Wednesday, January 28, 2009

La Montagne des Secrets

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Oh, my word! This is almost unbearably cool! Quelle hoot, in fact.

I received my copies of the translation of Signs in the Blood in the mail today and have had so much fun, with my (very) limited French, trying to see what Sophie (the translator) has done.

Somehow, I take a childish delight in seeing the snake handlers transformed into manipulateurs de serpents, the hippies on Hog Run into les hippies du ravin des Sangliers; Little Sylvie (Petite Sylvie) 's chamber pot into un pot de chambre en faience decore des fleurs rose . . .



And when they use strong language! Phillip says, at the beginning of Chapter 12, "Nom de Dieu! and "quelle blague!" He seems so . . . so French!

I am loving this -- thank goodness Miss Birdie is out of the way for the moment and I can amuse myself.




They did a great job with the cover, I thought. I had to look twice to make sure the photo wasn't one of mine -- there's a very similar old building down at the bridge.




"une riche monsieur du Tennessee"


What fun! Thank you, Sophie!!!
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15 comments:

Susan M. Bell said...

How cool. I like the cover even.

Now if someone would just put your books on CD so I can introduce my mother-in-law to them...and maybe keep my reputation with her of finding great audiobooks. :-)

Unknown said...

Why did they call it "Mountain of Secrets" and not "Signs in the Blood" - maybe it doesn't translate? My good friends live in France half the year and are there now so I will have them look for a copy for my collection. C'est formidable, cherie.

Vicki Lane said...

Susan -- oh yes, I wish they were on audio -- always assuming they got a reader who could do justice to the mountain accent. But that's not up to me.

Liz -- Sophie told me that the title was up to the publishers, not her. I don't know the answer -- Signs in the Blood may translate into something unspeakably rude . . .or there may already be a book by that name . . . or they may have felt that M d S was more enticing to the buyer. Titles are pretty much chosen for their appeal and Marketing has a lot to say about what they'll be.

Sue P said...

Vicki,

I am thrilled that your book was translated. You so deserve it and it's wonderful to see others finding out what your 'faithful' have known for several years. I'm proud of you!

Sue Phillips

Carol Murdock said...

This is tee totally awesome !!
I love the old photo on the cover!

Vicki Lane said...

Thanks, Sue P. and Carol! You all are good to get excited along with me!

Anonymous said...

The internationally famous author Vicki Lane...
Congratulations Vicki!

Kaye Wilkinson Barley - Meanderings and Muses said...

Vicki - This is SO very cool!

and I adore the cover!!!

Congratulations!!!!

Vicki Lane said...

Thank you, thank you, Fay and Kaye! Yes, I really like the cover too.

Anonymous said...

ooooo, I love the cover! That is really so exciting!

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

What fun, Vicki! To see your original words in another language. When Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies was published in Spanish, she sent me a copy, so that i could see what "Weep Willow" looked like. Muy interesante! Later, at NCCAT, 2 native Spanish speakers got into an argument over whether the verb llorar was the right one for a particular line.
Mucho hoots over that! And mucho congrats over your new French book! K

Vicki Lane said...

Amelia and K -- Oh, this is so much fun! I'm a sucker for other languages -- I have a copy of CATCH 22 in Italian (once I thought I might try to learn Italian and this would be a nice way to learn vocabulary; alas, my good intentions came to naught.) I also have a copy of Myrtle Driver's translation into Cherokee (both phonetic and the syllabary) of the Trail of Tears section from THIRTEEN MOONS. I bought it just because it looks so cool.

Vicki Lane said...

Sophie tells me that SIGNS IN THE BLOOD makes no sense in French, therefore the different title. Of course, it doesn't make a lot of sense in English but it does sound intriguing . . .

Miss_Yves said...

Sophie's carreer is very original !
"Tradutore"= "traditore" is a famous italian sentence .
It's very difficult to translate rural language .I first believed that '"prends-toi une chaise" was a wrong translation !

Vicki Lane said...

Hi, Miss Yves -- Sophie told me that she was dealing with my Appalachian rural dialect by using the way of speech in a rural area of France.

I feel like translation must be incredibly difficult -- especially with dialects. But judging from my email conversations with Sophie, she's quite at ease in English. Since my French is almost non-existent, I am no judge of what she's done in LA MONTAGNE DES SECRETS.