Codex Regius's Blog, page 8
December 2, 2015
Der Abschlussband des "Opus Geminis" kommt vor Weihnachten
Freut euch auf den letzten Band der Trilogie "Opus Gemini"! Die Übersetzung ist fast abgeschlossen und das Buch erscheint noch vor Weihnachten.Doch, Ralf, es gibt auch diesmal wieder ein ziemliches Gemetzel. Ist immer so, wenn meine Frau mitschreibt. Darum hängen doch schon im zweiten Band so viele bunt bemalte Schädel im Tannenbaum.
November 24, 2015
New: "The Kiss", a children's book by our first guest author
If you do not know yet what to give to your little ones for Christmas: The latest addition to our programme is an illustrated children's book for kindergarten age and up. It represents another novelty, since for the first time Codex Regius has accepted a guest author to publish under our label. "The Kiss", by Ingo Penner, tells in verse lines about a kiss that passes from one character to another, uplifting their mood and inspiring them. It is a tale of sharing love and friendship all over the world, with your child, your pet or even with the enemy who has been hunting you.
November 22, 2015
Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages on Facebook
Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages have now opened their own Facebook page that will specialise on matters concerning J. R. R. #Tolkien's world of #Middle-earth. You are invited to subscribe to it.
https://www.facebook.com/Lalaiths-Mid...
Abstracts of the books that comprise many essays from the Science Pages in print are now also available on academia.edu: https://independent.academia.edu/Code...
https://www.facebook.com/Lalaiths-Mid...
Abstracts of the books that comprise many essays from the Science Pages in print are now also available on academia.edu: https://independent.academia.edu/Code...
November 12, 2015
Jetzt sind wir auch bei Tolino-Media
Nach starken technischen Anlaufschwierigkeiten scheint sich Tolino-Media nun als Alternative für Selbstverleger etabliert zu haben.
Eigentlich waren wir das von Anfang an. Wir gehörten zu den Kunden der ersten Stunde bei #Tolino-Media, luden zwei unserer #Ebooks hoch und stellten fest, wie überladen das System beim Start mit Kinderkrankheiten war: Eine sinnvolle Nutzung wurde anfangs vor allem durch die überkandidelte Validierungsfunktion für das #Epub-Format unmöglich gemacht.
Inzwischen sind diese Kinderkrankheiten behoben bis auf eine - die #Schlagworte werden zuweilen nicht abgespeichert, was dann dazu geführt, dass der Prüfer ungerechtfertigt per Email meckert; aber das Problem ist inzwischen bekannt und durch ein Softwareupdate jetzt hoffentlich auch erledigt.
Inzwischen haben wir sechs unserer deutschsprachigen Bücher auch bei Tolino verfügbar. https://www.tolino-media.de/de/search?searchTerm=Codex+Regius Es sind im Einzelnen:
- der historische Roman "Corpus Sacrum"
- seine Fortsetzung "Gesetzbuch des Kosmos"*
- der Hard-SF-Roman "Die Reiter des Mars"
- die kommentierte Literaturübersetzung "Die Schlange und ihr Priester"
- das raumfahrtgeschichtliche Sachbuch "Die Vergessenen Astronauten" und
- die Studie des Atlantismythos "Atlantika"
* Die zweite Fortsetzung "Räderwerk des Schicksals" steht wegen Problemen mit der Validierung noch aus, folgt aber in den nächsten Tagen.
Eigentlich waren wir das von Anfang an. Wir gehörten zu den Kunden der ersten Stunde bei #Tolino-Media, luden zwei unserer #Ebooks hoch und stellten fest, wie überladen das System beim Start mit Kinderkrankheiten war: Eine sinnvolle Nutzung wurde anfangs vor allem durch die überkandidelte Validierungsfunktion für das #Epub-Format unmöglich gemacht.
Inzwischen sind diese Kinderkrankheiten behoben bis auf eine - die #Schlagworte werden zuweilen nicht abgespeichert, was dann dazu geführt, dass der Prüfer ungerechtfertigt per Email meckert; aber das Problem ist inzwischen bekannt und durch ein Softwareupdate jetzt hoffentlich auch erledigt.
Inzwischen haben wir sechs unserer deutschsprachigen Bücher auch bei Tolino verfügbar. https://www.tolino-media.de/de/search?searchTerm=Codex+Regius Es sind im Einzelnen:
- der historische Roman "Corpus Sacrum"
- seine Fortsetzung "Gesetzbuch des Kosmos"*
- der Hard-SF-Roman "Die Reiter des Mars"
- die kommentierte Literaturübersetzung "Die Schlange und ihr Priester"
- das raumfahrtgeschichtliche Sachbuch "Die Vergessenen Astronauten" und
- die Studie des Atlantismythos "Atlantika"
* Die zweite Fortsetzung "Räderwerk des Schicksals" steht wegen Problemen mit der Validierung noch aus, folgt aber in den nächsten Tagen.
October 24, 2015
Romanike (von Codex Regius): Weltpremiere: Die erste Lesung aus "Gesetzbuch des...
Romanike (von Codex Regius): Weltpremiere: Die erste Lesung aus "Gesetzbuch des...: Im Rahmen dieser Veranstaltung gibt es eine Weltpremiere: Zum ersten Mal lese ich öffentlich aus unserem am römischen Limes spielenden Roman "Gesetzbuch des Kosmos" ...
September 17, 2015
Romanike (von Codex Regius): Der erste Teil der Trilogie "Opus GeminI" ist fert...
Romanike (von Codex Regius): Der erste Teil der Trilogie "Opus GeminI" ist fert...: Die erste von drei Fortsetzungen des "Corpus Sacrum" ist nun auch auf Deutsch erschienen! "Gesetzbuch des Kosmos", der...
June 16, 2015
Romanike (by Codex Regius): "The Treasure of Antikythera": Forthcoming exhibit...
Romanike (by Codex Regius): "The Treasure of Antikythera": Forthcoming exhibit...: For anyone who wonders what our "Romanike" series of historical novels is about, there is an exhibition forthcoming in the Antiikenmuseum Basel.
June 10, 2015
An interview with Codex Regius
American writer Sharon K Connell has published an interview she has made with Codex Regius concerning our writing and our background. You may read the full text here:
https://sites.google.com/site/rosecas...
You may also want to visit Sharon's Facebook community for writers and authors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/write...
https://sites.google.com/site/rosecas...
You may also want to visit Sharon's Facebook community for writers and authors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/write...
May 21, 2015
Gained in translation - the curious fate of genderless novel characters
"I looked up from the fire and turned to my neighbour to the right. 'Have you heard anything new about the advance of the orc-host?'
I was rewarded with a nod. 'From what I've heard they have been stopped about 15 leagues from the River.'"
I often wonder how you native English readers manage to handle a scene as awkward as this one. It is annoying when you read it but it is a nightmare when you have to translate it - and I have seen examples like this in my translating profession.Now you may ask what it is that I find so awkward about the example above. Well, I am one of those readers who visualise the scene in their minds like I was watching a film that only I can see. But I cannot do that with the scene above because it is lacking vital information. We are neither told whether the first-person narrator is a man or a woman (and believe me: There are authors who can ramble on for half a chapter without telling us) nor of which sex is the unnamed neighbour at the fireplace. What shall my poor brain insert here to visualise that neighbour?In such cases, I incline to randomly cast someone, say, in above case I assumed the neighbour were a man. But three pages later the author drops a "she" and my brain stumbles. Wait a moment - when did a woman enter the dialogue? Then I realise that she must be identical with the neighbour to the right, and I am forced to turn back and read the scene all over again, with a different cast acting on the inner screen. Sloppy writing, that's what I call that. But if I had been translating this scene I would have filled several pages already with male nouns - since German grammar absolutely genders them all - and I would have to go back and exchange them against their female counterparts. Good look with detecting them all!
There are even cases when such sloppy writing prevents us from making sound decisions. In "A Wizard of Earthsea", Ursula K. LeGuin introduces us to a minor character referred to as "the Mayor". To my surprise I discovered that the Mayor is a man in the German translation but a woman in the Slovenian translation of the same book. How was this discrepancy possible? Checking the original I realised that LeGuin does not once attribute the character with either "he" or "she"! But by default the Mayor has to gain some sex in the translations, and not all translators have made the same decision. The author (authoress, I should say) probably never realised her oversight. After all, she knew what the Mayor looks like when she was proofreading the text. And so she left her readers and especially her poor translators in the dark about this character's nature.
That's why I beg you, dear authors and self-publishers: When you proofread your manuscript, make sure that all characters are correctly identified by their sex, even the minor ones. You will make the work of us translators so much easier. Thank you.
NOTE
Sometimes it cannot be avoided that the intricacies of translating a story may lead to odd results. Remember how, again in "A Wizard of Earthsea", Ged is pursued by a demonic creature known to him as the Shadow? LeGuin attributes that thing with "it", which is fair enough. Alas, that does not work in German whose word for shadow is male (der Schatten) and requires male attributes. That is all right with us and does not leave any questions. But the Slovenian standard word for a shadow is female (Senca), so in this translation of "A Wizard", Ged is hunted by a girl (or in fact his own feminine half). As a consequence, all this business about "eating his body" assumes weird connotations that certainly have not been in the author's intention.
I was rewarded with a nod. 'From what I've heard they have been stopped about 15 leagues from the River.'"
I often wonder how you native English readers manage to handle a scene as awkward as this one. It is annoying when you read it but it is a nightmare when you have to translate it - and I have seen examples like this in my translating profession.Now you may ask what it is that I find so awkward about the example above. Well, I am one of those readers who visualise the scene in their minds like I was watching a film that only I can see. But I cannot do that with the scene above because it is lacking vital information. We are neither told whether the first-person narrator is a man or a woman (and believe me: There are authors who can ramble on for half a chapter without telling us) nor of which sex is the unnamed neighbour at the fireplace. What shall my poor brain insert here to visualise that neighbour?In such cases, I incline to randomly cast someone, say, in above case I assumed the neighbour were a man. But three pages later the author drops a "she" and my brain stumbles. Wait a moment - when did a woman enter the dialogue? Then I realise that she must be identical with the neighbour to the right, and I am forced to turn back and read the scene all over again, with a different cast acting on the inner screen. Sloppy writing, that's what I call that. But if I had been translating this scene I would have filled several pages already with male nouns - since German grammar absolutely genders them all - and I would have to go back and exchange them against their female counterparts. Good look with detecting them all!
There are even cases when such sloppy writing prevents us from making sound decisions. In "A Wizard of Earthsea", Ursula K. LeGuin introduces us to a minor character referred to as "the Mayor". To my surprise I discovered that the Mayor is a man in the German translation but a woman in the Slovenian translation of the same book. How was this discrepancy possible? Checking the original I realised that LeGuin does not once attribute the character with either "he" or "she"! But by default the Mayor has to gain some sex in the translations, and not all translators have made the same decision. The author (authoress, I should say) probably never realised her oversight. After all, she knew what the Mayor looks like when she was proofreading the text. And so she left her readers and especially her poor translators in the dark about this character's nature.
That's why I beg you, dear authors and self-publishers: When you proofread your manuscript, make sure that all characters are correctly identified by their sex, even the minor ones. You will make the work of us translators so much easier. Thank you.
NOTE
Sometimes it cannot be avoided that the intricacies of translating a story may lead to odd results. Remember how, again in "A Wizard of Earthsea", Ged is pursued by a demonic creature known to him as the Shadow? LeGuin attributes that thing with "it", which is fair enough. Alas, that does not work in German whose word for shadow is male (der Schatten) and requires male attributes. That is all right with us and does not leave any questions. But the Slovenian standard word for a shadow is female (Senca), so in this translation of "A Wizard", Ged is hunted by a girl (or in fact his own feminine half). As a consequence, all this business about "eating his body" assumes weird connotations that certainly have not been in the author's intention.
May 16, 2015
Glycon the Muppet God
May I introduce myself? My name is Glycon and I'm a god. Or so it was said about me. Once I've dwelt in a fishing village at the Black Sea; Abonuteichos it was called at that time, under the Romans. And it turned into a veritable tourist attraction when my prophet, Alexandros, and I set up our abodes there. After all, we have released oracles there pretty much like our mates over in Delphi - that name is known to you, I take it? With something like that you could really make a fortune at that time because, you see, everybody wants to know what the future will bring, yes, everyone from the Emperor down to the kitchen-slave.In the pharmaceutical industry we were engaged as well. That's because my father is Asclepios, the god of healing, therefore it seemed reasonable to get into the drug business. Alexandros has always claimed, by the way, that he was the son of Podalirios, my brother. He should have called me Uncle then, wouldn't you agree? But he always addressed me as his Sweetie - well, Glycon, he said, because he was talking Ancient Greek, of course.
It was some hell of a business that we've been running at that time. Until this smartarse came along, Lucian of Samosata. Now here was a really innovative mate, one who wanted to be "scientific". He didn't believe at all in gods and miracles and prophecies, and he claimed that I was a Muppet - a Miss Piggy for old Romans, can you imagine! Yes, one doll with threads attached that my prophet were using to make fools out of all his devout believers, including provincial governors and commanders of the legions!
I say, I should expect a little more trust, shouldn't I? Are you still surprised that my Alexandros planned to drown this rascal in the deepest sea? Already when he had received that mate quite well-mannered and granted him a kiss on the hand, this fellow Lucian bit him right into the palm so that you could count the impressions of his teeth! Really! You don't believe me? But Lucian is confessing to that in his own report, in which he designated my Alexandros the greatest villain since Alexander the Great! Read it yourself, you will find many a conjurer's trick described that your ... "gurus", is that the proper word? ... use even today to entice superstitious idiots. By which I don't want to suggest that you be one of them; not at all, you are rather thinking like this Lucian who always wanted to counter everything with reason and logical deduction, aren't you? And that was 1850 years ago!
Fortunately, you see, hardly anyone listened to him back them. Those who want to be cheated will be cheated, as the saying goes, and people have still been praying to me when he had already descended long ago to the Hades in which he didn't believe, either. But how he has uncovered the business which my Alexandros and me have set up together, that's already a comedy worth reading.
The commented new translation of "The Serpent and Its Priest" will be available online from XinXii or CreateSpace/Amazon next Monday. But which one of the two was the actual liar, Alexandros or Lucian, that's a decision that I will gladly leave to you.
Visit me once in Ankara, Turkey! You will find me in the Museum for Anatolian Cultures just as I am posing in this image for you here. I am looking forward to meeting you!
Kind regards,
your sweetie Glycon
