BECAUSE Guyanese readers tend to read literature that is written in English, they never come across the sea of fantastic literary work that exists in other languages.
Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Burmese, Hebrew and many, many others are languages that are alien to most people in Guyana and the wider Caribbean, are used to tell amazing stories. Therefore, translation is crucial to understanding the literature of today’s world.

It is through translation that readers are able to be exposed to a variety of forms, subjects and literary styles that exist beyond the English-speaking world. It is through translation that we truly begin to understand and to know the world. It is through translation that I was able to discover and enjoy the wonderful short-story, “You Okay for Time?” by Japanese writer, Kaori Fujino, who is a part of this year’s International Writing Programme. Fujino’s story can be found on Granta online, where it has been translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

One of the reasons why I like this story so much is because it was an early reminder, coupled with the myriad of beautiful readings being conducted by IWP (The International Writing Programme) writers, that translated literature is a truly profound thing that those who read only works written in English are completely missing out on.

Fujino’s story also resonated with me because, in my interpretation of the tale, it is really about a relationship that exists between two friends who do not see each other for a while. As I am currently away from home, the story reminded me of my own relationships that currently exist in a limbo-land between two continents. I also felt that other Guyanese readers might relate well with “You Okay for Time?”, given that almost every Guyanese has relatives who live abroad. How has distance impacted our relationships with the people we love and care for? How do we sustain these relationships, with these people who we do not see for years and years? How do we nurture them? How do these relationships benefit us and them? These and more are the questions Fujino’s stories explore.

“You Okay for Time?” begins with the narrator telling us about her best friend who is newly married. The narrator has sent her friend a gift in the form of a sansevieria plant (also known as the snake plant or money plant). Early on, the friend is clearly dedicated to the plant, wanting to water it more than necessary and taking special care to separate the plant into several plants when it gets big enough, which is juxtaposed with the narrator’s initial thoughts that the friend would be unable to keep the plant alive for very long because she has a history of being unable to care for plants.

This might seem like a simple thing, but what does it tell us about the women and about their relationship? Anyone who has received gifts from someone they’re close to who belongs to the Guyanese diaspora knows the emotional value of these presents. So, the friend’s ability to care for something her best friend has sent her is really unsurprising since, on a symbolic level, it represents her very relationship with the narrator – which is something she values immensely, as seen in the way she constantly calls to talk to the narrator about her husband and family and, sometimes, even when she has nothing to say (and only cries into the phone).

The narrator notes that “it was always she who called”, and this is enough to tell us which of the two women values the relationship more and this, by extension, also informs us of the value of what the plant represents to that person. The narrator is the more detached of the two and might even be regarded as unreliable, subtly judging the actions of her friend without appearing to be explicitly judgmental.

The friend is clearly the needier of the two, as seen in the ways she recounts to the narrator the faults in her marriage (lack of sex, not really getting to know her husband before marrying him, etc.) and the fact that she is always the one to share so much information about her private life with the narrator who, in turn, shares the information with us, the readers, while withholding details about her own personal life.

Despite all that is going on in her life, how does the friend manage to remain (appear?) stable and happy? There must be a source of sustenance for her, a source of nourishment, a source of the kind of care and attention that is required. Could it be that despite being so far away, it is the narrator who provides this to her through her long chats on the phone?

The relationship presented here is a complex and tricky one to navigate, especially given the way the narrator is presented. In a very slight manner, it is indeed reminiscent of diasporic long-distance relationships, of those Guyanese who refuse to leave where they are but yearn to maintain those relationships that have been left in their home country and, truly, still try to sustain those relationships as a form of remedying whatever trials they might be experiencing in their adoptive country.

This theory is supported by the presence of the sansevieria plant which has air purification abilities and is used in feng shui to counter negative vibrations. If the plant represents the friendship between the two women and is traditionally regarded in Asian culture as being a purifier, and being able to remove negative energy, then the friend’s nurturing nature of the plant becomes obvious. Her need to keep the plant alive and to allow it to thrive reflects her need to wipe out the negative energy in her life through her conversations with the narrator. She cares for the plant because she cares for her friendship.

She allows the plant to thrive because she needs the relationship to thrive. Perhaps, her friendship and those conversations with the narrator are the only ways of counteracting the reality of the negative experiences in her marriage. Perhaps this is what makes her truly happy.

Fujino is regarded as a horror writer in Japan – a label that she does not seem to deem applicable to all of her work. In “Are You Okay for Time?” something happens at the end of the story that skims it over the top of the realm of horror. The sansevieria plant, representing this one-sided relationship between the two friends becomes transfigured into something that even the narrator could not have imagined.

At the climax of the story when she comes face to face with the horror that she, in a way, has helped to create, we get a jolt of the terror that has caused Fujino to be regarded as a horror writer. But her work is about so much more than simply fear. This single story, for example, is about friendship, relationships in general, the effects of distance between people, and the effects of transfiguring pain and anger into something else. Ultimately, because I could only have read it once it was translated, the story also exists, in my mind, as a symbol of the power of translation.