet together, brings energy and joy to the endeavor.

So, do stay tuned to the section of my blog thefaithfultranslator.wordpress.com titled “poems, stories and other writing” through the month of April, and I will do my best to produce poetry that is at the very least not sub-Vogon in quality.

(for reference see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogons)

After two extension of my service, and nearly a third (I played with the idea of staying on for a few more months, but dropped it due to impracticalities), I am finally getting ready to go once and for all. Obviously, after four years I have much to reflect upon. Either my reflections are still in their embryonic stages or they have been ongoing for the past year. Probably the latter. I have been a little frustrated with myself over the past year, slaving away over my future plans and withdrawing very deep into myself, sometimes dwelling on my limitations and imperfections. In a relatively self-contained community of around 6-700 people, withdrawing deep into yourself puts you in an awkward place which makes hard things even harder. But I think I’ve really grown on the inside. The greatest thing I’ve done is to finally understand that I should be, and ultimately am, in control of my own life. And I’m ready to grow more on the outside too. Just as an example, where in the past I had such fears of public speaking that I missed out on some great opportunities (like interpreting for pilgrim talks or guiding pilgrim groups at the International Archives building), now I’ve read before an audience comprised of almost the entire World Centre, and I’m delighted to be reading at a friend’s wedding this week. And I think the next phases in my life are good arenas to do some growing on the outside.

Life’s chess moves (combined with my toil) are playing out such that it appears I will complete graduate studies in Spain after all, with a little (OK, a lot of) help from my wonderful, extraordinarily supportive dad and Chris. I’ve been admitted to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. I have an office mate from Andorra who attended the very same school and studied translation as an undergraduate, and she is an excellent translator. From what I hear, Spanish culture is laid-back enough that I will have plenty of time to study hard, work, develop a freelance translation business, get involved in activities in the community (I’m trying to find a writers’ group to join, and of course there are always the Bahá’í activities, and simply exploring Barcelona and maybe beyond…wherever my feet and my limited budget can take me), and probably get moving around 10 in the morning every day (not that I intend to; I can never wake up that late anyway). As luck would have it, I know a smattering of people all over Spain, including a handful in or around Barcelona, and while none of them are my best friends, a start is better than nothing. I am sure that it will be hard sometimes, but it’s hard for growing to occur without experiencing some hard times.

And after Spain…I’m working hard on some plans. I was admitted to McGill to study library science. Montreal is the largest bilingual city in the world (not in a language I speak, but it would be a great opportunity to learn, since everything, everything in Montreal is presented in one language, then immediately, in the other), and I am interested in studying multilingual information access, under a certain professor whom I adore and whose research fascinates me…so given the circumstances, it makes a lot of sense to apply for a Fulbright grant, develop and state my case as eloquently as possible, with a little mentorship from my friend who’s a Fulbright scholar in London now, and the remote BWC librarian who has been in town for some six weeks and who is proving a wonderful and supportive mentor…and wait and see whether the Fulbright committee sees fit to give me a major grant…then…if I study there, make every effort to remain in this wonderful city I visited in 2009 and immediately felt like home.

Things are looking up.

In the meantime, I have to cut through all the red tape. So I’ll be applying for a Spanish visa from home, which means I’ll be spending three months most likely based in Madison, visiting people, putting things into place, with effort and luck, picking up some work, and God willing finding some time to just enjoy the lakes and trees and quietude of a non-middle-Eastern summer (middle Eastern summers are not easy) and beautiful fresh air. The farmer’s market. The Art Fair on the Square. The combined knitting and coffee shop on Lakeside Street. If I can stay long enough, the Sheep and Wool Festival with Susan, over my birthday weekend. I miss knitting quite a bit. I haven’t been doing it because knitting just doesn’t fit into the pace and style of my life in Israel. But I am eager to get back into it.

I looked into applying for the visa from Israel and going straight to Spain, but it’s not possible. So I have to go home for a while…and in the end, I think that’s the best way for things to be, because if money were no object, that is what I’d be doing! So if circumstances force me to follow my heart’s path, then so be it; I’m more than happy to go with the current. Interestingly, I have many, many reasons/requirements/excuses to travel to Chicago this summer: to drop off my visa application. To pick up my visa application. To visit friends who intend to move to Chicago. To visit the Bahá’í temple. To attend one of 95 worldwide conferences for Bahá’í youth. To attend the annual American Library Association conference in Chicago and do some preliminary networking. To go to the Art Museum, to go to Millennium Park, to walk Michigan Avenue and to do all the touristy things I used to love to do in high school when I was supposed to be perusing the paintings in the Art Museum the whole day (even now I find that tiresome…there is just so much art that somebody sometime decided was good enough to put on display in a really fancy venue for a really long time [my attitudes towards art have shifted substantially over the years…I still love it, but I’m a not such a fan of the passivizing society of the spectacle]). Quite possibly, to catch the flight that takes me to Spain.

11 January 2013

There will be a conference on interdisciplinary translation studies in Mashhad, Iran from 30 April to 2 May. And there are about 40 reasons I won't go, not least of which being that it falls entirely within what will assuredly be the busiest period of my life...OK, actually, that probably is the least among them.

I would love to go to Iran. I read books about it and from it and study the language even with the knowledge I will probably never go.

But you never know!

If you find a spare moment, please check out my new blog, thefaithfultranslator.wordpress.com, and please tell me what you think of it, whether your comments be good, bad or ugly. I want to hear the truth. You cannot offend me, you can only encourage me or save me from embarrassment. It's win-win. I assume (and hope) the quality of the content will improve or at the very least become less abstract once I get my feet wet in the business or just proceed with my studies. So for now it is just a testing ground. So far the only feedback I have to go on is the complete lack thereof, which is a bit discouraging...but this is something I love to talk and write about, so after all just doing it and keeping going is a reward in itself.

On life lately: work is intensifying, but I'm glad to be occupied with meaningful work. I moved into a new flat and while I absolutely love having my own place, and am extremely grateful, I feel a bit as though I live in a hotel, a temporary holding station, where I can eat and sleep until I go. My possessions are beginning to find new homes; projects are beginning to wrap up; I'm doing the last studies and readings I'll have the chance to do in the Holy Land; and I'm spending my last hours in the Shrines. Oh, and I've already made tentative plans to come back. I have some friends who were thinking of traveling to some combination of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Italy--all places I would have loved to visit if money were no object--next month, but they decided to save their pennies for the transition home. So, with any good fortune, we will visit some combination of these countries together plus Israel five or ten or so years down the road. But, first things first...such as enjoying our last months together--we're leaving in June. Oh, and visiting each other in Madison when we're back in our respective parts of the US, in, say, July.