The Dutch edition of my book (De Roep Van De Schettervogel) is coming out in July! I am so excited. There are a few clear mental images that I associate with 'being a writer' and have done since I was little - receiving a box of my books in the mail, signing them, seeing my first cover artwork and so on. One of my dreams has always been to have a shelf devoted to my foreign editions - how exciting would that be?
This is all so new to me, and I find it so interesting. Nothing I have written has ever been translated into another language, until now. I have read many books in translation (French is the only other language I can read, and I need a dictionary for the harder passages!) and wondered how they were in the original - are nuances lost? Is the richness of the language affected? Or does the translation bring out a different sort of beauty - other interpretations and connotations? What a terrifyingly difficult job a translator has, communicating the story without losing the intangibles - tone, mood, atmosphere. For me, the words and the sentences - the building blocks, and the way I put them together - are more important than the plot. I can't wait to hear how this has translated into a different language. And I can't wait to put my very first foreign edition on my shelf.
My Dutch publisher is Orlando - view The Cry of the Go-Away Bird's page here.
No comments:
Post a Comment