Thursday 30 October 2008

... translations, part one of a short story

Since I thought of doing this anyway, why not post it here bit by bit?
Oh, and I will first post the first draft of the translation, bit by bit, later on what I have done with it.
So here's the beginning of the story I wrote for a book which contains a couple of stories by fellow authors from my hometown. It's in German, I don't think it will ever be translated, unless there is going to be a real huge demand... ;o)

Ernie
(working title)
They would talk about their last meeting for a long time. Not because it had been something extraordinary. It was rather because of what happened to Michael on his way home.
They met every first Friday of a month in their local pub, and they had seen a lot of changes without having gone to a different place.
During the past few years, the pub owner had changed the name a few times, but eventually, he had returned to the oldest, well known name.
Now, while the name remained, the owner renovated the interior, used the back room as a small restaurant, and every so often, "Dragon Fly" was visited by young couples who had heard about the excellent food he served.

And for those who know both languages: the beginning of the German version (I also see this as a story I can still work on):

Frannek
Von ihrem letzten Treffen würden sie noch lange erzählen. Nicht, weil es so außergewöhnlich gewesen war, sondern wegen der Geschichte, die Michael auf dem Heimweg erlebt hatte.
Jeden ersten Freitag im Monat trafen sie sich in ihrer alten Stammkneipe, und sie hatten jede Veränderung mitgemacht, ohne sich nach einem anderen Treffpunkt umzusehen.
In den letzten Jahren war die Kneipe zu ihrem alten Namen zurückgekehrt, auch wenn die Besitzer den hinteren Raum jetzt als Speiseraum nutzten und die Schankwirtschaft "Zum Kanonier" neben dem alteingesessenen Publikum nun hin und wieder Besuch von jungen Leuten bekam, die von der exzellenten Speisekarte erfahren hatten.

Well, I have changed the name of the pub and will change the names of the characters to make them more accessible for the reader. Just for that reason, because I think it might work better that way.

When I started translating yesterday, I noticed that it is something that I enjoy half as much as writing in English, and with some of the sentences it's odd, but since I have all the rights of the story, I can change some of the sentences, and so I might have to comment on some of them later on, but for now, just 24 hours pre-nano (at least where I am), I will have to stop.

Barbara


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1 comment:

Dorice Watercolours said...

Hey Barb! Glad you started your new blog. Good luck with nanowrimo!