Agur Schiff - There's Lots to See

An Israeli couple make their way to Nimrod's Fortress, walking slowly up a dirt road as a dry wind blows. The woman, Ofra, is thirsty, her body depleted by her period, which began this morning, violently, suddenly. Nir, her partner, is annoyed from the start of the story, irritated at the sights, the smells, the sounds, Ofra's period, Ofra's voice, Ofra's touch, Ofra's tone.

“You're trying to annoy me,” said Nir, “but I won't let you, you won't be able to do it.”

“Then how come you're getting annoyed?” asked Ofra with her eyes closed.

Agur Schiff's story, There's Lots to See (trans. Jessica Cohen), buzzes with anticipation. From the outset, we know something is going to occur, it's just a matter of what and when. Schiff's writing is sparse and direct, eschewing superfluity in order to build, sentence by sentence, a feeling of mounting intensity.

The couple wander through the fortress where they gaze upon rifle-slits and algae-covered water in dank, shallow pools. The fortress is a ruin, wrecked by time, earthquakes and battles, and you can't watch the sunset from the ruins because it closes at five. And you can't buy a drink for yourself, Nir, because the last water was sold to Ofra and then shop's closed. And you can't – well, he can't do a lot of things. His life is closing in on him, choking, pushing out what he remembers of the good and the right.

Schiff keeps us in the dark as to the reason behind the cracks in Nir and Ofra's relationship, but cracks there are and they are widening. In one paragraph, Nir longs to stroke Ofra's “white neck”. In another, he hits her cheek so hard his palm stings, and though he immediately says he is sorry, Ofra knows his apology is rote and expected, not felt.

”With you there's no difference between stroking and hitting,” said Ofra. “It's the same hand connected to the same head.”

Nir is an unpleasant character. There are flashes of fondness toward Ofra, but by and large his thoughts are violent, and his actions, too. Ofra comes across as a bit of a shrew, but that is hardly an excuse for violence. No, this is a dead relationship, its corpse rotting whatever remaining love they share until there is nothing either can do but spew poison. They need to separate, but are unable to locate an individual event unique and significant enough to pinpoint as the reason behind the break. Instead, they will amble along, increasingly unhappy, increasingly bitter, and, for Nir, increasingly violent. It's not a good situation and Schiff plays it for all it's worth, stringing out the inevitable catastrophe for all its worth.

The tires screeched when they made a right-turn. The fortress disappeared into the distance behind them.

“Calm down,” said Ofra, but Nir picked up speed. “Do you want to kill me?” she yelled.

Nir opened the window and leaned his elbow out. On his left, through the wind that slapped his face, village houses and rows of vines lined the foot of the hill. Down in the valley, fish hatcheries glistened among green and brown polygons, and on the horizon above the distant mountain ranges to the north, the pillars of smoke were frozen. The white stripe on the road flowed against Nir's eyes and alongside him, bending and straightening as he turned the wheel.

“Watch out!” Ofra screamed.

The distinct break, when it comes, is unexpected in its intensity and the direction in which the violence is channeled. The ending of There's Lots to See is a surprise, though, on retrospect, it fits quite well, and aids in thematically advancing the disintegration of the couple's relationship. As can be noted from the above quoted paragraph, Schiff's language is direct and focused, shorn of excess and devoid of internalisation. Beyond such superficialities as the aforementioned “he longed to stroke her neck”, we never really enter either character's head, which serves to enhance and increase the explosive intensity of the final third of the story. We don't know enough of either to do anything but watch an unhappy relationship come to an unfortunate end. There's Lots to See ends violently, with misplaced anger, but also, we feel, with a sense of relief. If the relationship is over, well, at least now the tension is gone and the two can begin to put the venom of the previous six years behind them.

There's Lots to See by Agur Schiff is a short story from Center for the Art of Translation publication, Two Lines - Volume XV: Strange Harbors

See Also

Other stories from the Center for the Art of Translation publication, Two Lines - Volume XV: Strange Harbors include:
---Rey Rosa, Rodrigo - Poco-loco
---Suceavă, Bogdan - Our Years of Beauty

Index of short stories under review