Tragical Realism

So I’m trying to learn Spanish and it’s helping me a lot as far as staying in the moment, because I only know how to say stuff in the present tense. I could tell a little story that when translated into English would read back like some hardboiled Hemingway. “It’s Monday today. I drink a cup of coffee. I read a book at the library. I talk to Pablo. ‘Renato,’ he says, ‘you are my friend.’” Then I also manage to come up with sentences worthy of Buñuel. “My grandfather wants to drink a fish hamburger.” “When is my shirt?”