in the sense that , as translators , our concern is exclusively with the writing , with , if you like , the delivery mechanism . We translators do not have to fret about structure and plot and themes and trivial things like that . We are concerned only with the words – that texture , that poise , that rhythm , that sound – that voice .
“ Je m ’ appelle Arthur . J ’ ai sept ans et , l ’ autre jour , derrière la maison de mes grands-parents , j ’ ai trouvé un œuf . Un œuf tout blanc …” – the reading comes easily . But then , to turn to the writing .
I have grappled with some difficult writers in my time – awkward , famously tangled-up European novelists with Nobel prizes , say – but I ’ m not sure I have ever been back and forth quite so many times trying to get the words right as I have for that deceptively uncomplicated little opening introducing young Arthur .
I can read the original – as easy as falling off a , you know , cliché . But writing my own seven-year-old voice ? My admiration for people who can do so seemingly effortlessly is boundless . It is a skill our best children ’ s writers have . The Marsh Award recognizes that some of the people with that extraordinary and peculiar writerly skill are translators .
If translators are to work – if they are to find a voice for the story , the voice that weaves the enchantment , they must be the work not of a mechanical mind , a mind that applies a mechanism to a text – but an individual , creative mind . Transators read , and then they write – and every translator will read differently , interpret , select , notice differently ; and no two writers write the same .
We have some bad habits in the English-Speaking world . We may be better than anyone at cultural export , but where import is concerned we are a disgrace . In the world of children ’ s books , despite the great work of many of this year ’ s Marsh Award entries , things remain worse even than in the world of adult publishing .
I am not talking about quality – this year ’ s shortlist shows that when we do these books we can do them fantastically well . But these fine examples of what everyone else in the world is writing – the stories of those 6.7 billion people whose first language is not English – these fine examples are only the tip of the iceberg . Or , as they say , wonderfully , in Afrikaans – they are only the ears of the hippopotamus .
Writing translated from other languages makes you see things differently . This is not less important for children , but more . How could it not be vital for readers who are uniquely open to explorations of their own language ; how can it not be essential for readers who , just now , are beginning to define the horizons of their experiences of the world ? This is why the Marsh Award for Children ’ s Literature in Translation is so valuable – it recognises the importance of translated literature in broadening the horizons of young people through exposing them to cultures and traditions other than their own .
Turkish
Russian
Chinese
Afrikaans
Classical Arabic
Bir varmış , bir yokmuş . Evvel zaman içinde , kalbur saman içinde ...
( В некотором царстве , в некотором государстве ) Жил , был ...
( V nekotorom tsarstve , v nekotorom goosudarstve ) Zhil byl ... T : 很久很久以前 S : 很久很久以前 P : Hěnjiǔ hěnjiǔ yǐqián Eendag , lank gelede ... kân yâ mâ kân fî qadîmi zzamân wsalifî al`aSri wal ’ awân ...
( يف ، ناك ام اي ناك رصعلا فلاسو ، نامزلا ميدق
ناوألاو )
Howard Curtis , winner fo the 2013 Marsh Children Literature in Translation Award , with his sons .
{ ONCE UPON A TIME AROUND THE WORLD }
Once there was ,
once there wasn ’ t . In the old times , the sieve in a stack of hay ...
( In some kingdom , in some land ) There lived , there was ...
A very very long time ago ...
One day , a long time ago ...
There was , oh what there was ( or there wasn ’ t ) in the oldest of days and ages and times ...
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