Lost in Translation
Like every classic that needs to be decodified so do every text which is very elaborate and the same goes with my books. I don´t make them simple but subtle. The meaning should be searched in the very deep, like any classic literature. Now that my books have been translated in other languages, I see that some of my writings may be difficult to grasp at first, especially with English as a second language. So here I gave some explanations to an Italian translator who are just now getting familiarized with my books. I´m sure she will do quite well in the long run but by now she´s taking baby steps and she´s been very attentive and extremely careful with each and every word. And I´m dazzled with her work, and her approach to the terms, which is always the proper way and the most prosperous intake to get so that the translation will be impeccable. Many kudos to her. The book she´s translating is Pierrot & ColumbinePierrot & Columbine the first one from Pierrot Love: When A Call From The Other Side Takes Its Own SideThe Pierrot´s Love Series, and as it´s the first, of course, it´s like stepping into an unfamiliar terrain and with a blindfold. So she asks for my help, and I am holding her hand just now, helping her get acquainted with the subject, like a newborn baby reaching out for things as we keep just watching her and instructing her so that she may develop to the point of doing it all by herself.
Some may find it so difficult to translate the meaning of some works that they simply quit the book or say that the book was no good when they didn´t have the tools to deal with a good piece of literature. This may well serve for readers of classics, that´s why it´s so important to have an instructor or a teacher to help figure things out in some classic books.
So here I found interesting to display the explanation for some of the phrases right at the very beginning as an introductory presentation and first pages of my book:
1)"twerking": dancing in a sensual manner, in a deliberatively provocative way
"trolling": singing in a happy tune, almost like mockering, like a dwarf or an ungly supernatural being, thus making deliberate offensive and provocative on line postings upsetting (Anne) with messages that she posts on her computer (in the story Talitha is a tricky ghost and she plays pranks and torments Anne).
"and twisting facts and factions"-, that´s what the ghost likes to do, she says things which are half-truths and the things that are true she distorts to the point of making them unbelievable. She uses real events as a basis for fictional narrative or dramatization. Remember that she´s a dancer who aspires to become famous in any possible way, even if for that she has to turn things upside down. She also ventures in the terrain of literature, and in some odd way she´s forcing Anne to rewrite her story in a theatrical form.
2-"before the ghost dancer makes herwiah to cutting the veins of them both, tormenting her from head to toe." Yes, if you write it off as bogus you are definitely right, it´s a typo, the word "wiah" does not exist. It should be "want" instead of "wiah".
3) "to be untied sneakers" Like Talitha, Anne is involved with the dream of dancing, but as she lives in a modern world, she is used to wear sneakers instead of ballet slippers or boots, such as the ghost who comes from the late nineteen century. So the way she thinks and sees things may differ particularly relating to dreams. And the demands that come from Talitha may not quite fit in Anne´s shoes. "If the shoe fits wear it." But in this case we may already read between the lines that it won´t be an easy task for Anne to understand and be willing to collaborate with Talitha, even though their dreams and desires are interlaced (and no pun intended here).
4) "Or she will start to disbelieve her own ears and lose herself in the path of her own acquittal tied into an emotional imbalance that at first reveals a tough ancestor line to tread." In this phrase, the whole story is revealed as an unwrapped thread. For as much as Anne feels entitled to resolve the case and unsolve the mystery, dissolving any disagreements between the two ghosts (Talitha and her former lover) she feels vulnerable and still in doubt of who to trust or where to start with. That meaning that she will have to deal with her own misbeliefs ("to disbelieve her own ears"), to throw out any concept that she had kept as certain and real, to then almost fall into a trap of what first looks like a way out (to lose herself in the path of her own acquittal) and she starts to think that she´s indeed crazy, and that shes making that all up. And there she starts to untrsut her own instincts. But then when she finds out that what she´s experiencing has a direct line with her ancestry she gives up fighting and realizes that, as roughly as it might go, she does have to face the truth for her own sake or she will get lost forever in her own mind ("an emotional imbalance that at first reveals a tough ancestor line to tread").
5) "a small place for beginner actors or actress who had disposed of an extra lift and have often sweated to earn a little amount of money to have a place to perform." In this case the extra lift implied here is that help to raise the status of the performers and erase any doubt of who they are. Actors at that time were used to get prestige from unknown sources (at least that was apparent, for it came from places that they weren´t allowed to tell, usually from a lover who preferred to keep it private or have their "sponsorship" or "donation" kept anonymous). But besides that "exra lift" they still had to sweat their shirts. And then they had to work very hard to gain fame and be allowed to perform in other places rather than in the middle of the streets. And that little amount of cash they would make by themselves, by their huge effort, they had to spend it by renting a place so that they could display their talents. Tough times for the average artists, for sure!
Then another translator of my other book The Witches Of Avignonasked me what´s the meaning of "NO CREO EN LAS BRUJAS, PERO QUE LAS HAY, LAS HAY." That´s a phrase from the book Don Quijote, by Miguel de Cervantes, and that means "I do not believe in witches, but they surely exist!" I told her that she could keep it the way I wrote above and then give the translation right below between parenthesis. I always thought this phrase to be a classic, but maybe not for people who are not acquainted with the works of Cervantes, so I understand sometimes that my reviewers might differ in their opinions... but classics are classic!
Hopefully it was of a little help and make some of my confused readers a little happier with these explanations here and make my translators discern what´s behind the scenes of both works.
And as far as I´m concerned, with all the fuss revolving them, my literary works for certain are already classic books!
Some may find it so difficult to translate the meaning of some works that they simply quit the book or say that the book was no good when they didn´t have the tools to deal with a good piece of literature. This may well serve for readers of classics, that´s why it´s so important to have an instructor or a teacher to help figure things out in some classic books.
So here I found interesting to display the explanation for some of the phrases right at the very beginning as an introductory presentation and first pages of my book:
1)"twerking": dancing in a sensual manner, in a deliberatively provocative way
"trolling": singing in a happy tune, almost like mockering, like a dwarf or an ungly supernatural being, thus making deliberate offensive and provocative on line postings upsetting (Anne) with messages that she posts on her computer (in the story Talitha is a tricky ghost and she plays pranks and torments Anne).
"and twisting facts and factions"-, that´s what the ghost likes to do, she says things which are half-truths and the things that are true she distorts to the point of making them unbelievable. She uses real events as a basis for fictional narrative or dramatization. Remember that she´s a dancer who aspires to become famous in any possible way, even if for that she has to turn things upside down. She also ventures in the terrain of literature, and in some odd way she´s forcing Anne to rewrite her story in a theatrical form.
2-"before the ghost dancer makes her
3) "to be untied sneakers" Like Talitha, Anne is involved with the dream of dancing, but as she lives in a modern world, she is used to wear sneakers instead of ballet slippers or boots, such as the ghost who comes from the late nineteen century. So the way she thinks and sees things may differ particularly relating to dreams. And the demands that come from Talitha may not quite fit in Anne´s shoes. "If the shoe fits wear it." But in this case we may already read between the lines that it won´t be an easy task for Anne to understand and be willing to collaborate with Talitha, even though their dreams and desires are interlaced (and no pun intended here).
4) "Or she will start to disbelieve her own ears and lose herself in the path of her own acquittal tied into an emotional imbalance that at first reveals a tough ancestor line to tread." In this phrase, the whole story is revealed as an unwrapped thread. For as much as Anne feels entitled to resolve the case and unsolve the mystery, dissolving any disagreements between the two ghosts (Talitha and her former lover) she feels vulnerable and still in doubt of who to trust or where to start with. That meaning that she will have to deal with her own misbeliefs ("to disbelieve her own ears"), to throw out any concept that she had kept as certain and real, to then almost fall into a trap of what first looks like a way out (to lose herself in the path of her own acquittal) and she starts to think that she´s indeed crazy, and that shes making that all up. And there she starts to untrsut her own instincts. But then when she finds out that what she´s experiencing has a direct line with her ancestry she gives up fighting and realizes that, as roughly as it might go, she does have to face the truth for her own sake or she will get lost forever in her own mind ("an emotional imbalance that at first reveals a tough ancestor line to tread").
5) "a small place for beginner actors or actress who had disposed of an extra lift and have often sweated to earn a little amount of money to have a place to perform." In this case the extra lift implied here is that help to raise the status of the performers and erase any doubt of who they are. Actors at that time were used to get prestige from unknown sources (at least that was apparent, for it came from places that they weren´t allowed to tell, usually from a lover who preferred to keep it private or have their "sponsorship" or "donation" kept anonymous). But besides that "exra lift" they still had to sweat their shirts. And then they had to work very hard to gain fame and be allowed to perform in other places rather than in the middle of the streets. And that little amount of cash they would make by themselves, by their huge effort, they had to spend it by renting a place so that they could display their talents. Tough times for the average artists, for sure!
Then another translator of my other book The Witches Of Avignonasked me what´s the meaning of "NO CREO EN LAS BRUJAS, PERO QUE LAS HAY, LAS HAY." That´s a phrase from the book Don Quijote, by Miguel de Cervantes, and that means "I do not believe in witches, but they surely exist!" I told her that she could keep it the way I wrote above and then give the translation right below between parenthesis. I always thought this phrase to be a classic, but maybe not for people who are not acquainted with the works of Cervantes, so I understand sometimes that my reviewers might differ in their opinions... but classics are classic!
Hopefully it was of a little help and make some of my confused readers a little happier with these explanations here and make my translators discern what´s behind the scenes of both works.
And as far as I´m concerned, with all the fuss revolving them, my literary works for certain are already classic books!
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