Ronny Someck
Studio Ronny



 

STUDIO RONNY

 



 

In the last week of her pregnancy, my mother,

who had been wishing for a girl, saw the words

Studio Ronny emboldened on a photo studio sign.

‘If I do have a boy after all,’ she thought to herself,

then the name Ronny would suit him ever so much.

Works in Arabic (we had lived in Baghdad)

Works in Hebrew (we are Babylonian exiles)

Works in English (we’d been subjects of

King George VI).

My father was born Abdallah and rechristened Abner,

My grandfather was born Salah and would not become Zvi

whereas my mother, Daisy, was born to put down roots

in every Flora.

 

What luck she didn’t name me

Studio.

 

 

Translated from Hebrew by Eran Edry