A translation, with slight adaptation, of ‘Les Trois Messes Basses’, a short story from Contes du Lundi by Alphonse Daudet, published in 1873. ‘Two stuffed turkeys, Garrigou?’ ‘Yes, Reverend, two magnificent turkeys crammed full of truffles. And I should know; I helped stuff them. They looked as though their skin might burst while roasting, […]
Literary Translation
The End of a Residency
Towards the end of my residency at the BCLT, I had just started editing The Djinn’s Apple, a pacey YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid era, due to be published with Neem Tree Press. For the duration of my residency I have been translating this novel, and used it as a foundation for a […]
A Chapter Ends
My time as Translator in Residency at the BCLT has ended. I don’t know that a single blog will sufficiently encapsulate all of my feelings about this epoch in my life as a translator, but I’ll make a worthy attempt. When describing the residency to others I’ve often called it a ‘revelation’. An apt choice […]
Translating YA Literature
Earlier this month, approaching the end of my residency, I led a ‘Translating YA Literature’ workshop at the BCLT, where we covered: Pitching YA Arabic literature Situating it in the greater Arabic literary sphere Process of choosing a cover/publicity YA Translation conundrums During this residency I have been translating the Djinn’s Apple,[1] a YA part […]
House-hunting
I find myself in a moment of change. The bookcases are empty, the books packed in boxes stacked high in our living room that will be shipped overseas in a few hours. Save a dictionary or two and a few books I need with me for work, for the first time in years my life […]
Developmental Editing
Although I have been translating literature for over a decade, it was only just a few weeks ago that I was involved in my first ever developmental editing session. I’ve co-translated a riveting read by an Eritrean author that delves into identity politics; it will, God willing, be published in 2023. What is it? […]
Mistakes
Mistakes. Missteps. The dirty secrets, the errors burned into a translator’s brain. Like typos, often so tiny they barely register — which is the point — and yet in reviews they are seized on by critics as nuggets of proof that flag up the translator’s unworthiness for this undertaking, a kind of textual “Gotcha!” This […]
Translating Trauma
A few days into my residency at the BCLT, I submitted my first full-length non-fiction project: What Have You Left Behind – Voices From a Forgotten War, a collection of forty-three accounts of war from Yemen, recorded by the author and activist Bushra Al-Maqtari. It was my first encounter with translating a veritably traumatic piece […]
A Quiver of Skills: Non-Fiction and the Translator as Archer
A Quiver of Skills: Non-Fiction and the Translator as Archer Every time I finish a translation, I ponder on what I have learned and how my practice has shifted a little then resettled, like sand – almost the same but slightly different, undoubtedly shaped by the experience. In December 2021 I embarked on a somewhat […]
The most beautiful Tetris block in the world
Extract from Only on Nights When I Want to Die by Kirio Tsume Translated from the Japanese by Eve Thomas The most beautiful Tetris block in the world 2008, Spring. Someone had got seriously pudgy. This time, it wasn’t Asuka, but me. I’d taken to heavy drinking and gluttonous eating to relieve the stress from […]
