Reading the Room

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions; it’s two weeks into January and this subject seems out of date already. Of course, I have lists all over the place: shopping, answer emails, items for taxes… What I really want to do this year it’s to translate my first collection of short stories, Una noche en casa, 1995, (A Night at Home), into English. I know that translation is all together another skill I don’t have, but how difficult could it be? Besides, I want to edit the book somewhat and I love writing in English, showing off my knowledge of the language.

Una noche en casa consists of twenty linked stories with the same narrator, a young Spanish girl. It’s mostly autobiographical or what is called today, auto-fiction. It starts with “La primera nevada” (“The First Snowfall”), the day that my brother and I saw snow when my family moved to cold Madrid from much warmer Valencia. And it ends with “El seiscientos” (The Seat 600”) the day we left for the United States on a trip supposedly for a year, which turned out to be for a lifetime in my case. The cover is the painting, De vuelta a casa, 1979, (Back Home), by Cristóbal Toral, who graciously allowed me to use it. The murphy bed mirrors the one in the family room where I slept. I realize now that the book is framed by two literary figures: Josefina Aldecoa who wrote the introduction, praising my ability to remember events and José Luis Castillo-Puche, one of my father’s good friends, who took us to the airport as it was customary back then, a time without Uber or Lyft.

This is how I might get into trouble. There is no translation for all the new expressions I have been learning in order to communicate with the younger generations. Take “boundaries;” and I don’t mean it in the bullish, political Trump way. Boundaries now doesn’t necessarily mean “fronteras,” it means I am not allowed to talk about a particular subject or make a move like show up unannounced. It’s similar to “stay in your lane,” whether you are driving or not. It’s a new way to say it’s none of your business. Or you could incorporate “you do you and I do me,” in your repertoire; what? Maybe I didn’t “get the memo.”

Some of the new expressions are untranslatable: a “head’s up” has nothing to do with your posture. We all know that it means a warning of something coming up, usually bad news. “Checking in” is another new one perfect to do on a text or a phone call. Never mind if you prefer email. Some are just plain irritating, like “privileging your feelings,” which is something like I don’t want to hear anymore about how you grew up. Having good, old-fashioned manners means being a “performative” person, someone lacking true sincerety. I hate the ubiquitous “at the end of the day,” although this one has a perfect Spanish counterpart, “al fin y al cabo.”

The expression that is driving me nuts right now is “read the room.” Yes, I know what it means, but it makes no sense in Spanish. I have to go to Google and find out: interpret the situation, understand the signals, perceive the vibe (ignore “vibe” for the time being), asses the circumstances… and the list goes on. Maybe I should have made some “normal” resolutions, translating my book won’t be easy. But then I think, what the heck, this isn’t my first rodeo!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 at 5:37 pm by conchaalborg and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.