Reading in Reykjavík

Original title: Pequnas Infamias Translated from: Spanish Translator: Christopher Andrews Genre: Crime, literary novel Year of publication: 1998 (original); 2003 (translation) Setting & time: Spain, contemporary Chef Nestor Chaffinch (speciality: sweet desserts) finds himself stuck inside a walk-in freezer in the middle of the night after catering a successful private party and is found dead and frozen in the morning. At least four people in the house had reason to want him dead, but who killed him, and was he even murdered at all? After this first, terrifying chapter, the narrative flashes back to the events that lead up to the death, showing how Fate tangled together the lives of several people and finally led them all together in one place for a grand finale. The translation is seamless and according to reviewers who have read it in both languages Andrews has managed to preserve the author’s style, which is, as any good translator knows, a commendable feat. This...

...I began to fear it might happen to me as to certain translators, and imitators of Shakespeare; the unities may be preserved, while the spirit is evaporated. Clara Reeve (1729–1807), from The Old English Baron This is indeed a problem for many translators, especially those who translate literature. They manage to render the story faithfully, but lose the spirit of the original.

Originally published in June 2004, on my original 52 Books blog. Original Spanish title: Las Piadosas Author: Federico Andahazi Translator: Albert Manguel Year published: 1998 (original), 2000 (translation) Genres: Fantasy, gothic horror Where got: Public library The story: In the wet summer of 1816, five people arrive at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Leman: Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin and her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, Byron’s secretary. Upon arriving, Polidori finds a mysterious letter in his room, written by a monster who proposes a deal with him: something of his in exchange for literary fame. Polidori, who has suffered much humiliation at the hands of his employer, accepts the deal, but not before further humiliations and events that convince the others that he is going mad. Technique and plot: The translation is fluid and beautifully done and the book comes across as if it had been written in English. The style is remi...

Originally published in January 2005, in 3 parts. Book 46 in my first 52 books challenge . Edited to include publication information. I don't know what the xxxx is going on here, but whenever I try to use the Beta posting engine (this refers to tBlog, and not to Blogger) to edit an existing post, the text disappears, just as the introduction to Mouse or Rat? did here. Fortunately, the review was posted separately. Author : Umberto Eco Year published: 2003 Pages: 193 Genre: Translation theory, writing Where got: Amazon.co.uk Contents: In this book, Eco discusses translation as a kind of negotiation: between translator and author, between languages, and so on. He mostly discusses what is known as translation proper, i.e. the translation from one language (source) into another (target). He also mentions other kinds of translations, like intersemiotic translation or transmutation, which is the translation from one form of art into another, e.g. a novel into a film or a ...

If you are a translator or interested in becoming one, you might want to read this: How I got lost in translation and found my true calling

Epigraph: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? William Shakespeare: Macbeth Act II, Scene ii. Short summary: A chance sighting of a newspaper article sets Commissaire Adamsberg off on a chase for a serial killer he had given up trying to catch years before, but he ends up as a fugitive himself. Teasers from the book: 'I did get into the FBI archives once, just for fun,' she admitted shyly. 'No need to looks so shy, Josette. It's no sin to do good for other folks.' Adamsberg looked in even greater astonishment at this frail old woman, one-third society lady, one-third shy little creature, and one-third seasoned hacker. ... Adamsberg speaking: 'These last few days, my life has been in the hands of magical women. They've been tossing me from one to another, and every time they save me from falling into the abyss.'

No less than three of my old teachers are mentioned in the article , which just goes to show how small the community here really is.

I came across this article on translators in Sunday's web edition of The Guardian. I agree with the commenter who asked why there was no prize for old translators - why make a distinction? On the one hand, I can understand that young - meaning new - translators might need some encouragement to continue in this field of work, because the pay is frankly shit and there is little acknowledgement of the hard work that goes into a good literary translation, but on the other hand don't the old dogs (like myself) need encouragement as well? By the way, the Icelandic translation prize makes no distinction between old and new translators, but simply rewards good translations. And it's twofold: one for fiction and one for non-fiction. If only they would add a prize that rewards good technical translations, I would be very pleased indeed.

... but duty calls. I am taking a short sanity break from translating a legal contract on a short deadline, which is very exacting work, and I can't use a translation memory because it's in badly scanned pdf form and the reader can't convert it to text. I'm of a mind to change my price list to charge more when I can't use translation memory, because not only does it mean more typing for me, but I also have to figure out the lay-out of the document and hand-count the words. Unfortunately it also means a higher risk of error, so maybe that evens it out. It's some consolation that the contract happens to be fascinating...

Original French title: Debout les morts Translator: Siân Reynolds Genre: Mystery Year of publication: original: 1996; in English: 2006 No. in series: 1 Series detectives: Historians Marc, Lucien and Matthias, and former police commissaire (Armand) Vandoosler (Marc’s uncle) Type of investigator: Amateurs and semi-pro Setting & time: Paris (mostly), France; contemporary Story: Three down-on-their-luck historians move into an old run-down house along with the uncle of one of them, a former police commissaire. Because of their names the old man calls them “The Evangelists”: St. Lucas, St. Mark and St. Matthew. The four men quickly make the acquaintance of their neighbour Sophia, a retired Greek opera singer, and also that of Juliette who runs a restaurant nearby. Some weeks later Sophia disappears. Her husband seems unconcerned, but Juliette and Sophia’s niece Alexandra, who turns up shortly afterwards, are both convinced something has happened to her, as are the four men, who...

As my regular readers know, I have a degree in translation studies. This is why, when I come across interesting articles or books about any aspect of the craft, I naturally want to tell the world about them. Apart from Language X to Language Z renderings, "translation" can, among other things, refer to what is also called "adaptation", that is the rendering of one form of art into another, the most common being the adaptation of a book into a film. Here is an interesting article on the subject by Salman Rushdie that I came across on the Guardian website.

Original French title: L’homme à l’envers Genre: Mystery Year of publication: 1999 No. in series: 2 Series detective: Commissaire Adamsberg Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Rural France, contemporary Story: Camille, an old girlfriend of Commissaire Adamsberg’s, is living in the French Alps with a Canadian who is there to observe and make a documentary about the European wolf. In the area, dozens of sheep have been killed by what appears to be a rogue wolf, but when a woman in the neighbourhood is found dead with her throat torn out by the same creature, rumours about a werewolf start circulating. Camille had been fond of the dead woman and joins her foster-son and her shepherd in a search for the killer, whom they believe to be a man from the neighbourhood who has trained a big dog or a wolf to kill on command. A map found in his house shows a route through rural France he has apparently planned to take, and this they follow, finding the killer always a step ahea...

Fred Vargas’ books are only just beginning to be published in Icelandic. I read this one first as it is the first one published, but it turns out that the second book to be published in Icelandic (English title Seeking Whom He May Devour ) is an earlier book in the Adamsberg series. I hope it doesn’t matter much. I actually read the Icelandic translation, Kallarinn , but I’m giving the English title so my English-speaking readers know which book I am talking about. Original French title: Pars vite et reviens tard Genre: Murder mystery Year of publication: 2001 No. in series: 4 Series detective: Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg Type of investigator: Police Setting & time: Paris (mostly, France), contemporary Story: A man who has revived the ancient profession of town crier has been getting messages that are copied passages from old books about the Plague. At the same time the police are baffled by a mysterious symbol that appears on doors across Paris and turns out to be a...