Being Edited in French, a New Experience

Just had my first interview translated into French, due out after Trois autres Malaisie is published. Now Im finding working with the French publisher ditions GOPE over revising Trois autres Malaisie, the French translation of Loversand Strangers Revisited, a whole new experience, but not in the way that I was expecting. Over the years, Ive worked with four editors on the previous versions of Lovers and Strangers Revisited (Heinemann Asia, Silverfish, MPH, plus the editor I hired when I decided to revisit the stories), and all of the previous editors concentrated mostly on grammar and story clarity to make sure its clear whats going on in the story.

But this time around, there are new considerations. Other than idioms that rarely make any sense if you translate them literally, the questions Im getting are mainly about culture. Unlike the previous editors and even the French translator Jerome Bouchaud, who have all lived in Malaysia or Singapore, the French publisher/editor that Im now working with does not, so many of the questions have been about the Malaysian culture.

If a wrong assumption is made, as was pointed out to me from the onset, then the French translation or any editing changes based on that assumption, will be wrong and it will affect a scene, or how the reader! will in terpret whats going on.

For example, in Smooth Stones I had to clarify as to how some Malay fishermen fish, or why the character Omar is slapping the water with the bamboo pole while fishing. It didnt make sense. If the French editor is picturing in his mind a bamboo fishing pole instead of merely a bamboo pole, then slapping the water doesnt make any sense; it will only scare away the fish, thus he wont catch any. But in this case, Omar is slapping the water not with a fishing pole but just a bamboo pole to drive the fish in the opposite direction, toward the net that the other fishermen are holding.

When translating, and especially when editing whats been translated, its important not just to look at the original text in English, but also not to make any cross-cultural assumptions. The last thing a writer needs are errors of any kind to be introduced into the text. So far thats not happening because theyre not making those assumptions, theyre asking me to clarify, just to make sure they got it right (or not) and Im so glad, because once the story goes into French, Im clueless. I wont be able to catch those mistakes, but the readers sure will, especially those readers in French who are familiar with Malaysia.

Heres the link to the French blog