Arnon Grunberg

Freud and a prostitute

Dream

The relationship between an author and his translator is a peculiar and intimate one.
My German translator tend to ask me so many questions – something I highly appreciate – that he knows more about my work than my own editor.
One of my Spanish translators taught me how to pick up women on the subway in Madrid. I never dared to follow up on his lessons.
And while teaching at the Elte University in Budapest in the fall of 2004 I spent a remarkable evening with my Hungarian translator and his beautiful wife.
We discussed happiness and we played fussball.
I still consider this a very happy evening.
Tonight we had dinner at Sant Ambroeus and went to the Carlyle for drinks.
The beautiful wife of my Hungarian translator tried to convince me that I should get married.
She also mentioned a dream in which she was a prostitute.
Unfortunately I’m not Freud.
But I know that witnessing the happiness of a married couple is for an author sometimes happiness enough.