Strange feeling

[jhetley]

Received copies of the French version of THE SUMMER COUNTRY this morning. Really, really weird, seeing my name on a book I wrote in a language I can't read*. I wonder why they used two translators? One made a draft and the other smoothed out prose and dealt with idioms? Or they worked in parallel on different parts of the book, to meet a deadline? Questions, questions.

*Oh, I can puzzle it out, all the root-words and thefts that English has performed over the centuries, but still....

And they added an "annex" for the translation of one of the songs, but not for others. I wonder how they chose.

Comments

[persimmon.livejournal.com]

English has borrowed, annexed, stolen and appropriated words from just about every other language it's come across, but the French ones, or at least a lot of them, came over with William. You know, 1066 and all that?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I recall something on the RASFC newsgroup that went along these lines:

"English doesn't just borrow from other languages. It knocks them over the head, drags them into an alley, and turns out their pockets for anything interesting or valuable...."