Asakiyume mita

I created these questions are based on comments people left in response to Nando's two stories, but especially the more recent one, "Mauko Meets a Monkey." If they sound a little stilted, it's because it's my translation back into English of what I sent to him--I'm not good enough in Tetun to ask highly subtle, highly nuanced questions. You'll see that his replies are sort of adjacent to the questions rather than direct answers, again, most certainly due to my inability to express myself adequately. It would have taken more back-and-forth to get to clarity, and somehow to keep pressing felt it might have become unwelcome browbeating? And I wanted to hear what Nando was saying, which I think is illuminating and worthwhile, even if it's only tangential to what I was asking.

Question 1: In your two stories, people become wise through miracles from animals. Both Mr. Mau Leki and Mauko can cure people’s illnesses. In traditional stories, do animals sometimes give other miracles or other wisdom? Sometimes can plants or stones give miracles or wisdom to people?

Nando's answer:

People’s wisdom comes from education.

The miracles that they get are like a natural wisdom that is different with different people. Out of a thousand people living in a village, ones who have experienced a miracle from some other thing are maybe one, or maybe there isn’t even one.

Right now, there is one uncle, named Fideli, who lives in our neighborhood. This neighbor obtained a miracle from some other thing that made him able to cure people’s illnesses. He cures people who have had accidents like fractured legs or arms from falling from motorcycles. He uses the wisdom which he received to cure those broken legs or arms, returning them to normal, just as they were.

And now the government of Timor-Leste has also conferred an award on him. Now he is still curing people’s illnesses, and the government of Timor-Leste has given him a private hospital. He cures people’s sickness and doesn’t ask for any money when people get sick. Instead, he asks for a rooster from them, and also seven five-cent coins. Then he prays that they get better. After that he kills the rooster to make a dinner or lunch for everyone to eat together, and he takes the seven coins when he goes to church and gives them as alms.

Nando adds:

(This is really happening right now. If someone from America comes to Timor Leste soon, I can show them, and explain it to them.)

Question 2: Readers can know Mauko’s heart is big and wonderful because he gives a cure to the baby monkey. He loves people like his parents and siblings, but he also loves animals like the baby monkey. In your experience, are there people that love the land like Mauko loves the baby monkey? For example, people that want to cure the land’s illness?

Nando's answer:

Mauko cures the baby monkey because he cares about animals. He is the simplest person in his family.

There are lots of people who find an animal who has fallen, and they catch and kill it. They are very different from Mauko.

There are lots of monkeys that are just like ordinary animals, but the one monkey that Mauko met was very different from other monkeys, so Mauko considered this one to be a miracle that God had bestowed on him.

God doesn’t bestow miracles directly upon people. Rather, God bestows miracles on people through other people or things.

Question 3: Mauko’s disability can’t be hidden. People can see that his left eye is cloudy. One reader asks, Is people’s discrimination against Mauko worse because people can see his disability? If Mauko’s disability could be hidden, would people not discriminate? What do you think?


Nando's answer:

People discriminate against him because he is a person with a disability, and many people are disgusted by him and don’t want to see him in their presence. Even his brothers and sisters are ashamed of his disability and don’t like to spend time with him or help him. He was a person with a disability, but maybe if people didn’t feel disgusted, then they wouldn’t discriminate.

Before I talk about some of my own thoughts on "Mauko Meets a Monkey," I'd like to highlight some of the things other people have brought up:

• cafenowhere talked about aspects of disability, what's considered a disability, and what needs healing (thread here);


• sartorias saw parallels with Chinese storytelling (thread here);


• wayfaringwordhack noticed common themes with the last story and mused on healing the land v. healing people (and then we got into talking about translation, storytelling, and different kinds of stories--thread here).


• amaebi enjoyed the celebration of daily life and wondered what jobs the brothers and sisters went off to do (a good question--I'll have to ask!), and I'm happy that many of you enjoyed the photos.

One thing that struck me--and this was true in the last story, too--was how, confronted with the supernatural or otherwise uneasy-making things, the characters' response is to just be/stay silent (nonook de'it). Faced with a monkey who can bring either good or ill fortune: be quiet. After a dream or vision: sit silently. Told about your new destiny: sit quietly.

When you are still and quiet, you may evade the attention of powerful and dangerous forces in the world--that's what's going on when Mauko's dad tells him to be quiet. But also, when you're quiet, you can notice things, think about things. You're not jumping to conclusions or actions too quickly. You're letting your own thoughts--and the situation--develop.

It's refreshing to see this held up as a virtue--or maybe just as good common sense.

And then I was really struck by how listening, attention, and reflection are key to Mauko's vocation as a healer. I was imagining the aunt, who has been suffering for so many years. I was imagining her having Mauko listen to her attentively. And then he goes and prays for an answer: this is a continued focus on her, a respectful, humble focus. I was thinking about how healing just that very attention could be! It reminded me of my feeling about traditional healing as described in the movie Holding Tightly, which I talked about here.

It's something that's so entirely lost from medicine as practiced in the United States. I know there are doctors, nurses, and aids who do try to truly listen, to be attentive--but they are trying to be so in a horrible system, a crushing machine that punishes that behavior and rewards treating people as widgets that you move through your assembly line. Medical investigation is about isolating active ingredients, extracting them, and dosing people with them. But in many cases, that's just not how healing works. Don't get me wrong: I am happy to have antibiotics to vanish away illnesses that can be vanished away in that manner, and I'm happy for vaccines and X-rays and all the rest. But this other aspect is so very important and so very missing. As a healer, Mauko brings the gift of quietness and attention, and as an advocate, he gets the government to heal root problems: let everyone attend school; value all people.

I've finally finished translating the next story that my friend Nando (Fernando da Costa Pires) sent me back in July last year. From its title, this one might sound like the last one, only this time our protagonist is meeting a monkey instead of an eel. But it's actually very different: for one thing, the hero, Mauko, is disabled, and the story has a lot to say about how disabled people have been regarded in Timor-Leste. It has some magical elements like the last story, but every detail strikes me more deeply this time than last time--though I loved last time's story too. I have more things to say about it, but I'll save them for when I post the story. I've also asked Nando to write an author's statement, so he can share some of his own thoughts on the topic of disability and why he wrote the story.

These questions are a mix of Tetun and English. Where they're in Tetun (probably riddled with errors), I've supplied English, but I haven't attempted to translate my English-language questions into Tetun. Similarly, where Nando answered in Tetun, I've translated the answers into English, but where he answered in English, I haven't ventured a translation. Ha'u husu deskulpa tanba la bele tradús hotu ba Tetun 😓

Nando da Costa Pires


Nando da Costa Pires is the author of "Mr. Mau Leki Meets an Eel," which you can read here.

(Nando da Costa Pires mak hakerek na'in "Sr. Mau Leki Hetán Majiku Husu Tuna," ne'ebe mak bele lee iha ne'e (okos).)

I asked him some questions ...

Can you tell us about reading when you were growing up in Ainaro?

Tuir ha’u nia hanoin kona ba reading iha Ainaro ladun le’e livru barak tanba livre ba le’e la to.

(According to my view, many in Ainaro didn’t read books because books were not available for all, but some people did find a way to read books.)

When I was a child, I didn’t read any books because I didn’t have any. Sometimes I asked other people to show me some to help me do my homework, and sometimes I borrowed my friends’ books to read.

When you were a child, what things did you do each day?

When I came back from school each day, I spent my time helping my family a lot on the farm.

Follow-up Question:
Bainhira Alin Nando sei ki’ik oinsa mak ajuda ita-nia familia iha to’os?

(When you were little, how did you help your family on the farm?)

Wainhira hau sei kiik, hau ajuda hau nia familia mak hanesan hamoos duut ou kuru bee lori ba hau nia inan aman hemu no hili ai hodi tein ba meiudia sira han.

(When I was little, I helped my family by doing things like weeding, or fetching water for my parents to drink and gathering wood to cook everyone’s midday meal.)

In school, what subjects did you like? Were there any subjects that you did not like?

In my school, I liked math and science. The subject I didn’t like was talking about politics.

You told me that your grandmother told you the story of Mr. Mau Leki and the eel. Did she tell you many other stories?

Nia konta istória só iha tempu espesiál ka beibeik ka?

(Did she tell stories only on special occasions or all the time?)

When I was a child, my grandmother told me many stories. She would tell me stories two times a month, or sometimes three times a month.

Who else in your family told stories?

My parent and my uncle (my father’s brother).

You told me “istória nee realidade akontese duni” (“this story really happened”).
Ha’u fiar ita, tanba mundu ne’e misteriozu no buat hotu (ema, animal, ai-hun, rai, lalehan, klamar) mak ligadu malu

(I believe you because this world is mysterious, and everything (people, animals, trees, earth, heaven, spirits) is connected to each other.)

So, I want to ask: What important things do stories like this one teach us?

(Istória hanesan ne’e hanorin ba ita buat importante saida?)

Istória nia importante mak hanorin mai ita atu kuidadu ita nia natureza sira, no karik ita hetan milagre husi natureza nia forsa, ita bele uza forsa ne’e bele tulun fali ita nia maluk sira ne'ebé presiza ita nia ajuda.

(This story’s importance is that it teaches us to take care of our natural world, and that if we obtain miracles from the forces of nature, we can use that power to help our families and friends when they need our help.)

Liu husi istória ne’e ema bele hadomi liu tan sira nia ambiente.

(Through this story, people can come to love their environment more.)

Hanorin ami atu oinsá atu ajuda ema seluk, karik sira presiza ita nia tulun.

(It teaches us how to help other people, if they need our help.)

Follow-up question:
Alin Nando dehan, “karik ita hetan milagre husi natureza nia forsa, ita bele uza forsa ne’e bele tulun fali ita nia maluk sira ne'ebé presiza ita nia ajuda.” Alin Nando rasik iha esperiensia ne’e?

(You said, “if we obtain miracles from nature’s power, we can use that power to help our families and friends when they need our help.” Have you yourself had that experience?)

Iha, tanba hau nia avo hetan duni milagre balun husi natureza tanba nia kura duni ema balun ne’ebé hetan moras no nia tana hodi siik ema nia moras no nia fo aimoruk tradisional ba ema moras nee.

I have, because my grandfather has indeed experienced various miracles from nature, because he has truly cured a number of people who were sick, and he performs divinations in order to understand people’s illnesses, and he gives traditional medicine to these sick people.

Is this the first time you have ever written a story?

Yes. It is the first time for me to write a story.

Do you read many stories? If yes, what types of story do you like?

Yes, I do read stories, but not many. I read some stories in Tetun from Revista Lafaek.

In your opinion, what is the difference between reading a story and listening to someone tell a story?

In my opinion, reading stories improves our comprehension about the things the story is talking about. We learn something from the story, and we come to know about interesting places. And also, we can read the story to our family.

In my opinion, when we listen to someone tell a story, we must listen carefully to the person so that we can understand the meaning of the story.


You studied math at university and now help students learn math. What methods do you use?

Yes. My experience is this: first I must prepare worksheets for the students, and then give them some examples and explain it to them. I must give exercises for student do in the class, and then I must check if they understand how to do it. And I must give them homework to reinforce what I taught, and later I must check their homework.

Follow-up question:
Kona-ba estudante ita-nian: sira-nia idade saida?

(About your students: what are their ages?)

Kona-ba estudante sira nia idade husi idade 8 to 17.

(About the students: they range in age from 8 to 17.)

Obrigada barak ba intervista ne’e no ba istória furak ne’ebe mak ita hakerek.
Ha’u hein katak ita hakerek istória barak tan!

(Thank you very much for this interview and for the wonderful story that you wrote.
I hope that you write lots more stories!)

You may remember that I encouraged anyone I knew from my visit to Timor-Leste in 2013 to send in a story to Strange Horizons for their Southeast Asian writers issue. They were specifically looking for submissions from Timor-Leste.

My call on Facebook didn't get much traction--probably because I'm not very active on the site, so it deprioritizes my posts in people's feeds--but one acquaintance reached out to me, a guy called Nando. I remembered his smile super-well. He's just one year older than the healing angel, my youngest kid.

He's not fluent enough in English to write in English, though, so he wrote his story in Tetun, and I translated it--and wrote about what a thrill that was. We submitted it ... but it was rejected.

Of course there are a million possible reasons why a thing is rejected, but I would guess it's because Nando's story is a folktale rather than an invention of his own. It's a story his grandmother told him about his own family. It's a true story, he says, though it's filled with magic. I don't doubt him: the world is filled with magic. But I suspect for these reasons, and for the manner of its telling--and who knows, maybe the manner of my translating--it didn't ping as speculative fiction in the editor's mind.

I thought of trying to submit it elsewhere, but I also thought of the heartbreak that involves (or can involve). And that's not what Nando signed up for: he was submitting to this one magazine's one special issue, which I'd called to his attention. (I did tell him that rejection was a possibility.)

So I thought, why not publish it here on my blog? If **I** publish it, I can include the photos he sent me of the places mentioned in the story. AND, I can include the Tetun version of the story, so people from Timor-Leste can read it too. If I publish both the Tetun and the English, then it can also conceivably be a resource for people, all sorts of people, who are interested in the culture of Timor-Leste and stories from Ainaro. And if I publish it, I can do an interview with him.

I can't afford to pay as much as Strange Horizons would have, but I can afford semipro rates, so I offered, and he accepted. (And doing foreign remittances was an interesting experience, but that's a blog post for another day. Suffice it to say, PayPal doesn't operate in Timor and there's no post office, so I sent money via Western Union.)

I have all the pieces, and over tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll prepare them and put them up. I hope you all enjoy the story, and please, when it comes out, share the link widely! I really want people to know about this story. There is SO LITTLE fiction/folklore from Timor-Leste available for the Anglophone public.