Yiddish for Pirates (43 page)

Over each horizon, more horizons. From the printing press to the typewriter to the text message. I have lived long. Oy, there were years of zaftik parrots in Florida. Though no one special. Years of sailing. Shtupping. Kibitzing. Sailing. Remembering. Kibitzing. Shtupping. Remembering.

Ach, it’s a life. A wonder tale. And I try not to notice that—can I help it?—all the time our tucheses are plonked in the sitz-bath of story. You think,
genug shoyn
, enough already. But nu.
Gey plotz
. What can you do? You try not to let tsuris make you old.

Which reminds me: A man goes to the theatre with his son.

“One adult and one child,” he says at the box office.

“That’s no child,” the ticket seller says. “He looks at least thirty.”

“I can help it that he worries?”

Acknowledgements

Writing this novel was a voyage into a world unknown to me and, like the fabled ursine mountaineer, I travelled to see what I could see, learning what destination I hoped for as I found it, though I had advice and encouragement on the way. The metaphor of a crew helping me build, rebuild and sail my own ship of Theseus is apt here and I’m deeply grateful.

Sculling and scouring readers and inspiriting coxswains include Craig Conley, Mike Warwick, Sandra Stephenson, Gregory Betts, Chris Piuma, Myrna Barwin (my mom), Peter Borwein, André Alexis, Martha Baillie, Stuart Ross, Emily Schultz, Brian Joseph Davis and Natalee Caple. I gained invaluable insight about parrots from Chris Pannell.

I’d like to thank the supporters of public funding for the arts, for time and assistance through grants received from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. I’m also appreciative of the opportunity to muster and buff as a result of my year as writer-in-residence at Western University.

I am grateful to Yiddish maven Michael Wex who idiom-proofed my shpritzing to make certain it was shipshape; to copy editor Angelika Glover for her perspicacious this-, that- and whichcraft; and, especially, to my remarkable editor, Amanda Lewis, whose keen insight ensured I navigated by shtern and not by shtick. I’d also like to express great appreciation to my agent, Shaun Bradley, of the appropriately named Transatlantic Agency, for, among other things, believing that this book could find land and then helping me find it when none was certain. And to my wife, Beth Bromberg: this book—as most things—would simply not be possible without her.

I have dedicated this book to my family—my wife, parents, in-laws, my children and my late grandparents. I have tried to infuse it with wonder, thoughtfulness, wit, intelligence, culture, love and compassion. If I have succeeded in this in any way, it is because I have learned these things from them.

As a reader, the parrot Aaron is a polyglot, omnivore and a plunderer, and the complete sources of his learning are obscure. However, certain texts can be noted: Robert Louis Stevenson,
Treasure Island
; Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Grand Inquisitor” from
The Brothers Karamazov
; Capt. Charles Johnson,
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
; Mary Johnston,
1492
; Rafael Sabatini,
Captain Blood
; Shakespeare,
The Tempest
; Richard Henry Dana, Jr.,
Two Years Before the Mast
; Joseph Conrad,
Heart of Darkness
; Edward Kritzler,
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean
; Michael Wex,
Just Say Nu
; and a great variety of books on history, language and seafaring too numerous to mention here.

Excerpts from the novel have appeared in
Joyland
(
joylandmagazine.com
) and
The Dalhousie Review
.

Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist and the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction and books for children. His recent books include the short fiction collection, I,
Dr. Greenblatt, Orthodontist, 251-1457
, and the poetry collections
Moon Baboon Canoe
and
The Wild and Unfathomable Always
. A PhD in music composition, Barwin has been Writer-in-Residence at Western University and Young Voices E-Writer-in-Residence at the Toronto Public Library, and has taught creative writing at a number of colleges and universities. Born in Northern Ireland to South African parents of Ashkenazi descent, Barwin moved to Canada as a child. He is married with three adult children and lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

www.garybarwin.com