The Other Name | Jon Fosse
…when they get to the blue house they stop and stand there looking down at the house
It’s a nice old house, Asle says
Yes, Sister says
It’s a really pretty blue, he says and Sister nods.
I’m sure it wasn’t that pretty when it was new, but now it’s prettier, the rain and the wind and the snow made it pretty, Asle said, and he says that the paint is flaking off in some places and that just makes the blue even prettier,
but she does see that the house is blue anyway, she says
you know the name of the colours? Asle says
Yes, Sister says
Because there aren’t so many, he says, there are lots more colours than there are names for, he says
Yes, you are right, Sister says…
…And Asle says, that’s right, the colour of the blue house is totally different
from the blue of the sky or the blue of the water or the blue of her dress, he says, she can just look
Yes, look how different the house blue is from your dress’s blue, he says
and he says that colours are never exactly the same as one another and plus they’re always changing,
it has to do with the light, he says, so it’s impossible to have names for all the colours there are,
there’d be so many names that no one could ever learn them all, he says
and Sister says still, blue is blue, she says, and yellow is yellow, she says
Yes, yes, you’re right, Asle says
Of course that’s right, he says
…The Boathouse is a play of grey colours, he thinks,
it’s almost unbelievable that there are so many different greys, Asle thinks,
and plus they look so different depending on what the weather’s like,
when the sun is shining it almost looks like there are just two grey colours,
but the shadows are lots of different grey tones, because the colours are always sort of moving and at the same time
it’s like they’re resting, yes, the colours are moving at rest and resting in motion, Asle thinks
and that’s not to mention the walls of The Boathouse,
the siding has turned totally grey and the cracks in the wood give it so many different grey colours, Asle thinks,
and he says that The Boathouse is grey but it’s also so many different colours of grey that don’t have names
and Sister says yes and he holds her hand tight because it’s almost enough to scare you
that there are so many different kinds of grey, and so many kinds of the other colours, like the ones called blue, just blue,
but there must be thousands of different blue colours, thousands, at least,
no there are so many that you can’t even count them, Asle thinks. ..The Boathouse is a play of grey colours, he thinks,
it’s almost unbelievable that there are so many different greys, Asle thinks
…Blue, she says, the sky is blue, she says
Sometimes, Asle says
but today it is grey too, he says
And it almost always is, he says
Yes grey Sister says
The sky is grey and The Boathouse is grey, the stones on the roof are grey and the walls of The Boathouse are grey,
but you see how they’re such different greys? he says
and Sister nods
You see that? he says
Yes, Sister says
But it doesn’t bother you, he says
No, she says
