Things to be Grateful For

I’ve seen lots of posts recently on Facebook and elsewhere about thankfulness and positivity, and lists of “Today’s Three Things to Be Grateful For”. I’m sometimes inclined to lean in a slightly cynical and “bah humbug” direction, but I’m actually grateful for plenty of things in my life as a translator. Given the time of year, I felt perhaps I should embrace the – ahem! – “attitude of gratitude” and spread some good cheer... So, here goes (turns frown upside down).

 

 

Winter is always a good time to get cosy and snuggle down with classics by authors such as C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper. Hmm, The Dark Is Rising. I think it’s about time for a reread...  This year I’m grateful to be not only rereading old favourites, but also translating one of them, Tonke Dragt’s Secrets of the Wild Wood, the sequel to The Letter for the King, which I recently translated for Pushkin Children’s Books. Originally published in Dutch in 1962, The Letter for the King has been a favourite with readers in the Netherlands for a long time and was once voted the best Dutch children’s book ever. I’m so glad this book is now available in English, too, as well as all the many other languages it’s been translated into, and it’s great to be working on its brilliant sequel, which has a much bigger and more exciting role for one of my favourite female characters...

 

When I came to live in the Netherlands and started asking around for people’s favourite authors as children, Tonke Dragt’s name often came up, along with Annie M.G. Schmidt. The Letter for the King was one of the first books I read in Dutch, followed by many of her other titles, and Tonke Dragt went straight to the top of my wish list of books that should be published in English. I’m so glad it’s worked out!

As I’m polishing my translation of Secrets of the Wild Wood, I’m very aware of wanting to recreate my own experience of reading this book for the first time, and I’m trying to figure out how best to move the story from Dutch into English without losing anything important along the way – and hopefully adding a few fun linguistic twists as I go. I’ve worked through the book several times now but still, at certain points in the story, I want to call out and warn the characters: “Nooo, don’t trust him!” “Don’t go that way!” “Yikes! Isn’t there something you’re forgetting?!” But, as a translator, I can’t step in to help the characters. I have to trust Tonke Dragt and follow her story, the same as any other reader, and hope that everything is going to work out for Tiuri and Piak and for the kingdoms of Dagonaut and Unauwen. It’s great to be working on a book that I still find so captivating, even after poring over every word and comma.

 

3. As my third and final thing to be grateful for, I’m very happy to have worked with great editors and designers over the years. Editor Andrew Wille did a fine job on The Letter for the King, and everyone who’s been involved with the design of these two books deserves a huge pat on the back: they beautifully re-lettered the author’s map – and I do like a book with a good map!

 

So, fantastic stories, great publishers, stunning books – and a job I love. Those are some very good reasons to be grateful. Hey, maybe there’s something to those Facebook lists, after all – let’s celebrate the positive. My wish for 2015? Even more great children’s books in translation!

 

Now, back to Secrets of the Wild Wood... Where was I? Oh yes. “Well, if his stories are nonsense, nothing can happen to us in this forest. But if he’s right, we could be heading into danger...” Look out, Tiuri!