Category: translation

Once upon a translation… make that three… c’est si bon!

The Resistance Girl in Dutch

The Lost Girl in Paris in Spanish

Words… words… words.

They drive us authors crazy, the right words, the passionate words… the words that make your characters do stupid things and wonderful things, too.

Even more surprising to an author is when your words are translated into thousands of words in another language. Will the reader ‘get’ what you’re trying to say? Will they feel the love, the pain?

You bet they will.

The art of being a translator is one I can attest to personally when I was a tour guide at Universal Studios. I gave the tour in German and also learned it in French as a backup for our French guides.

My Universal Studios ‘stuff’ — name tag, parking sticker, studio ID (love the hair!), photo of me in Paris, and my Universal Studios Tour Guide Manual in English — I had to translate it into German.

I had to do the translation myself, which had its moments on the tram when I was trying to explain Bruce the shark in ‘Jaws’, or the early days with Boris Karloff as ‘The Monster’ wearing a paper bag over his head when he went to lunch between takes so no one would see his makeup job. I’d stumble and fall over words, but as one visitor from Munich told me, ‘You have such heart for what you do. Even if you don’t know the right word, we understand.’

I never forgot that.

I also acted as a ‘translator’ for my sensei, teacher, in class when American tourists came into the kimono shop after hours when we having a kimono and dance class on the small stage. However, here I was translating from Japanese to English.

So you can imagine I have the deepest respect for these fabulous professionals who put their hearts and souls into translating my books into other languages. It’s not unusual for a translator to contact me by email, asking me for clarification on something because they want to get it ‘right’. Merci, Bedankt, and Gracias.

For the first part of this year, I’m thrilled to have 3 of my Boldwood Books coming out in Spanish, Dutch, and French. La chica perdida en Paris (The Lost Girl in Paris) came out in the worldwide Spanish market in February; Her meisje in het verzet (The Resistance Girl) came out in Dutch on March 8. Les enfants volés de la guerre  (The Stolen Children of War) comes out in French on April 1st. (no cover yet! I’ll update when we do.)

So for now, mes amis, I shall say, Au revoir — until we meet again and we shall. For words are like stars in the sky. I never tire of them.