I convinced myself of the difference, briefly, but it was still a fight to keep the distinction clear in my mind. I thought that if I could keep the difference as clear as possible, then I would be able to explain it to others. The impulse came from my years of translating. I knew that translation was nothing more than explaining a text in one language to people who knew another language. Lazy people, as my husband was fond of saying. I catered to lazy people.
But my skills were deteriorating. I tried, as I faltered there on the surface, to try to remember words in other languages. Tried to remember the names of other languages and I was having difficulty. I was not so far gone, mentally, to be incognizant of my situation, but I was gone enough to know that I was going.
I let my mind dri
