Bos, J.C. (Jaap)

Two dreams, one destination

He had two dreams: one was to become a famous and beloved author, the other to become president of his country. But he lived in Iran. His father, he said, was deaf and mute, and so he became his interpreter, until he had to flee Iran (I think it was because he became involved with communist resistance).

10.000 US$ would buy you a ticket to New York, for 7000 US$ you’d still be able go to Paris. He ended up in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was for free, nobody wanted to go to a place where the language was impossible to master. Three times he tried to make it to New York, but every time he was send back to the asielzoekerscentrum. So that’s it, he said to himself, I stay. Thus he embraced his destiny.

He started writing. In Dutch. ‘Making a million mistakes’, he said – no he didn’t say that, he was yelling at us. As if he didn’t want a single word to get lost. And then his first novel appeared. In Dutch. This was maybe thirty years ago, I still remember people talking about his flowery language. But he became the author, the beloved author, he had always wanted to be, except in a different language.

‘I came here!’ He was still yelling at us. ‘I came here to allow you to allow me to change. And I came here to allow you to allow me to allow you to change.’ And he repeated that sentence, I think three or four times.

Yesterday I saw Kader Abdolah at a meeting on ‘diversity’. I am grateful to have been a this meeting, if only for that last sentence, repeated to me three of four times.