Might I finally get a bit famous?
Nov. 6th, 2007 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sheenaghpugh... in Germany, at least, and via being quoted by someone who already is? Some time ago I got a request from a German publisher on behalf of a children's author who wanted to quote a translated version of a poem of mine called "What If This Road". I said sure, why not (quite forgetting to ask for any money; I do wish mamma hadn't brought me up believing it was rude to mention money) and thought no more of it. I didn't take much note of the author's name either.
Soooo... the complimentary copy just arrived and when I saw what a beautiful hardback artefact it was, I checked up on the author at last. Obviously I should have heard of Cornelia Funke; she's been translated into English and all sorts of other languages and her Wikipedia entry says she's compared to JKR - most unfairly as far as I can see, as the little I have read so far makes Funke look a far better writer. (Her website is even more fun, too.) What I have is the German version of Tintentod (Inkdeath); apparently it comes out in English next year, and at least one US bookshop has ordered the German version because his customers couldn't wait for the English one.
Well, well... all recognition is welcome, including that classed as OBE (Other Buggers' Efforts). I wish the translation of the poem had preserved an ambiguity in the last two lines, but it isn't bad otherwise (nor am I saying I see how it could have done).
Poem behind the cut if anyone's interested
What if this road, that has held no surprises
these many years, decided not to go
home after all; what if it could turn
left or right with no more ado
than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin
were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,
that is shaken and rolled out, and takes
a new shape from the contours beneath?
And if it chose to lay itself down
in a new way; around a blind corner,
across hills you must climb without knowing
what's on the other side; who would not hanker
to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know
a story's end, or where a road will go?
Was, wenn der Weg, der keine Überraschung barg
So viele Jahre, sich entschlösse, nicht
Nach Haus zu führen, sondern Zickzack liefe
Wie eines Kinderdrachens Schwanz, so schlicht
Und umstandslos! Wenn seine Haut aus Teer
Ein langer Ballen Stoff nur wär,
Der ausgerollt wird und der Form sich fügt
Dessen, was unter ihm begraben liegt?
Wenn er sich selbst in neue Bahnen legte,
Um unbekannte Ecken, über Berge,
Die man dann aufs Geratewohl erklimmt;
Wer sehnte sich da nicht zu gehen, unbedingt?
Wer möcht' nicht wissen, wie ein Märchen endet,
Oder wohin ein Weg zum Schluss sich wendet?
Soooo... the complimentary copy just arrived and when I saw what a beautiful hardback artefact it was, I checked up on the author at last. Obviously I should have heard of Cornelia Funke; she's been translated into English and all sorts of other languages and her Wikipedia entry says she's compared to JKR - most unfairly as far as I can see, as the little I have read so far makes Funke look a far better writer. (Her website is even more fun, too.) What I have is the German version of Tintentod (Inkdeath); apparently it comes out in English next year, and at least one US bookshop has ordered the German version because his customers couldn't wait for the English one.
Well, well... all recognition is welcome, including that classed as OBE (Other Buggers' Efforts). I wish the translation of the poem had preserved an ambiguity in the last two lines, but it isn't bad otherwise (nor am I saying I see how it could have done).
Poem behind the cut if anyone's interested
What if this road, that has held no surprises
these many years, decided not to go
home after all; what if it could turn
left or right with no more ado
than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin
were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,
that is shaken and rolled out, and takes
a new shape from the contours beneath?
And if it chose to lay itself down
in a new way; around a blind corner,
across hills you must climb without knowing
what's on the other side; who would not hanker
to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know
a story's end, or where a road will go?
Was, wenn der Weg, der keine Überraschung barg
So viele Jahre, sich entschlösse, nicht
Nach Haus zu führen, sondern Zickzack liefe
Wie eines Kinderdrachens Schwanz, so schlicht
Und umstandslos! Wenn seine Haut aus Teer
Ein langer Ballen Stoff nur wär,
Der ausgerollt wird und der Form sich fügt
Dessen, was unter ihm begraben liegt?
Wenn er sich selbst in neue Bahnen legte,
Um unbekannte Ecken, über Berge,
Die man dann aufs Geratewohl erklimmt;
Wer sehnte sich da nicht zu gehen, unbedingt?
Wer möcht' nicht wissen, wie ein Märchen endet,
Oder wohin ein Weg zum Schluss sich wendet?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-06 12:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-06 06:54 pm (UTC)Congratulations!
do you want to read it?
Date: 2007-11-06 07:01 pm (UTC)PS
Date: 2007-11-06 08:20 pm (UTC)Re: do you want to read it?
Date: 2007-11-07 09:00 am (UTC)(I'm also one of those people who aren't as careful with books as they should be, and I wouldn't want to harm your first edition copy...)