The Word Cloud

15 Comments

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  by Jill 6 months ago

  Interesting choices - food for thought.
  
  When you find out the trick, do share SecretSpi!!
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  by Caducean Whisks 6 months ago

  That's fascinating, Spi. And the challenges of decent translation sound quite daunting - it's not just translating the words, is it - there's the atmosphere to convey, and the colloquial phrasing. Having said that, don't countries have national stereotypes of other countries? So is there a way in German, that English 'What Ho' WW2 speech could be translated meaningfully? Thinking of it the other way around, weren't Grimm's fairy stories originally written in German (or Czech or something germanic - soz - don't know)? Then there's Herman Hesse, Thomas Mann et al, who've all make the leap to English. Not children's books, admittedly.
  I'm surprised how many English originals feature in your son's class list. Perhaps children are more malleable than they're they're given credit for? If they can cope with those, surely they can cope with yours? Has Biggles made it into German?
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  by SecretSpi 6 months ago

  Interesting questions...and I looked on amazon to see that Biggles is available in German as a comic, if not a book. German schools and libraries are even more fussy about what books children should be reading at what age, especially with regard to violent content. My local library weren't keen to order "Young Bond" for my son (then aged 10) as it's classified as a "youth" book for 13+ due to the violence. I've read the book myself and didn't mind the violence as it was well-written!
  
  Talking of those who have made the leap into English, Cornelia Funke is Germany's J.K.Rowling and very successful internationally.
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  by Tony 6 months ago

  Back in the early '60s my dad wrote a boys' scouting novel where the patrol visited a Swiss scout and had an adventure in the Bernese Oberland. That book was translated into German by his publishers. Don't know how well it sold, but he definitely get some royalties from it.
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  by SecretSpi 6 months ago

  I think I'd like to read that one, Tony - maybe even in German! I wonder if the Chalet School series was also translated into German - must look it up...
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  by Athelstone 6 months ago

  Hi SecretSpi, I wondered whether Cornelia Funke featured in the 'original German books' in your lists above. The Inkheart series was very popular back in the days of bedtime stories in our household.
  
  The whole question of translation and retranslation is fascinating. With a writer like Nabokov (if the idea of a writer like Nabokov makes sense) it's sometimes open to debate which is the definitive version, since being perfectly tri-lingual he translated his own works between languages. But that aside, just how do you get around the RAF associations?
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  by SecretSpi 6 months ago

  How fascinating! Do you know which language Nabokov wrote the first draft in? Or did he choose different languages for different books? On the other point, how do you you think "The British Luftwaffe" would go down?! In flames, I expect...
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  by Athelstone 6 months ago

  He chose different languages for different books. At first he wrote in Russian, but after settling in the West - Germany followed by America, he wrote in English. For instance, Lolita was written in English and he then translated it into Russian. I think I read somewhere that he translated an English text of a work back into Russian when the original Russian had been lost, but I have a feeling that was quoted in an essay by George Steiner so I wouldn't vouch for it.
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  by John Taylor 6 months ago

  Yes, Cornelia Funke was the first name that sprung to my mind, Also, from rather earlier, 'The Grey Gentlemen' by Michael Ende, which I read myself and passed on to my children. Fascinating about Nabokov: I wonder about the language inside his head? There's the whole debate about language of thought, and whether language shapes thought.
  Working for most of my life with people with limited access to any language, I would say that a good deal of internal thought does not require shaping into words, but words make it easier: they are shorthand carriers of chunks of information, memories and associations. I have absolutely no means of substantiating this idea other than the observation of people I know.
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  by Tony 6 months ago

  I'm sure you're right, John. Feelings, emotions, spiritusl revelation - we perceive them inwardly but it takes an awful lot of words to try to pass on those experiences to someone else. It takes much longer, much more effort, than the originating experience to explain it to another. And when we've finished trying, we probably have only been partially successful. Words are a marvellous communication tool, but can they ever rival internal thought and awareness? That's the excitement, the challenge of being a writer. Unlike the raconteur who can bring his stories visibly to life, or even the mime artist who must rely entirely on the visual, the writer has only words.
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  by Tony 6 months ago

  If you're interested SecretSpi, I looked up my dad's book, "Curlews on the Continent" and was amazed to find it listed. There is even a copy for sale here at a sensible price:
  
  http://www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/isbn/9780720820607
  
  Even more amazing, as you'll see, it's predecessor, "Curlews at Culver's Cove" is on sale as a 'rare book' at £63.38! Who'd have thought it?
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  by SecretSpi 6 months ago

  ...and, do you think this is it? The title is "who's hunting/chasing who?" which is uncannily like the last line of my prologue (now Chapter 1) Obviously Curlews on the Continent didn't translate well!
  
  Curioser and curioser...
  http://www.buecher.de/shop/buecher/wer-jagt-wen/lyttle-gerald-r-/products_products/detail/prod_id/24672353/
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  by Tony 6 months ago

  Well done for finding it! I do remember vaguely that they changed the title. The subplot going on behind the main adventure is a challenge Treasure Hunt that the Curlews are given to solve during their stay in Switzerland, with clues hidden at some of the major beauty spots / tourist attractions. So Who's Hunting Who? would fit. And some bargain prices there, too!
  
  I found it listed on this site, too:
  
  http://openlibrary.org/works/OL12938484W/Curlews_on_the_Continent
  
  But with no details. So I uploade the front cover and the blurb off the jacket, which you can see there now.
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  by AlanP 6 months ago

  I saw a telly thing quite recently in which Lee Child, the Jack Reacher author outlined how he set out to be an international best selling author by choosing his plots, his heroes and villains, and even his pseudonym with that object in mind. Totally calculated and manipulated, he claimed. As the interview progressed I thought "What utter cobblers".
  
  Nevertheless it cannot be denied that he is an international best selling author. I dunno. I think a good story is a good story and will always survive translation.
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 6 months ago

  The most internationally popular stuff is primarily visual. Rowan Atkinson made millions from Mr Bean, which works without any dialogue at all. Benny Hill's international success (far greater than his success in his home country!) was because the majority of his show was 'silent' humour. If you could find a way to do the same sort of thing in print, you'd have cracked it!