Jolted

Originally posted on my Friendster blog on 11 October 2006.

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here's something i found while googling stuff for the transcription bit of my research. i didn't think something like this would pop out, and was quite taken aback, jolted in fact, after reading it. i've been so focused on methodology and design and objectivity issues all this time i forgot about those things that cannot be captured in transcription, those that i probably won't be able to be objective about, try as i might. i know this is not exactly the kind of thing i'll be transcribing, but nevertheless, i think it's worth thinking about. here it is:

The transcriber speaks

I was the commission's own captive,
Its anonymous after-hours scribe,
Professional blank slate.
Word by word by word
From winding tape to hieroglyphic key,
From sign to sign, I listened and wrote.
Like bricks for a kiln or tiles for a roof
Or the sweeping of leaves into piles for burning:
I don't know which:
Word upon word upon word.
At first unpunctuated
Apart from quotations and full stops.
But how to transcribe silence from tape?
Is weeping a pause or a word?
What written sign for a strangled throat?
And a witness pointing? That I described,
When officials identified direction and name.
But what if she stared?
And if the silence seemed to stretch
Past the police guard, into the street
Away to a door or a grave or a child,
Was it my job to conclude:
"The witness was silent. There was nothing left to say"?

-Ingrid de Kok