Translations

Hello, I am Ferelith Hordon. a children's librarian of, perhaps, more years than I like to mention and a member of YLG National Committee. Now that our blog is up and running, I thought I would take a first step. I am currently reading Grimpow: The invisible road (Rafael Abalos). This novel set in the Middle Ages somewhere in between France and Germany, involves a young boy who stumbles across a mysterious stone - the legacy of the Knights Templar who have been hounded out of existence. This stone confers strange powers to Grimpow (despite not being able to read, he can understand any language he sees written) and sets him on a quest to discover the secret of the Knights - or rather of a group of sages; a secret that will unlock all the mysteries of the universe and confer ultimate knowledge and wisdom. This is the type of story I am very happy to swallow, but I am finding it heavy going. I wondered whether it was because the author is Spanish and perhaps I am being insular. And yet I loved A hundred million francs (Paul Berna) and the books of Rene Guillot when I was young, not to mention Tove Jansson, Paul Biegel and Ottfried Preussler. And then there is Cornelia Funke where the narrative is so immediate.I do think different nationalities can have very distinct writing styles but I was not convinced in the case of Grimpow. Out of interest I looked to see who had translated this book. I imagine Noel Baca Castex is Spanish, while Dragonrider (Funke) was translated by our own Anthea Bell. This raises an interesting question - should tranlations be by native speakers into English or would an English speaking translator be preferable - given one does not want to lose the individual and distinctive voice of the author - and nationality would be part of that? I would, in fact be quite interested to read (try to read) Grimpow in Spanish.